Rough Justice is a backwards murder mystery. The book features hot shot (and just plain hot) defense attorney Marta Richter and a host of other female attorneys who are defending the Philadelphia millionaire slumlord Elliot Steere on a murder charge that he killed a homeless man in cold blood.

Things are going pretty smoothly for the Marta. She and Steere have been playing footsie during the trial and after the acquittal they are riding off in the sunset together.

That day dream lasts until the end of the second paragraph of the book. Her bubble is popped. Her client may not be innocent, he is definitely not taking her off into the sunset. She is mad and you don’t make a hot attorney mad.

What happens after that is pretty wild. There is a huge snow storm, cross country skiing, murder and killing, mayhem, horse shoeing, poisoning, stalking, geocaching (kind of!), jury tampering, Marta making a conjugal visit to one of the juror’s (that’s a new one, the visit is G rated by the way), voting scandals, organ donations, and a race to the courthouse. This book has it all.

The book was written in 1997 before everybody and their hot attorney had cell phones. Some of the predicaments that the characters found themselves in could have been resolved if they had a cell phone to call for help.

This is a darn good book. The writing is very smooth and draws you into the story quickly. I rate it 3 stars out of 4, which is very good..

Being originally published in 1997 you’ll have to get it in paperback or at your library. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more Scottoline novels. Scottoline is a prolific author. Check out her website.

Many thanks to Baloney for loaning me the book.