Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline

Macmillan, £12.99



The heart sinks at the opening words of Lisa Scottoline's Daddy's Girl. Her tale of law lecturer derring-do launches with this description of an almost-empty classroom: 'Nat Greco felt like an A cup in a double-D bra.' And, with a dull jolt, we realise we have heard this narrative voice before. It is sassy, streetwise, and unafraid to shock - in this instance, with similes fashioned from women's undergarments.



We have just swallowed the first of Ms Scottoline's red herrings. It quickly transpires that the sensitive Nat Greco, with her doubts and insecurities, is far from the wisecracking stereotype the opening line had led us to expect. But then, few of the characters live up to hackneyed expectations, least of all Angus Holt, the romantic interest.



On the one hand, Daddy's Girl is a fast-paced thriller in which our heroine survives a prison riot and attempted rape, before hopping from long-term boyfriend to new lover's bed, outwitting the bad guys and the cops, and thwarting a jail break - in the process, winning the newly-rekindled love and respect of her family. No wonder it runs to more than 300 pages.



On the other hand, the novel is also something more serious: a debate about the distinction between law and justice. The debate starts in the classroom, as Ms Greco vainly attempts to fuel a discussion with her students about the treatment meted out to Shakespeare's character, Shylock. The law brought him to his knees, but was he justly treated or was he abused and discriminated against? And then there is the penal system, too, for as Angus Holt says: 'Nobody knows the difference between law and justice better than prison inmates.'



The novel's denouement also explores the gulf between law and justice. It is a skilfully-crafted surprise ending, and so enough said about it.



Daddy's Girl is the author's 14th novel and, as a deftly-written example of the genre, is a compelling read. A slice of life it is not. We know, in that part of our belief we are unwilling to suspend, that respectable middle-class Ms Greco would have run for cover the moment the hot lead began to fly. She would not have had the resources to disguise her identity, blow up a propane gas store and covertly slip a loaded revolver to a policeman, for instance. But then few lawyers would - outside the pages of a novel.



Jonathan Rayner