9 Scorpions

Rating:
Summary: A Supreme (Court) Thriller
Review: 9 Scorpions is a different Paul Levine novel. There's no sign of Jake Lassiter, but no shortage of unique characters. The dialogue is especially clever. Through the plot, the inner workings of airlines, trial courts, and the United States Supreme Court are shown. There's enough detail to move the plot, but not so much that you get bogged down on it. The action takes off quickly and then accelerates. You feel like you're one of the characters in one of the many times the protagonists (one a stripper turned Supreme Court clerk and the other an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court) are in personal jeapardy, which is often. The bad guys are very bad, with the primary bad guy one of the last people you'd ever want to meet. 9 Scorpions is a fast read and a great ride. I think it's the breakout novel for Paul Levine.

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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: Excellent! Had me reading until 2 in the morning!
Review: An excellent book. The characters are well developed and the action is non-stop. Reads just like any of Paul Levine's other books, which are worth picking up after you've read this. Definately get this book!

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Summary: Bring back Jake, please!!!
Review: Disorganized story development, DISLIKABLE characters, and basically a who cares??? plot. Definitely not what I have come to expect from this author.

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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: Above average, below the Lassiter series
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: Worst book I've read this year
Review: I can not believe the good reviews for this book. I don't have particuarly strict standards, but I thought this one was a real stinker, a pot boiler of the worst kind. The female clerk is supposed to be brilliant but she acts like a moron. She's always being rescued or is screaming or having her clothes ripped off or admiring the hero's "muscular arms". The characters are cartoonish, the judges behave in a preposterous way, the dialogue is straight from a comic book and everyone is always winking conspiratorially or performing some other cliche. It's really just.... ridiculous, pulp fiction of the worst kind. If you must read it, by all means, wait for the paperback.

Rating:
Summary: Erotic, Intelligent, Thrilling
Review: I first read Paul Levine's "Flesh & Bones," which was a murder mystery set in the modeling world. As a model, I thought it was realistic and sexy and thoroughly enjoyed it. "Flesh & Bones" is really different, but it's a thrilling read. Very sexy, very smart. A Supreme Court judge gets involved with his young female law clerk, a woman who knows how to manipulate men and get their "votes." Levine knows women, and it shows. He also knows the Supreme Court. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, Please!
Review: I found 9 Scorpions too contrived. I read in an interview that Paul Levine wanted to write for a woman from a woman's point of view. Of course that woman is model-beautiful, a former stripper and a brilliant lawyer-to-be, living in a luxury apartment with a closet-full of expensive clothes, all paid for by a sugar daddy. And of course the man she's working for/falling in love with is charming, handsome and powerful (and in a bad marriage, natch). Yeah, real life going on here. It was ludicrous and stupid. Paul, stick to Jake.

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