MOMENT OF TRUTH

An unpersuasive legal thriller about a man crying mea culpa everywhere and getting the same response as Chicken Little.

Jack Newlin, a prominent Philadelphia corporation lawyer, arrives home late, discovers his wife stabbed to death, and decides on the spot that his 16-year-old daughter is the killer. Wife and daughter (adolescent daughter, to boot)have not been getting along. Imagine that. Well, a dad’s got to do what a dad’s got to do, he tells himself, and wastes no time putting himself in the frame. He smears his hands with blood, adds a few other authenticating touches to the crime scene, and plans his bogus confession. Having turned himself in, he finds the cops don’t really believe him, yet they arrest him anyway. After all, it’s not every day they get that much perp cooperation. In custody now, his next step is to hire a callow, untried criminal lawyer, because a hotshot might get him off. Enter Mary DiNunzio. Working late, she just happens to be near a phone when Jack’s call comes in to her law firm, and within ten minutes he hires her. At first glance, Mary seems the ideal choice: She is genuinely callow—her criminal-law experience is negligible to nonexistent. But soon enough Jack realizes she has grit, gumption, and the innate busybody quality of a born gumshoe. Further to his consternation, Mary doesn’t believe his story either. In fact, nobody does, which means Jack has a very hard time staying in jail. That proves to be a good thing, though, since when Mary finally solves the crime, the killer turns out not to have been Jack’s daughter after all. Imagine that.

Scottoline’s women (Mistaken Identity, 1999, etc.)—well-crafted and appealing—have always been an unfailing strength. Not here, though. Mary seems mailed in, a stick figure who isn’t much help in making unlikely things credible.