Biography of Lisa Scottoline  
Lisa has published five legal thrillers. Her sixth, Mistaken Identity, will be published in the spring of 1999. All of Lisa's books draw on her experience as a trial lawyer as well as her judicial clerkships in the state and federal justice systems.

 After working for seven years as a civil trial lawyer, Lisa Scottoline took some time off to have a child. Then her marriage failed. With her back against the wall financially, and living on credit, she decided to support herself and her newborn by writing legal thrillers. She wrote while her infant slept, basing her first novel on her experiences as an associate in a large Philly law firm. It took three years to write her first book and by the time it was finished, Lisa's daughter was in first grade and Lisa had taken a part-time job clerking for a federal appellate judge.

A week later, that novel, Everywhere That Mary Went, was bought by editor Carolyn Marino at HarperCollins, and Lisa had a new career on her hands. Everywhere That Mary Went was nominated for the Edgar Award, the premiere award in suspense fiction by the Mystery Writers of America but lost. Lisa's second novel, Final Appeal was nominated for an Edgar the very next year and won.

Lisa's subsequent novels, Running From the Law, Legal Tender and Rough Justice received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. In addition, Legal Tender and Rough Justice were New York Times Bestsellers and Rough Justice was People Magazine's "Page-Turner of the Week." Her books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Lisa now lives with her family in Philadelphia.