The Vendetta Defense
You can't read past the first chapter of Lisa Scottoline's newest legal  thriller without mentally casting the actor who might play Pigeon Tony, the  charming and totally authentic defendant who's on trial for killing the man who  raped and murdered his wife, destroyed his son and daughter-in-law in a staged  "accident," and has threatened the life of his grandson. Robert De Niro's too  threatening, Joe Mantegna's too young, Marlon Brando's too fat, but somewhere  there must be a celluloid counterpart to one of the most delightful antiheroes  in recent crime fiction. Meanwhile, this wonderful character study of a man of  conscience on trial for a crime of passion will divert and entertain fans of  Scottoline's previous novels about Bennie Rosato's high-estrogen Philadelphia  law firm (Moment of  Truth,Mistaken  Identity).When Judy Carrier, one of Bennie's attorneys, takes on Tony's defense, she's  faced with a legal and moral dilemma. Tony admits that he killed Angelo Coluzzi,  but insists it wasn't murder but vendetta, a justifiable payback for a blood  crime committed nearly half a century ago and a continent away. The Coluzzi  family knows about vendetta, too--they've got their own payback planned, and the  trick for Judy is keeping Pigeon Tony (and herself) alive long enough to get  them to trial. There's a complicationde coeurwhen Judy falls in love  with Tony's grandson, a hunky stonemason who will do for fences what Robert  James Waller did for covered bridges (Clint Eastwood's too old, Brad Pitt's too  young, etc.). But all's well that ends well in a tidy little read that will  probably earn Scottoline another well-deserved shot at the bestseller list.--Jane Adams