9 SCORPIONS

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! One of this year's best novels.
Review: A Paul Levine novel without Jake Lassiter? With seven novels on bookstore shelves featuring the linebacker-turned-lawyer, author Paul Levine shows readers his exceptional skills at weaving an intricate plot, sprinkling it with a wonderful sense of humor, blending in a touch of wit and showering it with scenery. In his newest novel, "9 Scorpions" he has excelled at all of that, this time without Jake. As the book opens on a perfect starlit South Florida night, Atlantica Airlines flight 640 crashes into the Everglades, killing everyone aboard and sparking a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the airline. Three years later, with the suit about the reach the United States Supreme Court, Max Wanaker, CEO of Atlantica, has devised a plan to save his airline from financial ruin, using his protege and former mistress, Lisa Freemont, newly appointed law clerk to the Supreme Court with a dark past. Max first met Lisa when she was an underage stripper. He put her through school and now he wants her to repay the favor by seducing junior Supreme Court Justice Sam Truitt and convince him to vote in favor of the airline. The plan sounds simple enough. After all, does anyone really think that all judges and lawyers are honest? But, there are much more powerful forces to reckon with than Max. An unsavory character named Theodore Shakanian, aka Shank, is the muscle man sent by Max's financial backers, to whom he owes a fortune, to make sure things go as planned. To further complicate matters, Lisa was in love with Tony Kingston, the pilot of flight 640. She has maintained her friendship with Tony's son, Greg, and together they set out to prove it was shoddy maintenance and sloppy cost-cutting measures by Max's company that cost the crew and passengers of flight 640 their lives. In the meantime, she falls in love with Truitt. You're probably wondering about the title "9 Scorpions." Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described the U.S. Supreme Court as "nine scorpions in a bottle." As a former practicing attorney in Miami, Levine knows the court system from the inside, complete with its internal battles. The nation's highest court is no different. Levine masterfully plots this story, weaves characters who are believable and peppers it with scenery that will be familiar to anyone who knows the South Florida area. Those who know Paul Levine, are sure that even though Jake is not featured in this book, he was probably next to the author as he wrote! As a fan of Jake Lassiter and of Paul Levine, I can honestly say that "9 Scorpions" is one of Levine's best works, even if it doesn't feature Jake!

Rating:
Summary: levine sells out
Review: Fans of Levine's hard-edged and colorful Jake Lassiter books will be in for a dismal surprise when they read _9 Scorpions_, Levine's apparent attempt to break out of the Miami crime genre and reach the mainstream. This is pure soap opera trash, complete with one-dimensional characters, gratuitous sex and violence, and the requisite power-mongering by cardboard cut-out villians. Jacqueline Suzanne could have written this pap. In fact, I wondered if Levine hired a ghost writer. The so-called "love story" between a Supreme Court judge and his assistant is laughable. We could care less about these spoiled Washington D.C. yuppies. Please, Paul, bank your profits on this TV-movie garbage and let's get back to Lassiter, a man the reader can care about.

Rating:
Summary: This is a soap opera, somewhat unrealistic failure.
Review: Found initial 2/3 a bit slow and at times a little tedious. When the setting shifted to Florida the action picked up and pages started turning. Don't know if it was a worthwhile payoff. Solid writing as usual and a couple of characters who would be interesting to see again if set in Florida. Eagerly await the next installment in the Jake Lassiter series. Much more fun than these folks.

Rating:
Summary: Decent audiobook fare, with an eye to thrilling
Review: I listened to this abridged audiobook through an afternoon of housecleaning (hey, don't knock it 'till you try it). This was fairly decent. I'm not a huge fan of legal thrillers - I've only read one or two Grishams, and never before read Levine, but the storyline was a bit interesting and, to me at least, fresh in the choices of characters. A former stripper/bad girl, Lisa was rescued by Max, who supported her through law school and has just called Lisa in on a very big favour.

He's placing her with a Supreme Court Justice, and he wants her to sway his vote on an airline case in regards to a terrorist-related crash. But as Lisa learns more of just who Max is - and what he's done - and the case seems more and more of a conspiracy to hide the Airline's lies, she feels herself swaying in her loyalty, not to mention falling for the Justice in the first place.

This romantic angle between Lisa and the Supreme Court Justice that seemed a little forced on the abridged audio version - they fall into bed and love at about the same time, which is somewhat abrupt, and I was somewhat surprised at the time. Still, for thrills, this delivered - there's chases, gunfights, and everything one expects from a rough and tumble legal thriller with edge. Especially in audiobook format (and read well by Bamman), this was enjoyable.

'Nathan

Rating:
Summary: Decent audiobook fare, with an eye to thrilling
Review: I listened to this abridged audiobook through an afternoon of housecleaning (hey, don't knock it 'till you try it). This was fairly decent. I'm not a huge fan of legal thrillers - I've only read one or two Grishams, and never before read Levine, but the storyline was a bit interesting and, to me at least, fresh in the choices of characters. A former stripper/bad girl, Lisa was rescued by Max, who supported her through law school and has just called Lisa in on a very big favour.

He's placing her with a Supreme Court Justice, and he wants her to sway his vote on an airline case in regards to a terrorist-related crash. But as Lisa learns more of just who Max is - and what he's done - and the case seems more and more of a conspiracy to hide the Airline's lies, she feels herself swaying in her loyalty, not to mention falling for the Justice in the first place.

This romantic angle between Lisa and the Supreme Court Justice that seemed a little forced on the abridged audio version - they fall into bed and love at about the same time, which is somewhat abrupt, and I was somewhat surprised at the time. Still, for thrills, this delivered - there's chases, gunfights, and everything one expects from a rough and tumble legal thriller with edge. Especially in audiobook format (and read well by Bamman), this was enjoyable.

'Nathan

Rating:
Summary: Sexy thriller that will carry you to the peak of adventure
Review: I loved 9 Scorpions. A slick, page turner with intelligence, wit and action. Would a Supreme Court Justice have an affair with a female clerk this beautiful? This book is far out, far up and far better than any legal drama I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: 9 Scorpions = Heart Pounding Suspence
Review: I really liked this book a lot. I found it to be very suspenceful I could not put it down. However, I would put it in the category of a Beach Book. Unfortunatly Amazon does'nt have a Beach Book category.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed, almost didn't finish
Review: One of the reasons I love mysteries is their ability to show aspects of life and society while telling a good story. I bought this book because I thought a mystery set in the Supreme Court would be very interesting. The bits and pieces about the court are there, but the writing is so contrived, and the main characters so unbelievable, that I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Supposedly the writer was writing from a woman's point of view, but this is a woman as only a man could imagine her, with little depth and everything caught up in sexuality. He repeatedly describes her physical appearance, what she's wearing, and how she's thinking about sex with the various men she's involved with. Her central conflict, whether to honor the law or her prior commitments, is phoney, and in any case is drowned out by the constant attention to when she's going to sleep with whom and why. The idea that she would scheme to get a clerkship just to affect the decision on one case coming before the court is beyond unbelievable. The plot itself is one note, with almost no changes in direction, only new episodes of (supposedly) scary violence to move it along.

Rating:
Summary: 9 Scorpions. Great read. Informative. Entertaining.
Review: This is one of those rare books that enlightens while it entertains. The view of the inner sanctum of the U.S. Supreme Court reveals details not known by most Americans. The story is suspenseful and exciting; the characters are extremely well-drawn.