An Award Winning Italian American Author Lisa Scottoline, uses a fictional Italian American Attorney, Mary DiNunzio, to investigate matters regarding long submerged, real, actual Italian American History, the WWII Italian Internment, and wrapped it in a Suspense Thriller.

Does it get any Better????

Remember: The Italian American WWII Internment: 600,000 Italian Americans labeled Enemy Aliens, 50,0000 Curfewed, 10,000 Evacuated, others Arrested and Interred. Too many deaths, through Heart Attacks and Suicides.
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Killer Smile
by Lisa Scottoline

Everybody around lawyer Mary DiNunzio has decided she isn't allowed to be a Young Widow anymore, even though she didn't know there was an official cutoff.

They're all trying to fix her up -- her South Philly Italian parents, her best friend Judy Carrier, even the office security guard. All Mary wants to do is immerse herself in a case everybody else calls "The History Channel", a pro bono representation of the Brandolini estate.

The roots of the matter sink deep into the past, when Amadeo Brandolini emigrated to Philadelphia, started a family, and built up a small fishing business. At the outbreak of World War II, Brandolini was arrested by the FBI as part of a mass internment of Italian-Americans and was sent to a camp in Montana, where he eventually committed suicide.

Now, more than sixty years later, his son's estate hires Mary to sue for reparations. Mary vows to vindicate Amadeo even though it won't be easy. With only a lock of hair, an old wallet, and a sheet of paper filled with odd doodles to go on, the tenacious lawyer begins to research the case but finds instead puzzling new questions.

Someone doesn't want Mary to find the truth, and before long, her life is threatened. Suddenly, the quiet, squeaky-clean good girl who never left Mercer Street is risking life and limb to finger a killer and lay a beloved ghost to rest.

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline delivers a stunning new tale filled with witty dialogue, vibrant characters, and breakneck pacing, in which true-life history reinforces her hallmark themes of justice and family. As entertaining as it is poignant, Killer Smile is a surefire bestseller from a writer at the peak of her talents
--Harper Collins

"Scottoline skillfully weaves a complicated, gripping and fast-paced tale, at times comical, nerve-wracking and enlightening." --Publishers Weekly

"Expect another hit from Scottoline, who has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that legal thrillers are not a male-only subgenre." -- Booklist

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly

Scottoline's previous thrillers (Dead Ringer; Courting Trouble; etc.) have featured the women of the all-female Philadelphia law firm Rosato and Associates, and have concerned the usual elements of murder, stalking, bribery and corruption.

This novel by the former trial lawyer and Edgar Award winner, while embracing the requisite ingredients, is especially engaging because of its personal angle: growing out of Scottoline's discovery of her own grandparents' alien registration cards, the book involves the case of an Italian-American who was interned during WWII.

Amadeo Brandolini emigrated from Italy to Philadelphia, where he started a family and worked as a fisherman. When the war broke out, the FBI arrested and imprisoned him (along with other Italian-Americans). He lost everything and wound up committing suicide in the camp.

Rosato and Associates' young star, Mary DiNunzio, steps up to represent Brandolini's estate as it sues for reparations. Mary "grew up in South Philly, where she'd learned to pop her gum, wear high heels, and work overtime" and silently prays to saints when she can't find things.

This case, a pro bono one, means a lot to her; the local small business owners and family friends she grew up with want retribution for Brandolini as much as she does.

Mary puts all of her energy into the job, and when clues suggest Brandolini's death may have been a homicide, she becomes even more enthralled. As Mary learns more, the enemy camp (another Italian-American family, the Saracones) turns its murderous eye on her. Scottoline skillfully weaves a complicated, gripping and fast-paced tale, at turns comical, nerve-wracking and enlightening.
 

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Barnes and Noble
Kirkus Reviews

Mary DiNunzio, Bennie Rosato's law associate, pursues her claim on behalf of the late interned family friend Amadeo Brandolini (Dead Ringer, 2004) to a rousing courtroom finale.

The problem with pressing a case that's 60 years old-Amadeo Brandolini died a suicide in 1942 in the Montana camp where he was interned with hundreds of other Italian-Americans-is that so many leads are dead, along with so many potential deponents.

Mary can't interview Amadeo's wife or his son Tony, her nominal client, or Missoula camp guard Aaron Nyquist, because they've all passed on. But when Frank Cavuto, the attorney for Tony's estate, gets shot in an apparent robbery shortly after telling her she's off the case, his death sounds like one too many.

And when the man she's become convinced actually murdered Amadeo all those years ago dies hours after she confronts him and the evidence against him is stolen from her office and her pocketbook, the case seems as hopeless as her sex life.

After all, the chances of a judge taking her word for an undocumented connection between the illiterate fisherman Amadeo and the powerful firm that's continued to benefit from his death are about as great as the chances that one of the million blind dates her family and friends force on the young widow will suddenly blossom into true love.

But Mary soldiers on, her sense of humor bolstered by some timely assistance from her boss and her best bud Judy Carrier, till a bolt from the blue leaves a most unlikely grin on her face. No matter who carries the ball at Rosato & Associates,

Scottoline keeps it fast, fleet, and funny. Her Philadelphia is both dangerous and aglow with the promise of justice and hot new men who'll steal yourheart-if they don't kill you first. Author tour. Agent: Molly Friedrich/Aaron Priest Agency