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In April, the Thrilling Reads Book Club will be spending the month talking about Daddy's Girl with author Lisa Scottoline.
In her latest tale of legal eagles in over their well-read heads, law professor Natalie "Nat" Greco finds herself in way over her head when a visit to a minimum-security prison in nearby Chester County puts her smack in the middle of an all-out riot. After the chaos clears, Greco finds herself framed for the murder of a state trooper, and desperate to decipher his dying words -- the only move that could possibly save her.
It's another breathtakingly fun read -- and once again the author introduces us to some memorable characters. Here's what Lisa herself said in an introductory greeting she wrote for our book club --
Daddy’s Girl is the 14th thriller I’ve written, and all of them involve smart, strong, sexy women who get themselves in trouble and then have to get themselves out of it. This novel is the story of Natalie Greco, a bookish law professor who has a lot of growing up to do, and that growing up begins when she hears the dying declaration of a murdered prison guard. That’s the main plotline of the story, but I always like to examine family and love relationships in my books. Natalie’s problem within her family is that she’s overlooked and overwhelmed by the football-loving Greco clan, and her three big brothers who clamor for the attention of "Big John" Greco, their father. The impetus for the book, encapsulated in its title, is my own relationship to my father, who has now passed. I was a typical Daddy’s Girl, and my father was extraordinarily loving and warm to me. Whenever I was with him, I felt like the sun was shining down on me and me alone -– and because I had such a terrific relation to him, I know how important that was in my life. So I wanted to explore a character, like Natalie, who wasn’t as lucky as I was; a character who used to feel close to her father but somehow got lost in the shuffle of varsity football practices and booster club dinners.
Nat’s relationship to her hunky boyfriend Hank Balisteri is complex, too, because he fits in better with the Greco clan that Nat does. He’s a big jock, too, and even does business with her father’s construction company. Hank has the Greco stamp of approval, but does he have Nat’s? And how does he hold up when she meets the Faculty Hippie, ponytailed Angus Holt, who is the first man who seems to "get" Nat’s love of teaching? As you read the novel, I hope you’ll find that these themes -– love, family, and justice -- help to enrich the novel and give it a depth beyond the normal thriller.
Thank you so much for coming to the book club, and I can’t wait to meet each and every one of you!
Lisa Scottoline
Our conversation about Daddy's Girl begins Monday, April 2 -- don't miss out. (But before then, have a listen to our great audio interview with the author
