{"id":10299,"date":"2021-07-28T13:59:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T17:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?p=10299"},"modified":"2022-01-24T08:05:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T13:05:13","slug":"damaged-by-lisa-scottoline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/28\/damaged-by-lisa-scottoline\/","title":{"rendered":"“Damaged” by Lisa Scottoline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Copyright 2016 by Smart Blond, LLC. Published by St Martin’s Press, New York.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I think I have criticized Scottoline before as being too “girly” – spending a lot of time and verbiage on feminine things. That may be a feature for some, but not for a macho man like me. In this book, in which Mary DeNunzio is preparing for a second marriage, an entire chapter is devoted to her dress fitting. Not exactly “must read” prose for those of us with testosterone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have another complaint about this particular book: it sometimes reads like a primer on family law. Necessary, perhaps, as this is a mystery involving child abuse and placement, but not the kind of stuff that normally makes me want to not put the book down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet I didn’t want to put the book down. I think that says a lot about Scottoline’s skill as an author. She manages to make even the dry stuff compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick synopsis: Mary is engaged by Edward O’Brien, the paternal grandfather of 10-year-old Patrick O’Brien, a dyslexic student who is unable to read and has been sued by a teacher’s aide for allegedly attacking him with a scissors. Mary gets Patrick’s side of the story, which is that the aide has been verbally and physically abusing him and, in fact, struck him in the face (with a bruise to back him up). Patrick denies attacking the aide. Mary quickly gets Patrick interviewed by a child abuse social worker who believes Patrick’s side and also lines up private schooling to address his dyslexia. Everything is going well until…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward dies in his sleep that very night. Mary discovers the dead Edward, who has soiled the sheets. She does all the right things – calling the police, finding the will, calling the executor. She even washes the sheets so that Patrick won’t notice the mess. All very sad. Mary, who has quickly bonded with the now-orphaned Patrick, decides to become his legal guardian (without consulting her fianc\u00e9e!). She goes to the guardianship hearing expecting to get custody of Patrick, but…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is revealed in the hearing that the police are investigating Patrick for suspicion of murder. And are investigating Mary as a possible accomplice. Edward’s cause of death was an insulin overdose (he was diabetic) and both Patrick’s and Mary’s fingerprints are found on the fatal syringe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly the “simple” civil lawsuit has become a criminal case, with Mary in legal jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a quick read. It kept me interested. That outweighs the heavy “girl” orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 out of 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2016 by Smart Blond, LLC. Published by St Martin’s Press, New York. I think I have criticized Scottoline before as being too “girly” – spending a lot of time and verbiage on feminine things. That may be a feature for some, but not for a macho man like me. In this book, in which … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VniU-2G7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10900,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10299\/revisions\/10900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}