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Philadelphia socialite Honor Newlin manages the modeling career of her teenager. Honor becomes a murder victim in which her husband, successful estates lawyer Jack confesses to the crime. Police Detectives Kovich and Brinkley relish the ease of solving this high profile case. District Attorney Dwight Davis concludes that the killing is premeditated and decides to go for the death penalty.

The only problem with the official scenario is that Jack is innocent of murder. He tampered with the crime scene to turn the evidence towards him instead of his daughter Paige. He thinks Paige killed her mother after suffering years of emotional abuse from the woman. Feeling guilty for not stepping in over the years, Jack feels he deserves to spend life behind bars as a form of penitence. However, Jack had not realized how competent his attorney is and how much she believes she represents an innocent person.

Fans of legal procedurals know how good a Lisa Scottoline novel always is. The exalted author's latest tale MOMENT OF TRUTH stars a cast of characters who touch the heart of the reader. Especially endearing is Jack's lawyer Mary DiNunzio, a naïve, pious, warm-hearted person whose empathy for the pain of other seems genuine. The story line is interesting, as the reader knows the truth from the onset yet somehow the thrilling plot retains a high degree of excitement as one wonders how the tale will play out. Ms. Scottoline provides a special book that deservedly will gain her even greater acclaim.

Harriet Klausner

Lisa Scottoline is often referred to as 'the female John Grisham'. I think she is better. Fresh off the success of her last novel, Mistaken Identity, Scottoline serves up a heck of a legal thriller. The book starts out with a bang. Attorney Jack Newlin arrives home to find his wife, Honor, dead on the floor. Stabbed. He then decides to make it looks like he has committed the crime, because he is convinced he knows who really did it and is committed to protecting that person. After staging the crime scene to implicate himself, Jack then calls the police--and also proceeds to hire an inexperienced lawyer, Mary DiNunzio, of the Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates. This turns out to be a huge mistake for Jack, because although Mary is inexperienced in murder trials, she has passion and heart. She doubts Jack's confession from the beginning and begins to investigate the crime. What she discovers about the crime will keep you turning pages all night long!

I'm really quite beginning to adore Lisa Scottoline. I've listened to Legal Tender, and Dead Ringer, and I'm hooked. I'll be scouting around for more of her work as soon as I can find it.

Unlike the other two I've listened to on audiobook prior to Moment of Truth, this story isn't about Bennie Rosato, the snarky, sarcastic, tough-as-nails Philedelphia attourney I've grown to love, but Mary Di Nunzio, one of her associates. Bennie is away, and while she's gone, a man confesses to murdering his wife. But he didn't do it. He takes Mary as his lawyer, figuring she's so inexperienced she can only make it worse, and proceeds to try and get himself found guilty. What would bring a grown man - and lawyer - to implicate himself for murder? Who is he trying to protect? Is the killer going to strike again? Mary is going to find out, and it just might kill her.

The story is quite tricky, and I was very pleased to say that while I figured out a good two-thirds of it, the ultimate ending did surprise me. Hats off, once again, to Lisa Scottoline, who apparently doesn't mulch a usual formula out over and over, and kept me guessing. Mary is just as interesting a character to explore as Bennie Rosato, which is a nice touch for what I'd so far only seen as a secondary character. There's a slight romantic undertone to this tale, which also went well with the overall.

As always, I can't praise Kate Burton's voice-acting enough. Her ability to put emotion into the various voices - and use her voice talent to keep the characters so obviously different to the listener's ear - cannot be over-stated. She's superb.

'Nathan