9 Scorpions, a novel by Paul Levine

9 Scorpions, a novel by Paul Levine

PRICE : IDR 90.000,- (NEW, Hardcover)

Author:	Paul Levine	Format:	Hardcover
Publisher:	Pocket Books	ISBN-10:	0671019392
ISBN-13:	9780671019396	Subject:	Action, Adventure
Publication Year:	1998	Language:	English

Length:	373 pages
Height:	10.0 in.
Width:	6.8 in.
Thickness:	1.5 in.
Weight:	20.8 oz.

Amazon.com Review

Chicanery on the Supreme Court is a hot topic these days. Brad Meltzer’s Tenth Justice made bestseller headlines, and by now there are nearly enough other thrillers probing the secrets of the federal bench to give the subject a category all its own. In 9 Scorpions, former trial attorney Paul Levine weighs in with his version. The book features a beautiful ex-stripper with a Stanford law degree who’s just won a coveted clerkship with the most junior justice–handsome and charismatic Sam Truitt. Lisa Fremont has come a long way from San Francisco’s seedy Tiki Club, thanks to a wealthy patron who’s also the CEO of Atlantica Airlines. But Max Wanaker and his airline are facing a multi-million dollar legal battle that will be won or lost in the high court, and Max is calling in his markers. It’s up to Lisa to persuade Sam Truitt to cast the swing vote in Atlantica’s favor. Max’s life, and hers, hang in the balance, for Max has sold his soul as well as his airline to a corporation owned by the Japanese mafia, and the Yakuza’s strongman, Shank, has already killed once to protect the their interests. If Lisa’s considerable legal skills or even her sensual talents can’t convince the justice to see things the mafia way, Shank’ll kill again. But what neither the mafia nor Max know is that it’s not just Lisa’s passion for justice that stands in the way of their plans. When she learns what really brought Flight 640 down and killed her one true love as well as 288 other people, a not-so-simple case of blackmail turns into a deadly battle of will and wits. The action ranges from the marble halls of the Court to the swamps of the Everglades, where most of the bodies and all of the secrets of Atlantica 640 are buried. Or are they? When Truitt joins forces with Lisa to uncover the truth, they learn that even the federal bench isn’t immune to the forces of corruption and violence, in a thrilling denouement that reads like a blockbuster movie. –Jane Adams –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Levine, forsaking hero-attorney Jake Lassiter, who has anchored several of his legal thrillers (Flesh & Bones, 1997, etc.), seems hopelessly at sea in this watery melodrama about an attempt to rig a Supreme Court decision. It won’t take readers long to see that Levine is far from shore. His heroine, Lisa Fremont, is a T.S. Eliot-quoting stripper-turned-hot shot young lawyer. His hero, Sam Truitt, a cross between “Harrison Ford and Jeff Bridges,” is a charismatic Harvard prof-turned-Supreme Court justice. And his principal villain, an enforcer in the pay of Japanese gangsters, is nicknamed “Shank” for his weapon of choice. The setup is more original. Lisa, under moral pressure from airline tycoon Max Wanaker, who saved her from the streets, and under physical pressure from Shank, who’s yanked off her earring to show that he means business, aims to get hired as Truitt’s clerk. Her goal is to persuade Truitt to cast his deciding vote in favor of Wanaker’s airline in a liability case that can not only ruin the tycoon but which, if Truitt votes against Wanaker, will cost both Wanaker and Lisa their lives at Shank’s cruel hands. Readers will predict from far away a key murder, and they won’t be any more surprised by the stagy climax, which finds Lisa calling upon the spirit of an old lover (“Tony! Help me. Help me now”). The novel skims along well despite workaday writing and offers Sam’s burgling of the Chief Justice’s office and a dinner hosted by a Yakuza boss as colorful highlights. The title quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes’s statement on the makeup of the Supreme Court, but it’s the reader who’s ultimately stung by this humdrum tale.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc