Book Talk: Paul Levine — the Jake Lassiter series

If you love exciting mysteries, likable lawyers, and great plots, and you haven’t discovered Paul Levine, let me introduce you. Levine is best known for two popular series, Jake Lassiter and Solomon and Lord. Occasionally, all three appear together. And that’s exactly the case in three books: Bum Rap (#11 in Levine’s long list of publications, 2015, 313 pages), Bum Luck (#12, 2017, 309 pages), and Bum Deal (#13, 2018, 318 pages). I read them all in paperback editions.

Bum Rap: Let me begin by explaining that Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are like oil and water in their law partnership, but torrid magnets in their private lives. In Bum Rap, Steve attempts to represent bar-girl Nadia to her boss Nicolai Gorev. Gorev, who worries about people wearing a wire, orders them both to strip. While Steve is obeying orders, both Gorev and Nadia pull their guns and open fire. When the smoke clears, Steve is left standing, Gorev is dead, and Nadia has disappeared. Steve is accused of murder, and Lassiter steps forth to defend him.

Bum Luck: Jake Lassiter believes in justice and knows that it is not always served by our legal system. This phenomenon is the basis for the plot in Bum Luck. Jake has just masterminded a verdict of not guilty for an NFL superstar Thunder Thurston who was on trial for killing his wife. Jake didn’t expect to win because he’s sure that Thunder is guilty. But it’s always a crapshoot as to how a jury will rule.