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The Vendetta Defense (2002)

The Vendetta Defense (2002)

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Rating
4.01 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0061031429 (ISBN13: 9780061031427)
Language
English
Publisher
harpertorch

About book The Vendetta Defense (2002)

This was my first Scottoline novel and it will certainly be my last. I don’t entirely understand why someone with such modest writing skills has become so popular, and I definitely don’t understand why the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League isn’t picketing her publisher. In this novel, Scottoline takes evident pride in depicting the Italian-American community she grew up near (if not exactly in), employing a sort of “you can’t be mad at me, I’m Italian” approach to trotting out stereotypes so broad that not evenThe Sopranos would have thought of using them. And let’s be clear: I’m not arguing that they’re “offensive”; I’m saying that they’re overdone, repetitive, unoriginal, graceless, tedious, and ham-handed. In this book, one of Scottoline’s two main characters is an elderly Italian immigrant who (despite being in America for some fifty years) still speaks the kind of broken English that you'd expect from a Chef Boyardee commercial. In print, Scottoline has chosen to represent that dialogue so absurdly and so unnaturally that at times you wonder whether she has a chronic tin ear or whether she thought she was writing ethnic satire. Clearly, her lawyer-protagonist (blonde and WASP) suffers from a kind of internal-dialogue Tourette's syndrome that causes her to think in ceaseless puns and seventh-grade double entendres, all of which are about as amusing as leprosy. Scottoline also likes to throw in Italian words and phrases—it adds so much color, dontcha know. Unfortunately, she gets about half of them wrong, writing “come se dice” instead of “come si dice,” for example, or “io lo fatto” instead of “io l’ho fatto.” They’re stupid, embarrassing errors—for her, but also for her editor, who ought to have checked the Italian before letting Scottoline make a fool of herself. For someone who was a lawyer before she turned to potboiling, Scottoline also doesn’t shy away from playing fast and loose with the law—in one scene, she has witnesses sitting in the courtroom audience, watching the trial before they are called to testify. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way--witnesses don't get to listen to the other witnesses. For all of that, the storyline is respectable enough – as “legal thrillers” go – but Scottoline seems to do everything she can think of to stand in its way. I find her voice so intrusive and so (for want of a better word) silly that I won’t be coming back for more.

Lisa Scottoline’s novels present interesting legal dilemmas.In Scottoline’s THE VENDETTA DEFENSE, an old Italian man, “Pigeon Tony,” who lived in prewar Italy under Mussolini and the Black Shirts and fled to America with his young son, is now accused of murdering another Italian-American, Angelo Coluzzi. Coluzzi is a rich man who is corrupt and has ties to the Mafia.During flashbacks in the book, we see why their ages-old feud, back to their lives in Italy, where Coluzzi was one of the Black Shirts, led to the killing. And, according to Pigeon Tony, that’s what it was—killing, not murder.THE VENDETTA DEFENSE is one book in Scottoline’s series about a Philadelphia law firm. One of the associate lawyers in the firm takes on this case, made more difficult by Pigeon Tony’s ongoing insistence that he tell the judge that he did, in fact, kill Coluzzi. Pigeon Tony was sure the killing was justified because it wasn’t murder; Coluzzi killed Pigeon Tony’s wife in Italy many years ago and his son and daughter-in-law more recently in Philadelphia.While this book wasn’t a not-put-downable thriller, it was interesting and did make me want to keep reading. Scottoline seems to like to set herself up to solve unsolvable legal dilemmas.

Do You like book The Vendetta Defense (2002)?

Judy Carrier of the all woman law firm Rosato & Associates finds herself defending a 79 year old Italian friend of her Italian friend Mary's family- Pigeon Tony- who admits he killed Angelo Coluzzi, the man who once murdered his wife in Italy because she chose to marry him instead of Angelo and then the year before had killed his son Frank and his wife Gemma in an accident that was sloppily processed by police and thus got away with it. The two men had been alone in the back of the pigeon racing club when Angelo told Pigeon Tony he had not only killed his wife and son and daughter in law but also planned to kill his grandson Frank. Tony had run at the arthritic 80 year old with brittle bones and this caused his neck to break. Judy feels like she is fighting a losing battle when the police seem uninterested even when her home is burglarized and her car is bombed. She and her Golden Retriever puppy must run for their lives and Judy runs right into the sexy Frank. Tony is an idiot and keeps wanting to tell the judge and jury that he killed him and all of this makes poor Judy nuts. All in all, there is humor, mystery, danger, murder, and romance all rolled into one. I loved it!
—Terri Lynn

Her Best Yet -- Humorous, Suspenseful, Satisfying...Yet another of the (Ms.) Bennie Rosato law firm associates is our leading lady in Scottoline's latest and greatest -- namely Judy Carrier, Mary DeNunzio's best friend (Mary herself on "sick leave" recovering from bullet wounds suffered in Rough Justice...). The premise here is that Tony Lucia ("Pigeon Tony", from his expertise with homing pigeon racing), on trial for murdering a life-long rival, Angelo Coluzzi, admits to the "killing" but not to the "murder". Will the jury buy that fine line -- that somehow this death was justifiable given that Coluzzi killed Pigeon Tony's wife decades ago in Fascist Italy, and killed his son and daughter-in-law in a fake auto accident here in America, where the two families immigrated to none other than Scottoline's regular stomping ground, South Philly.In the process of unfolding that story line, we get some obviously well researched description of Italy in the Mussolini era, rich with imagery and character development (eventually respun for the jury's benefit as well...). We get glimpses of life in the Italian "sector" of South Philly, using Judy's stream of consciousness to make it fun as opposed to stereotypical, with Pigeon Tony's handsome grandson thrown in to (finally!) give Judy a little welcome sex life, only adding to the character development and good time had by all. Lastly, Bennie herself adds a little to the courtroom machinations, to liven up a case that looks winnable until Pigeon Tony insists he wants to "talk to the judge" (testify).That's why we liked this book a lot -- it's a really good mix of writing ingredients, from a compelling story that you want to come out a certain way, to really good characterizations of people easy to like, with plenty of suspense and humor thrown in to really entertain throughout. We were also pleased that some of the lapses into very implausible action (lawyers tailing criminal's cars, or fighting against their own clients) that characterized some of the earlier works in this series were finally absent from the book at hand. Lastly, we keep hearing (we guess from the publisher's blurbs) that Lisa's books are being used for classroom debate, and we suspect this one will as well, if the legal "mores" angle interests you.So -- sounds like a little something for everybody all wrapped up in one "5-star" addition to the genre. Watch out, John !
—Jerry

I like Lisa Scottoline. I genuinely do. This is the first lawyer-y book of hers I've read, but her memoir books are comedy gold. Plus I listen to the audiobook, rather than read them, and her voice is just so damn pleasant and Italian.Unfortunately, this is just not my kind of book. It's frustrating, because the plot is actually good. I enjoyed Judy, and Pigeon Tony. I didn't care as much about the Frank-as-boyfriend plot (Dear Ms Scottoline: Please don't use the word "lover". Don't make me hate you.), but it still worked.I liked the suspense of the Caluzzi's coming after Judy. I liked the dog. I liked the birds. I didn't completely despise the flashbacks to fascist Italy.I loved the courtroom scenes at the end. That part I really got into, more than any other part of the book. But getting there felt like a long process.I can't say I'll never read another crime novel by Ms Scottoline. But I definitely won't reach for one before I reach for a humor book by her. She is talented, and should be read. Whatever one's taste is.
—Bunny

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