Several weeks ago I was sent two books by author Paul Levine. Levine is the writer of a series of legal fiction novels (I can’t think of a better name for the genre) featuring a protagnoist named Jake Lassiter. I have to admit that I’d never read any of his books before, but since reading the two in his latest series “Solomon v. Lord”, I’m going to read the Jake Lassiter series as well.
Steve Solomon is a criminal defense attorney in South Beach, Florida. He’s your stereotypical beach bum, a parrot head who lives by his own rules. In fact, every few chapters begins with one of his rules, “If the law doesn’t work, work the law” and “Lie to your priest, your spouse, and the IRS, but always tell your lawyer the truth.” Victoria Lord is a baby District Attorney who is prosecuting a case against one of Steve’s clients – an exotic animal smuggler. Victoria is the stereotypical embodiment of do-gooder government worker. She plays by THE rules and is disgusted by Steve’s rules, she truly believes she wears the white hat and has all of those other annoying prosecutorial traits. At the beginning. The story follows Steve and Victoria through their trial, to her conversion to the side of goodness and light, to the two of them trying a high profile murder case together. There is also some romance stuff thrown in there, and luckily the writing is good enough so that its not that typical annoying, cloying. . . crap (sorry, couldn’t think of a better word). It is humorous and realistic and gives us another dimension to all of the characters in the story.
This book made me jealous of attorneys living in Florida. Does it get much better? Despite the squalid conditions of Steve Solomon’s law office, this book turned me on to maybe, just maybe, taking the bar to practice in Florida. Steve’s ‘receptionist’ made me reconsider our potential new hire. She can’t bench press nearly as much as the er, lady, who greets clients at Solomon and Lord. There are several subplots in this book, including some discussion of Steve’s relationship with his father, a well connected former judge in the same jurisdiction where Steve practices; Victoria’s relationship with her mother; and some pretty quirky dialogue between Bobby, Steve’s autistic/savant nephew and well, everyone else in the book.
This book is a pretty quick read. I actually read it on the train to DC. It’s light and funny and while the ‘mystery’ component is not all that great, it was still intriguing. I do think it makes a huge difference that the author is a former trial lawyer, it made a lot of the lawyering passages very believable. Criminal defense attorneys should get a kick out of it. Prosecutors probably won’t like it since the characters in the book who are prosecutors are not portrayed in the best light. And everyone knows prosecutors have no sense of humor.
Go buy this book!
