Meet the Author A Further Look • Mistaken Identity First Chapter • Rough Justice First Chapter • Buy Mistaken Identity • Buy Rough Justice • Meet the Author • Discuss After working for seven years as a civil trial lawyer, Lisa Scottoline took some time off to have a child. Then her marriage failed. With her back against the wall financially, and living on credit, she decided to support herself and her newborn by writing legal thrillers. A less-than-sure-fire solution in the highly-competitive book publishing business, to be sure. With Scottoline's sixth book, Mistaken Identity, now being published, the "female John Grisham" has met widespread critical and popular success. She recently spoke about her risky career move, and how a lawyer's life can be the source of such entertaining material.
	Interview with Lisa Scottoline Q: What first gave you the inspiration to write?   Scottoline: I don't know, to tell you the truth. I was very happy as a lawyer, but when my life changed and I had a child, I had to find another way to earn a living. Basically, I saw that John Grisham and other male writers were making a lot of really good stories out of being a trial lawyer. And I thought, why are there no women doing this? I mean, I had studied English when I was in school at Penn, and I thought, gee, I should be able to do this. So, the impetus was seeing the genre explode, and understanding that there was a niche that wasn't being filled.   Q: How is writing a new novel similar to preparing for a trial?   Scottoline: That's an interesting question. Actually, it is very similar, particularly with suspense. My aim is to make the books move fast, especially with Mistaken Identity, which works on a lot of different levels. As a trial lawyer, you are trained to figure out which sentences matter, and throw out the ones that don't matter. You get up before a jury and tell them only the important facts, in exactly the order you want, so that you will produce in your audience a reaction. And that is exactly what I aim to do on the page; suspense to me means including only the relevant sentences to create a book readers won't want to put down. For Bennie Rosato, the protagonist of Mistaken Identity, I ask what are the sentences that will make people understand her view of the world, understand her.   Q: Tell me a little of your view of characterization.   Scottoline: I think characterization matters a lot, particularly in legal thrillers. I've read quite a few books in this genre, and the stuff that used to fly--like Earl Stanley Gardner or Perry Mason--just doesn't work any more. Not to detract from those books, they're wonderful, but people are much more sophisticated today in their knowledge of law, legal ethics, and what actually happens in a court room. The O.J. case educated everybody, you know? For example, in my book Rough Justice, which was published pre-O.J., I had to define what a sidebar was. Now, during the O.J. trial, people were running around with pins that said "Too Many Sidebars." It was remarkable! So, for me, that trial saved me a ton of time, because I didn't have to define things for people anymore. But it also put on extra demands to make each book even more compelling since readers won't buy that a lawyer can crack somebody on the witness stand, because that really doesn't happen. In Perry Mason's day people thought it could, but it doesn't. So today [the legal thriller] has to be written at a higher level.   Q: How much "trial preparation"--which is to say, firsthand research--do you like to do before sitting down to write?   Scottoline: Tons. For instance, I took boxing lessons for Mistaken Identity. It would have been easy to write "the girl who goes into the gym and doesn't know what she is doing" character. But for the plot, I also had to create a credible boxer, and that is why I had to hang out with some boxers. The lessons were a great vehicle for that level of credibility. I'm still a lousy boxer, but now I've got my details down.   Q: Obviously you don't have be a good boxer to write well about it.   Scottoline: As Norman Mailer proved, or Joyce Carol Oates! She actually wrote a nice piece on boxing. But I think I could take her once I got my jab going.   Q: Your new book, Mistaken Identity, is inspired by something that really happened to you.   Scottoline: Not too long ago, I learned that I had a sister I didn't know about. Ironically, I had always wanted a sister, and it was a little startling to actually find out, past the age of thirty, that I had one. She was searching for her birth parents, and that was how she found me. I mean, I thought I had known my family boundaries, and suddenly, here was this total stranger who looked a lot like me. So, questions obviously arose like where does she fit in, and how does it feel to have this person in my life? When something that cool happens to a writer, you have to use it!   Q: What was your toughest challenge writing Mistaken Identity? What narrative problem kept you up at night?   Scottoline: Every single thing. I sweat every single page, every sentence. And this book was something even more challenging, trying to mix a family story with a courtroom case with a thriller. I had no interest in simply writing the Scottoline family saga, but I wanted to use that story of the sisters in an entertaining book you can't put down. I feel very strongly about that: for $24 the reader had better be entertained.   Q: The first chapter of Mistaken Identity was posted on your web site and you invited visitors to give you editorial feedback. What was that like?   Scottoline: The response was amazing, and very helpful. Like any writer, I'm alone in a garret, not sure that what I am producing is working. And I thought it would be interesting to communicate with readers and people who are interested in writing. It would be a new way of getting feedback. I'm told that Kurt Vonnegut (and others) used to go around and read his works in progress. The tradition of reading works in progress made a lot of sense when you could travel around, but that wasn't convenient for me. So I posted it on my site. I mean everyone posts a chapter, a teaser, but the innovation here was to post a work that wasn't yet finished, still in the writing stage. Thousands of people edited that chapter, and I read every single one of them. The experiment was very interesting, and I will undoubtedly do it again.   Q: What is behind Bennie's law firm, what gave you the idea to make it all female?   Scottoline: I just didn't want to write a series character. Some writers of legal thrillers like them, such as Scott Turow, who has recurring people. The other example is John Grisham whose books are stand-alones. But I wanted to have a little of both, so I thought why not do an ensemble, in this case the law firm. And since I tended to be doing women lawyers--straight out of the "write what you know" school--I decided to put them all in the same firm to see what would happen. It's fun, because they have quite different personalities--though they are all, suspiciously, blonde.   Q: Bennie is a strong character, sufficiently strong, it seems, to carry a TV or feature film. Is that something you want to pursue?   Scottoline: Well, yes, [the book] was optioned for a TV series. I think the development company saw the same continuing possibilities as I did about these twins, Bennie and Alice.   Q: From Court TV to Judge Judy, Americans seem obsessed with legal issues. Why do you think law is such an entertainment commodity to us?   Scottoline: Because it's very dramatic, life and death stuff. Buy the book online >> And more than that it is all about winning and losing. Every day, when I practiced law, I won or lost two or three things--a motion here, or a trial decision there. Vast sums of money change hands. Things happen, and the lawyer is very much a player in that drama. Lawyers can be very interesting, effective people. And I also get a sense, from the email I receive from readers, that in addition to the characters, they really enjoy the question about justice and ethics. You know, what is justice? What is just in a certain situation? That is constantly fascinating to people, and every day there is a new compelling legal story on the news. Every case is a great story: each is personal, emotional, and a tale about justice. How can you beat that!? You can't!