Daddy's Girl - Lisa Scottoline

This was on the "Hot Picks" shelf at the library - never heard of it and the title did not intrigue me, but I was in the mood for a good murder mystery and this seemed to fit the bill. Nat, the main character, is a law professor at Penn St. (or some law school in Pennsylvania). She has an overbearing family, and a boyfriend who fits in with them, but is not quite in tune with her. She is passionate about her law and literature class and loves books, but with dwindling interest in her subject right before her tenure year, she is under undue pressure from the dean. Enter Angus, a ponytailed do-gooder who heads up the clinical program doing outreach at the local prison. He invites Nat to come teach a class with him, and of course, a huge riot ensues in which Nat hears the dying words of a correctional officer. Of course, the death is not what it seems, and it leads Nat and Angus into a crazy maze of corruption and greed. The basic plot is in the realm of the fantastic, but putting aside my annoyance at Nat's initial reaction to the prison situation, I did find myself excited and intrigued. I found the flirtatious banter between Nat and Angus a bit strained - I thought, "NOBODY talks like this," but then as it keep going and going, I found myself wondering, "wait, am I the only person who never talks like this?" The twist at the end was a bit predictable, but still satisfying. Scottoline is not a complex legal thriller like Stephen Carter, but she's a little less predictable than Grisham. I was a little surprised to find out that she's actually a lawyer - and a professor - since her depictions of the classroom and of actual practice seemed a little too basic. When Nat began to wax poetic about Gideon v. Wainwright, I was thinking that we first learned about the right to legal representation in 11th grade civics class - it was hardly an awe-inspiring concept by law school. But, no matter. Trivialities aside, this is a good quick mystery for the plane or the beach or a lazy evening. But, I still hate the title and think it had little to do with the novel itself. I have no idea how popular this book is, but it seems Scottoline could probably have been taken more seriously with a title that sounded less like possible pornography. Then again, I did pick it up off the shelf knowing nothing else about it, so go figure.