book and television commentary

Last week I read most of Lisa Scottoline's book Devil's Corner. I took nearly 5 days to bother with the last 3 chapters but finally did finish the book last night. I've read 3 other books by Scottoline and have found her to be a decent writer. This book doesn't merit that designation though. I was quite disappointed with it and don't recommend it. Most of the reviews I've seen of the book on the web are positive, so if you like her as an author--feel free to give it a shot but don't say I didn't warn you!

Okay. This is a stand alone book by Scottoline though it still takes place in Philidelphia like her other books. The protagonist is Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA as it's referred to constantly in the book) Vicki Allegretti and she's an overly earnest and emotional caricature. Seriously, this struck me many times as a book written by a man since the depiction of Vicki Allegretti was so often just sketchy and 2-Dimensional.

Here's the gist of the book, Allegretti and her partner walk into an execution of one of their CIs (confidential informants) and her partner is killed as a result. His death motivates Allegretti to piss off her parents, risk being fired repeatedly by defying her boss on many occasions, her coworkers, and her "new partners" one who is actually the woman that Alligretti was trying to prosecute at the start of the book and the other is a guy that she works with. In this book Scottoline wants you to believe that a junior level lawyer would be doing field work that even the cops were reluctant to do and that she'd be partnered with a woman that initially wanted to kill her (don't ask!) and also had no credentials to be doing field work.

I have no problem with a certain level of suspension of disbelief when reading a novel but Scottoline goes a little too far with this book for me. At least a dozen times I tossed the book aside thinking "no fuckin' way" when one character or another did something really asinine. Hell, at one point Allegretti buttonholes a guy and keeps telling him that she's going to turn him in and doesn't seem to realize at all that this might make him desperate and do something rash. Jeeze--hard to believe thaat she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law (Allegretti that is, not Scottoline who went to University of Pennsylvania for her law degree).

On to television...! Now I've seen 3 episodes of Men in Trees and have only liked the second one. I'll still watch a few more since it's not really bad but I don't think this show is going to deliver much. Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, on the other hand, seems to be building well. I liked both episodes so far quite a bit. I'm glad to see that the second show built on the promise of the debut show--I think that this might be another show like West Wing where the writing quality holds throughout the entire season.

Another show that I've seen two episodes of, and liked, is The Class. I don't recommend it for most people though. The jokes are obvious--just your standard sit-com stuff and there's few if any surprises. But I still like it. Go figure. Give it a try if you like the tired old sit-coms of the 70s. This is pretty much the same type of thing.