There Ain’t No Justice? Don’t Bet On It

Lisa Scottoline, the author to date of 13 legal thrillers (including this year’s Dirty Blonde), serves up in The Guardian her top-10 list of books about justice--seven novels, one compilation of novels, a single play, and a work of non-fiction.

“I write novels about justice,” Scottoline explains in her brief introduction, “a rich and compelling subject because it always involves the great themes--the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil, and love and hate. I also teach a course I developed called Justice and Fiction at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, in which I trace views of justice in fiction. Here are some of the books I teach. If you read them, you’ll get the short course--without the tuition!”

1. The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare
2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
3. Anatomy of a Murder, by Robert Traver
4. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game, and The Boy Who Followed Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
5. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
6. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
7. The Firm, by John Grisham
8. A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr
9. A Certain Justice, by P.D. James
10. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, by John Mortimer

The full Guardian piece includes Scottoline’s justifications for her selections. You can read it here.

(Hat tip to Campaign for the American Reader.)