BERNADETTE "Bennie" Rosato's twin sister returns to Philadelphia where Bennie is an attorney running a struggling practice.

Bennie, in an earlier book, got her sister acquitted on a charge of murder but there is no love lost between them.

Soon Bennie's life is turned upside down as she apparently gets drunk in front of a group of judges and buys loads of mail-order goods.

Bennie's firm is struggling but she has a potentially lucrative case to handle, except that it is bigger than anything she has ever handled and other lawyers are sniffing around for the pickings.

"Dead Ringer" is part of a series written by Lisa Scottoline featuring Bennie and her all-female law firm. It is full of humour, mystery and greed and bounds along at a cracking pace.

For all that, the basic plot is scratchy and, with all the other plots intertwined, it is sometimes difficult to remember where you are when you go back to it having put it down the night before.

The books are, however, very popular in America and already well-received over here.

Perhaps it is just a matter of taste, but I certainly would not rush out to buy another in the series.

Dead Ringer by Lisa Scottoline (Pan Books, £6.99 softback)