By Paul Levine
Through the years two of my favorite mystery series are the Jake Lassiter and the Solomon and Lord series both from Paul Levine. I haven’t read a book of his since 2011, when I read Lassiter. Here’s the review I wrote about it back when I finished the book. Tonight as I was re-posting this review I went to Levine’s page at Amazon and I see that books 9 and 10 in the Jake Lassiter series are both available at Amazon for only $3.99 each!! What a steal! Now I only have to find time to read them!!!! Anyway here is the review for Lassiter!
So a couple of years ago after reading Paul Levine‘s book Illegal I sent him a message on Facebook and told him that I liked the book but sill missed Jake Lassiter! He emailed me back and told me that his next book was going to be a Lassiter novel. Well, that book, appropriately named Lassiter is Book 33 for 2011.Jake Lassiter is a “low-rent” Miami attorney, whose clients are usually not from the upper echelon of the Miami social scene. Lassiter also previously played for the Miami Dolphins and was featured in a series of seven books that started with To Speak for the Dead in 1990 and ended with Flesh & Bones in 1997. I’ve read six out of the seven – Number 1 is the only one I haven’t read. And now thanks to reissuing of the books as e-books for the Kindle, that can be read for only $2.99!
But now back to the current book Lassiter. For his return Levine has crafted a story that starts in Lassiter’s past, from his website:
Eighteen years ago, Jake Lassiter crossed paths with a teenage runaway who disappeared into South Florida’s sex trade. Now he retraces her steps and runs head-on into a conspiracy of Miami’s rich and powerful who would do anything to keep the past as dark as night and silent as the grave. It’s a tale of redemption and revenge for the troubled Jake.
After a fourteen year lay-off Lassiter has lost none of his snap. Booklist one described him this way
“Lassiter is smart, tough, funny, and very human. He’s coming on fast as one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction.”
I have enjoyed all the Lassiter books that I’ve read. The characters are always well drawn and the stories always entertaining. In between the Lassiter books Levine has written several standalone books along with another series (almost as good and in some ways better than Lassiter) featuring two other attorneys Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. There are four books in that series and like I said they’re all highly entertaining! So check out any of Levine’s books sit back and enjoy the ride!
Now I was all set with my next book. I went to the library the other night to pick up a book for my wife and came back with two books. The new John Hart book Iron House and Collusion the followup book to Stuart Neville‘s fine début novel The Ghosts of Belfast. I figured I’d start with the Hart book and then the Neville novel. So what happens tonight, I get an email that the new Alex Kava Maggie O’Dell novel Hotwire is now available for digital download to my Kindle!! So I guess I’ll check that one out too, start both books and see which one I like the most and finish that one first! Hum, too many books, too little time!!
P.S. I read both Iron House and Hotwire, but not the Stuart Neville book……