Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline
Published by HarperCollins (March 2007)
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
This is attorney Scottoline's 14th book--and another winner.
Natalie "Nat" Greco is the daughter of a builder in Philadelphia, and she has struggled against her overpowering family to become a lawyer, and is now teaching law. Angus Holt is a fellow law professor and a rebel who dresses unconventionally. He takes his students on real-life clinics to ghettoes and prisons, and talks Nat into bringing her history of law lecture on the Merchant of Venice to his prison class.
This is Nat's first foray into a prison, and she is nervous. She has just begun her lecture when a riot breaks out, and a huge, nasty prisoner attacks Natalie. Professor Holt pulls him off her, and tells her to run. Nat flees to find help, and discovers a dead prisoner and a dying guard, who manages to croak out, "tell my wife...it's under the floor..."
Angus is saved, and the riot is stopped. After visiting the dead guard's wife and trying to relay his last words, Angus and Nat are battered by a huge black pick up truck and run off the road. Angus ends up in the hospital, and Nat is left alone to try and figure out what is going on. Her second visit to the wife results in a futile search of areas of their house that might be considered "under the floor,"
After Nat leaves, she is stopped by a state trooper. He's shot while standing next to Nat, and the shooter tells her to run. She is set up: the muddy field she runs through becomes the spot the gun is planted; drugs and money are hidden in her trunk, and suddenly she is a fugitive. Her protected, privileged world is completely shattered, and she finds she is remarkably good at being a fugitive. She hacks off and dyes her hair, borrows a cell phone and a car, and goes about collecting evidence of the prison cover-up she is sure exists. But what are they covering up? There has been a construction company working at the prison, and she is sure at least one guard is involved, but who else might be? Can anyone be trusted?
Armchair Interview says: Twists and turns abound in this thriller that will leave you gasping with surprise.