Review by New York Times Review
BULLYING is a topic that seems to push everyone's hot buttons (even President Obama recorded his own antibullying message). But while most attention centers on the damage done to kids, Lisa Scottoline, in her latest legal thriller, nimbly homes in on the ordeals inflicted on parents - of both the tormented and the tormentors. Normally you can expect a Scottoline novel to feature strong women, usually litigators, who fight their own battles. But the heroine in "Save Me," Rose McKenna, is an upper-middle-class "lunch mom" (and former model) who volunteers to help out at the school cafeteria, mainly to keep watch on her daughter, Melly, a third grader with a Harry Potter obsession and "a port-wine birthmark" splashed across her cheek. Melly is the target of two viper classmates, and Rose catches one of them smearing grape jelly on her face, in cruel imitation of Melly's birthmark. When the child tearfully flees to the bathroom, Rose chastises the mean girls. Suddenly a powerful explosion goes off in the cafeteria kitchen, and Rose now faces a horrific moral choice: if she leaves the scene to rescue her daughter, she'll have to abandon the two bullies, both helpless as "fire licked across the ceiling, superheating the air." Rose splits the difference. She hustles the girls toward the playground, trusting them to get there on their own, and then races back for Melly, who is unconscious, but survives. Three school employees the in the explosion, however, and Melly's chief tormentor, Amanda Gigot, discovered inside the burning building, falls into a coma. Rose, initially hailed as a "Hero Mom," and "multi-tasker extraordinaire" is soon accused of having deliberately ignored the other girls, perhaps in retaliation for their bullying. It may take a village to raise a child, but a small, tight community can also destroy a parent, even in Scottoline's Reesburgh, Pa., an idyllic Philadelphia suburb of "quaint brick homes, with their Victorian porches," renovated facades shaded by "tall, ancient trees" and fleets of S.U.V.'s and minivans. As the TV cameras close in, local sympathy shifts to Amanda's "hard-working single mom," already widowed (her husband died in a forklift accident), even after she secures a "spokesman" and threatens suit against the district, the school and the building contractor. Rose, recast as the overprotective tigress, is ostracized, besieged by hate e-mails ("All you did was save your own hide and child") and disturbing Facebook taunts ("HOW DO YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?"). Worse, she faces a possible murder indictment, among other ugly legal ramifications that Scottoline, a former litigator, describes in chilling "it can't happen here" detail. Rose's husband, an overworked lawyer, finds her two hotshot attorneys - one to handle the criminal charges, the other civil claims - but their strategy is for Rose to take a pre-emptive, bullying stance against the school she loves. Pushed around by her lawyers, who override her demurrals and duck her most urgent calls, Rose is also hounded by reporters, who dig up a damning tragedy from her past, alienating her husband, previously a paragon of understanding. "Babe, we don't have any friends," he bitterly declares at one point. "Nobody knows us, and what they know, they don't like." Rose, becoming more and more of a pariah, begins to question what it really means to belong and whom she can really trust. And in true Scottoline fashion, she not only suspects foul play, she takes matters into her own hands to ferret out the truth. It is then that the pace of the novel speeds up, each staccato chapter adding new and unexpected turns, so many you could get whiplash just turning a page. Scottoline knows how to keep readers in her grip. Still, there are a few bumps. It's clear Rose feels her only recourse is to fire her lawyers, but why doesn't she look for other, betters ones, especially since she could be facing jail time? And Scottoline, so attentive to plot, is indifferent to character. Melly's favorite teacher, who has a high-profile secret, sits inertly on the page, more plot device than real person. Other characters exist chiefly to present Rose with exactly the information she needs just when she needs it. BUT, in truth, who cares, when there is one thrill after another, particularly once the narrative moves into the legal and investigative realms where Scottoline excels? As Rose uncovers the truth behind the explosion at the school, serious matters - of greed, loyalty, motherhood, dark motive - come to the fore. Ultimately, though, Scottoline's subject is "the most emotional of all relationships, mother and child." And Rose discovers what we really owe our own children, other people's children and even other parents. "Every mom is an action hero," she concludes. "Save Me" isn't just about a devoted mother protecting her bullied child. It's really about one brave and determined woman who finds the means to save herself. It may take a village to raise a child, but a small, tight community can also destroy a parent. Caroline Leavitt's new novel is "Pictures of You."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 24, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
Suburban mom Susan Pressman is forced to make a split-second decision after an explosion goes off in the school cafeteria in which she volunteers. Should she rescue her own daughter, Melly, trapped in the bathroom, or lead the girls standing in front of her, who constantly bully her daughter, to safety? Her choice reverberates throughout the little town of Reesburgh, Pennsylvania, as she is cast as the villain by the local news anchor, parents, and the school. While her attorney and husband construct a defense plan that includes filing a lawsuit against the school, Susan sets out to seek the truth behind this mysterious, accidental fire. With the help of a construction worker who may know the cause of the explosion as well as an incognito visit to a local factory, Susan slowly unravels the truth and along with it some hidden secrets in Reesburgh's dark past, including one horrifying buried memory of her own. At the quick pace of a thriller, Scottoline masterfully fits every detail into a tight plot chock-full of real characters, real issues, and real thrills. A story anchored by the impenetrable power of a mother's love, it begs the question, just how far would you go to save your child?--McCormick, Annie Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this gut-wrenching stand-alone from bestseller Scottoline (Think Twice), an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School. Lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly, but Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members. The tension rises as the united front presented by Rose and her lawyer husband, Leo Ingrassia, begins to disintegrate in the face of media demands, legal maneuverings, and social pressures. Rose must also deal with school bullying (Melly has a noticeable facial blemish), difficult legal problems, and her husband's reaction when a secret from her past is revealed. Scottoline melds it all into a satisfying nail-biting thriller sure to please her growing audience. 400,000 first printing; author tour. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Scottoline's latest stand-alone novel, after Think Twice (2010); simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hc (400,000-copy first printing); Cynthia Nixon reads. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The creator of Philadelphia lawyer Bennie Rosato (Think Twice, 2010, etc.) pens another white-hot crossover novel about the perils of mother love.One minute catalog modelturnedlunchroom mom Rose McKenna is keeping third-grade bully Amanda Gigot from leaving the Reesburgh Elementary cafeteria while she tells Amanda that she shouldn't make fun of Rose's daughter, Melinda Cadiz, because of the port wine birthmark on her cheek; the next, she's agonizing over which child to save first from an explosion that's ripped through the school cafeteria. Rose's reflexes make what she ends up deciding were the best decisions at the time: She led Amanda and her friends to the door to safety, then went back to look for Melly, who'd hidden in a rest room. But Eileen Gigot and her many friends in the school don't agree. They accuse Rose of detaining Amanda, now lying in a hospital in a coma, then leaving her in the care of another 8-year-old so that she could rescue her own daughter, who's making a full recovery. Rose is stung by shock, then guilt, and finally outrage when she realizes that Eileen may file both civil and criminal actions against her. Worse, she learns that her one ally in Reesburgh Elementary, gifted teacher Kristen Canton, is leaving. Worse still, the hardball litigator her understanding husband, attorney Leo Ingrassia, has dug up for her, is anticipating possible prosecution by taking an aggressive stand on his client's behalf, positioning Rose as exactly the sort of bully she's been trying to protect her daughter from. So when Kurt Rehgard, a carpenter who'd hinted that the explosion was an extremely suspicious accident, is killed together with the contractor friend he'd confided in, Rose parks Melly with some sympathetic neighbors for a few days and takes it upon herself to discover exactly what happened and why.Scottoline, who shifts gears at every curve with the cool efficiency of a NASCAR driver, expertly fuels her target audience's dearest fantasy: "Every mom is an action hero."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
