Damaged

Starred review from June 27, 2016
In bestseller Scottoline’s outstanding 15th Rosato & DiNunzio novel (after 2015’s Corrupted), Mary DiNunzio, a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & DiNunzio, takes on a heartbreaking case involving a dyslexic fifth grader, Patrick O’Brien, who’s bullied at school and is getting no support for his language disability. Patrick, who’s being raised by his paternal grandfather, allegedly attacked a school aid with scissors, and now the aid is suing both Patrick and the school board for damages. On the brink of her wedding to college professor Anthony Rotunno, Mary becomes emotionally attached to Patrick, more so than any previous client, and finds herself pitted against a diabolical attorney, Nick Machiavelli (aka the Dark Prince), who’s determined to win a settlement, despite the emotional cost to the 10-year-old boy. In her struggle to save Patrick, Mary finds herself fighting her associates, her fiancé, and social services. Tensions mount until the story concludes with a satisfying, unexpected twist. 400,000-copy announced first printing, author tour. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

October 3, 2016
In Edgar-winner Scottoline’s 15th Rosato & DiNunzio novel, the Philadelphia law firm’s Mary DiNunzio takes over the novel, getting ensnared and emotionally involved in the defense of Patrick O’Brien, a 10-year-old accused of attacking a teacher with scissors. When Edward, the boy’s grandfather and sole caregiver, dies, Mary’s battle against a damages suit from the teacher and his sleazy lawyer, Nick Machiavelli, escalates into her attempt to gain custody of the boy and, ultimately, defend him from charges that he murdered his grandfather—all this while Mary is planning for her wedding in two weeks. Actor Lowman handles the novel’s highly charged and sensitive sections without deviating from her precisely enunciated delivery. Her interpretation of the bullied, introverted Patrick, given to bursts of anger, is both compassionate and credible. She is equally successful in helping define the opposing forces in what is cynically described as “a fight between good and evil with billable hours.” But her main effort is Mary, assisting Scottoline in creating a caring, very human protagonist who faces tough cases and even tougher opposing forces with determination and intelligence. A St. Martin’s hardcover.

July 1, 2016
Mary DiNunzio, the second-best attorney in Philadelphia, is about to walk down the aisle when she gets sucked into the very real possibility of becoming a mother, or at least a foster mother, first.Retired accountant Edward O'Brien wants Mary's help in defending Patrick, the dyslexic 10-year-old grandson he's raising, from Steven Robertson, the teacher's aide at Grayson Elementary whose lawsuit alleges that Patrick attacked him with a pair of scissors. It's all nonsense, Edward insists: Patrick, though chronically humiliated by his primitive reading skills, his habit of throwing up when he's stressed out, and the constant bullying he attracts, wouldn't harm a fly. Besides, Robertson's suit is merely designed to deflect attention from the fact that the last time he caught Patrick throwing up, he punched the child hard enough to bruise his face. In fact, as Mary's swift and efficient investigation discloses, the situation is much worse than that; Robertson's abused Patrick sexually on at least three occasions. But Patrick keeps going disastrously off script, and Robertson's lawyer, Nick Machiavelli, justifying his claim to direct descent from the father of Renaissance realpolitik, ties Mary up in legal knots when Edward unexpectedly dies and she files an emergency appeal to become Patrick's temporary guardian. Even worse, there's evidence that Edward's death may have been murder, with Patrick the obvious suspect and Mary his obvious accomplice. Starting slowly, Scottoline expertly stokes the boiler to the bursting point, and readers will stay up long past their bedtimes watching Mary try to sweet-talk everyone from the family court judge to Anthony Rotunno, her fiance, who returns from a trip to California to a bombshell that forces him to reimagine his life with Mary in radically new terms. As usual with the firm of Rosato & DiNunzio (Corrupted, 2015, etc.), the complications aren't worked out nearly as carefully as they're piled up, and fans who race nonstop through the last hundred pages will be doing both themselves and Scottoline a favor.

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July 1, 2016
This is the fourth entry in the Rosato & DiNunzio series (a successor to the Rosato & Associates novels), and the story focuses on Mary DiNunzio. Her wedding to Anthony is just weeks away when a heartbreaking case drops into her lap. A janitor is suing Patrick O'Brien, a 10-year-old boy who is small for his age, severely dyslexic, and suffering from anxiety disorder. His grandfather and guardian hires Mary to defend Patrick, who is accused of attacking the janitor with scissors. Opposing counsel is the reviled Nick Machiavelli, who is trying his damnedest to live up to his namesake. It quickly becomes apparent that the janitor has abused the boy, prompting the retaliation, but matters become more complicated when the grandfather dies of an insulin overdose, and Patrick is the prime suspect. Mary wants to foster the boy, but she is worried about its effect on her relationship with Anthony. Scottoline's merging of the themes of her family-driven stand-alone thrillers with her ongoing legal series continues to work splendidly.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A 400,000 first printing will get this one out of the starting blocks quickly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)