SKINNY-DIPPING

Lilly Rose Cleary, a sassy, headstrong junior partner at a Sarasota law firm, finds herself in a real pickle in this witty, intelligent novel of suspense. Lilly is in the midst of working her usual malpractice cases—here, defending a client involved in a kayak whiplash accident—when, on her way back to the office after a win at trial, someone puts her in a choke hold. The next day, a doctor facing a malpractice suit comes to her for advice—and is dead by nightfall. The "veggie baby case" a senior partner dumps in her lap starts to get some mysterious attention, and pretty soon Lilly's getting shot at. It's chick lit meets Perry Mason in this lively novel full of quirky characters and a dash of romance (Lilly's got a little crush on a detective—and then there's that attorney, Newly, she used to go with...). Lilly's voice is irrepressible ("Newly was sitting on the hood of his big gold Lexus, a twin of my colleague Ashton's sedan. Must be an amendment I had missed to the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar that now required attorneys to drive imported automobiles costing at a minimum twice the average annual income for the state"), but it's not just the smart narration and good dialogue—Matturro, a former appellate attorney, has the legal stuff down pat. (Oct. 12)