Lisa Scottoline is a lawyer/author, in the tradition of John Grisham and Scott Turow.

She has been a trial lawyer and a judicial clerk and puts the knowledge gained in those professions to good use in “Dirty Blonde.”

Cate Fante is a young, beautiful female federal judge in Philadelphia. She had been a trial judge and recently won an appointment to the bench. Fante enjoys her work and clucks like a mother hen over her young law clerks, Sam and Emily.

Her administrative assistant, Val, is nicknamed InValuable because of the efficient way she handles every detail in the office.

Fante is divorced and she spends a lot of time with her best friend Gina, and Gina's young son, Warren. Warren is autistic, and Gina gave up her law career to care for him. Fante helps single mom Gina by caring for Warren one night each week while Gina grocery shops.

Scottoline gives us a glimpse into the challenging life of a parent with an autistic child. Although this storyline is not the major plot point, the author did her research into life with an autistic child, and it seems authentic.

Judge Fante's most interesting case at the moment concerns Hollywood. Richard Marz, a young assistant district attorney, meets with his old camp counselor, now a big-time TV producer, to give him a script treatment about what really happens behind the scenes in and out of court.

The producer, Art Simone, likes the treatment and promises Marz that “if I make money, you make money.”

Marz and Simone meet a few times, but no documents are signed and no specific money is mentioned. Marz quits his job as a lawyer to work full-time on his idea, fleshing out the script into a TV series.

Simone uses Marz's research to create “Attorneys@law” which becomes a huge hit, similar to “Law & Order.”

Marz doesn't see a penny from Simone. Thus, he has to sue him, and they end up in Judge Fante's courtroom.

Fante suspects that Simone met with Marz in Philadelphia, rather than in California, because it is more difficult to enforce a verbal agreement under Pennsylvania law. She tries in vain to find some way to be fair to Marz and does her best to get Simone to settle with Marz, but Marz will not settle. He knows the law is unfairly on his side.

Judge Fante must rule that the verbal agreement is unenforceable. While at a restaurant to celebrate his victory, Simone is murdered. When Marz is soon found dead of an apparent suicide, Fante is devastated.

Fante secretly leads a double life. She has a nasty habit of going to bars and picking up strange men and sleeping with them.

One night, she picks up a man and goes to a seedy motel with him. She changes her mind and is attacked by the man.

After managing to escape, she vows never to pick up a man in a bar again.

But it is too late. Art Simone decided that his next show would be “Judges@court,” and he had Fante followed to see if anything interesting came up. When he discovered her secret life, he knew that her story would make great television.

One of the homicide detectives, a handsome, single (what else?) cop named Nesbitt finds Simone's file on Fante and brings the file to the judge. He assures her that he will not share this information with anyone, that it is a private matter.

Unfortunately, Joe Russo, a homicide detective who had been working with Marz on his TV script, also has a copy of her file. Russo believes that Fante murdered Simone to cover up her private life and then killed Marz to make it look like Marz killed Simone.

Russo is determined to make Fante pay for Marz's death, and Scottoline sets a dynamic chase scene in Centralia.

Centralia is an old mining community in Pennsylvania where the entire town was destroyed by fires and gases that have been burning underground for years following a mining accident.

Scottoline had heard about Centralia and wanted to set one of her books there, and “Dirty Blonde” is it. In the author's notes to the book, she explains the history of Centralia and on her Web site, www.scottoline.com, she has links to more information on it. I find it enjoyable when authors share their research about interesting topics in their books.

Judge Fante's secret life becomes public knowledge and now she must fight for both her career and her life. How she does that makes for a fast, suspenseful read.

The author's writing is good, nothing too deep, but she makes you want to keep turning the pages. I have to say that when the killer of Simone and Marz is finally revealed, it is a bit out of left field. I can't imagine anyone seeing that coming. “Dirty Blonde” is a good beach read, and I give it three stars.

You can read part of #“Dirty Blonde#” at www.harpercollins.com. Search for Lisa Scottoline on the site and click on “Browse Inside” under the “Dirty Blonde” book. It's a brand new feature on the Web site.

Auburn native Diane La Rue's

lifelong goal is to read a book a week. If you have suggestions, e-mail her at laruediane2000@yahoo.com