Scottoline, Lisa: Dirty Blonde

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The dirty blonde of Lisa Scottoline's title is 39-year-old Cate Fante. By day a respected district court judge,Cate prowls Pennsylvania's seedier bars by night in search of hot sex with disreputable strangers. Naturally, Cate's secret doesn't stay a secret for long. Her private life spills onto the front pages shortly after sentencing in a high-profile trial, a case involving the Law and Order-like drama Attorneys@Law. The revelation jeopardizes Cate's professional life as well as a budding romantic relationship. In short order more or less everything that could go wrong in her life does, and Cate finds herself scrambling to save her reputation and, ultimately her life. She's helped along by a devoted cast of characters--mother-figure Val, her secretary; a pair of not-quite competent law clerks; and her old friend Gina, who's left the law business to take care of her autistic son Warren.

Granted, Scottoline's sexy storyline may make this a book you'll want to camouflage with a newspaper on the subway. And granted, Cate's behavior does seem hard to believe at times--both the promiscuous sex and some of her subsequent actions when dealing with its exposure. But the book is a well written and tightly-plotted page-turner, with just the right amount of characterization of the principals for this sort of a novel. Even weighing in at over 400 pages Dirty Blonde is a quick read. I may not remember much of the plot in a month's time, but I was happy to read it, and I'd be happy to read more from Scottoline.