Thank you very much to my editor, Carolyn Marino, to whom this book is dedicated. Her professionalism and her judgment are invaluable, and if I could handcuff her to my chair as I wrote, I would. Thanks as well to her assistant, Patricia Gatti, for all her hard work.
Thank you so much to my agent, Molly Friedrich, for her improvements to this manuscript and for her representation. Molly has nurtured me with the devotion of a mother grizzly, but is much prettier, and I am one lucky cub. Thanks, too, to Molly’s staff, The Amazing Paul Cirone and author-to-be Sheri Holman. Thank you also to Linda Hayes, for everything she has done for me and my books.
Thanks to everyone at HarperCollins, especially to Jack McKeown, Geoff Hannell, and Gene Mydlowski. As always, thanks to Laura Baker, publicist and bride extraordinaire. Thanks to the sales and marketing departments, and to the trade and paperback reps on the road. Stay safe, folks.
Special thanks to Robin Schatz of the Mayor’s Office in Philadelphia. Robin has answered all of my nitpicking questions for many books now, and for this book smuggled me into the Homicide Division at the Roundhouse, where I met the nicest and most professional group of detectives ever. They talked law and plot with equal ease, and helped me on more than one occasion. They know better than anybody else that Legal Tender and its characters are fiction. Thank you very much, gentlemen.
Thanks to Joseph LaBar of the District Attorney’s Office, a true pro, and to Susan Burt, another pro, but for the other side of the fence. For superb estates advice, thank you to Robert L. Freedman of Dechert, Price & Rhoads in Philadelphia, my alma mater.
For medical and psychiatric advice, thanks to Dr. Daniel Kushon and Dr. Ginny Galetta.
To the University of Pennsylvania Women’s Crew, thanks for letting me hang at the boathouse and act like I still belonged there. To Dana Quattrone of Benjamin Lovell Shoes, thanks for teaching me about Doc Martens.
For managing not to point and laugh as I crawled around their sub-basement, thanks to the building engineers at Commerce Square.
A big bear hug to one Frank Scottoline, an architect who proved very helpful. For research assistance in the clutch and eggplant parmigiana beyond the call of duty, a loving thank-you to Mary Scottoline. Whoever said you get what you pay for never knew my parents. Finally, thanks and love to Fayne and my friends, and especially to Kiki and Peter.
A final thanks to Chuck Jones, and a tear for Mel Blanc.
About the Author
Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times best-selling author and former trial lawyer. She has won the Edgar Award, the highest prize in suspense fiction, and the Distinguished Author Award, from the Weinberg Library of the University of Scranton. She has served as the Leo Goodwin Senior Professor of Law and Popular Culture at Nova Southeastern Law School, and her novels are used by bar associations for the ethical issues they present. Her books are published in over twenty languages. She lives with her family in the Philadelphia area and welcomes reader email at www.scottoline.com.
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Also By Lisa Scottoline
The Vendetta Defense
Moment of Truth
Mistaken Identity
Rough Justice
Running from the Law
Final Appeal
Everywhere That Mary Went
Acclaim and Praise
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR
LISA SCOTTOLINE
LEGAL TENDER
“Lisa Scottoline is one of the hot new writers of legal/crime fiction snapping at the heels of John Grisham and Scott Turow.”
—Cincinnati Post
“Still hot … Lisa Scottoline proves herself equal to the task of maintaining a winning formula that is both fresh and entertaining…. Scottoline’s heroine is a tough cookie with a marsh-mallow heart, and she talks like a cross between Mike Hammer and Erma Bombeck … [A] hard-edged, humorous sensibility defines the book’s mood and runs through it like a river of hope…. Legal Tender is a page-turning thriller festooned with red herrings and a comic sensibility that is quite rare in the cloak and dagger department…. Lisa Scottoline is a welcome breath of fresh—and funny—air.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“This smooth tale moves.”
—San Jose Mercury News
“Don’t miss former practicing attorney Lisa Scottoline’s latest.”
—American Woman
“Bright, funny, and fast-reading.”
—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
“A perfect example of the way a mystery-thriller should be written: taut, lean, and moving at the speed of a bullet train…. Edgar Award-winning author Lisa Scottoline has dreamed up a legal nightmare in her latest novel, Legal Tender, honing and improving her storytelling with sharp, spare prose and snappy, often witty dialogue.”
—St. Petersburg Times
“Legal Tender’s pace is so brisk and riveting that you may find yourself, as I did, up most of the night, gobbling it up, straight through, cover to cover.”
—Newport News Press
“Ms. Scottoline’s writing style is modern, breezy…. The amazing conclusion takes place in an interrupted courtroom proceeding with all the excitement of the built-up suspense … a witty … tale of mayhem in the fast lane.”
—Richmond Times Dispatch
“Sometimes funny, sometimes action-packed, sometimes edge-of-the-seat suspenseful…. The book pictures the good, the bad, and the ugly in the legal profession from an insider’s view, and the tale is told in a brisk, entertaining way. Ms. Scottoline is a talented writer, keeping the reader’s interest from beginning to end.”
—Marietta Journal (GA)
RUNNING FROM THE LAW
“[A] fast-paced and witty crime thriller [that] features a smart-mouthed, poker-playing attorney…. Scottoline has produced a royal flush.”
—San Francisco Examiner
“Quick, witty, flavorful, and absorbing. Ms. Scottoline’s distinctive voice makes this book a pleasure to read, and I did so at warp speed.”
—Richard North Patterson
“A fast-paced funny courtroom thriller. It was a delight to follow Rita Morrone, Lisa Scottoline’s smart-mouthed, tough-as-nails heroine.”
—Phillip Margolin
“Scottoline is wickedly funny…. The outcome is Mary Higgins Clark meets Susan Isaacs meets John Grisham.”
—Philadelphia magazine
“Lisa Scottoline supplies a … fresh perspective and a sense of humor … with immensely pleasurable results.”
—Houston Chronicle
“May change the way readers think about lawyers … Scottline merits a big rounds of applause.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A lovely combination of high energy, imagination and nasty humor.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Philadelphia lawyer Scottline provides nonstop action, smart narration, and dozens of helpful tips on going underground in your own home town.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Copyright
“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, in entirely coincidental, and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.”
“LEGAL TENDER. Copyright © 2001 by Lisa Scottoline. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edit
ion ISBN: 9780061760006
Version 11012013
First HarperPaperbacks printing: September 1997
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Lisa Scottoline, Legal Tender
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