These critics were drawn to "Killer Smile", because of the sad and intriguing story of the Registration of 600,000 Italian-Americans as "Enemy Aliens" during World War II and the Incarceration of another 10,000 in Concentration camps.

They were not drawn to "Killer Smile" as so many others, because they were devoted fans of the 12 preceding Lisa Scottoline Best Selling Mysteries, or the engaging ongoing central character, Attorney/Partner Mary DiNunzio.

Will Antonio Brandolini of "Killer Smile" become the Poster Child for the Italian American WW II Internments, as the "Diary of Anne Frank" did for Nazi Manhunts.

Special to The Denver Post
By Tom and Enid Schantz
July 04, 2004

"Killer Smile," by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins, 358 pages, $25.95)

We picked up this book because we were intrigued by the back story, which involves the registration of 600,000 Italian-Americans as enemy aliens during World War II and the incarceration of another 10,000 in detention camps. But we stayed up most of the night reading it because we fell in love with the central character, Mary DiNunzio, a member of the all-female Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates.

Mary is working pro bono for the estate of Antonio Brandolini, an Italian fisherman from South Philly who died in 1942 at a detention camp in Missoula, Mont. She is seeking reparations for the family (in fact, none has been awarded), but in the course of her research she learns that Antonio was probably murdered, and she wants to know why.

She also wants to know why she's being followed everywhere, what the odd doodles she finds among Antonio's effects mean and why they and other papers relating to the case are stolen from her office. A meeting with a tough old Montana cowgirl whose husband worked at the camp emboldens Mary to drop her usual self-effacing goofy-girl-lawyer persona and take chances right and left to get at the truth, chances which nearly get her killed.

The supporting characters are almost as wonderful as Mary, from the other spirited women at the firm to Mary's exuberantly loving parents to the cops she exasperates. Then there are the blind dates she goes on to please her family and friends, who have decided it is time for her to stop being a Young Widow, even though she's still inwardly grieving for her late, beloved husband. Everything is just right in this very enjoyable and occasionally poignant story: plot, characters, setting, pace and dialogue. "Killer Smile" is - what else can we say? - a killer book.

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