BookBrowse Reviews Killer Smile by Lisa Scottoline

BookBrowse:

A gripping tale - comical, nerve-wracking and enlightening. Thriller

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From the book jacket: Everybody around lawyer Mary DiNunzio has decided she isn't allowed to be a Young Widow anymore, even though she didn't know there was an official cutoff. They're all trying to fix her up -- her South Philly Italian parents, her best friend Judy Carrier, even the office security guard.

All Mary wants to do is immerse herself in a case everybody else calls "The History Channel", a pro bono representation of the Brandolini estate. The roots of the matter sink deep into the past, when Amadeo Brandolini emigrated to Philadelphia, started a family, and built up a small fishing business. At the outbreak of World War II, Brandolini was arrested by the FBI as part of a mass internment of Italian-Americans and was sent to a camp in Montana, where he eventually committed suicide. Now, more than sixty years later, his son's estate hires Mary to sue for reparations.....

Opinion: 'While it's chock-full of Scottoline's trademark murder, mayhem, and merriment, this time she has a more important and personal story to tell - that of the little-known internment camps for Italian Americans during World War II.....Highly recommended for all fiction collections.' - Library Journal.

This review first ran in the July 20, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.