Lisa Scottoline has quickly become one of my favorite authors due to her fast-paced writing style and quick wit. After writing a series of books focusing on the litigation side of the law, she has stepped away from that in DADDY’S GIRL, her 13^th book.

Natalie Greco is a young law professor who is perfectly happy to keep the status quo, which involves remaining in the good graces of her bosses, not standing out in her family and just being ordinary. As the only daughter in a family of three brothers she grew up with the nickname “Gnat” which pretty much summed up how she felt she fit in with her family of homebuilders. Even her boyfriend was more of a Greco than she was.

Angus Holt, a colleague at the college, convinces Nat to co-teach with him at a prison outreach class and that is where the story starts to speed up. A prison riot breaks out and Nat comes across an injured corrections officer who shares his odd last words: “Tell my wife it’s under the floor.” In her quest to speak to his wife, she uncovers some inconsistencies between what she witnessed and the “official” statement regarding the riot – so she decides to look into it. Joining Nat is Angus who distracts her with his free-living spirit and obvious interest in her.

DADDY’S GIRL is peppered with humorous repartee and the plot moves along quickly. I am curious though as to why the author choose the name Angus – it just does not give me the vibe of the strong, handsome, yet intelligent main man I feel she was trying to convey. Other than that she did a wonderful job of fleshing out all the characters.

I was confused by how the title of DADDY’S GIRL came about as it does not have much to do with the main story – there is some interaction with her father but I don’t feel it warranted the focus of what a title usually implies compared to the actual main story.

The best part of the book was actually at a point when generally a story starts to wind down and a plot twist I never expected jumped out of nowhere and left me wanting to read the whole story again to look at it from another angle. In a good way though!