Character is Destiny…In and Out of Court

“There are no one hundred percent heroes.”
– Travis McGee in Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald

“I never intended to become a hero, and I succeeded.”
– Jake Lassiter in Bum Rap

Roughly 2,500 years before Travis McGee mixed the first martini aboard his houseboat and Jake Lassiter cracked wise in a Miami courtroom, Heraclitus wrote, “Character is destiny.” The old Greek philosopher meant that we are not controlled by a predetermined fate. Hero? Villain? Combination of the two? We choose our own path in life.

In crime fiction, I’d add this note: Character determines plot. In my “Jake Lassiter” legal thrillers, readers learn the protagonist’s backstory – a prime building block of character – from what he says and does…and thinks. Here’s Jake’s internal dialogue early in To Speak for the Dead, the first book of the series:

The first Lassiter legal thriller mystery courtroom drama kindle unlimited“There I stood, 230 pounds of ex-football player, ex-public defender, ex-a-lot-of-things, leaning against the rail of the witness stand, home to a million sweaty palms.”

We get it. Lassiter is not an Ivy League brainiac. He’s a tough guy in a suit who proudly graduated “in the top half of the bottom third of my night law school class.” And that night school diploma? It hangs over a crack in the plaster above his toilet.

The linebacker-turned-lawyer has developed a healthy cynicism of the justice system. He ponders the sign that hangs over the bench in Miami courtrooms: “We Who Labor Here Seek Only the Truth.” Lassiter thinks there ought to be a footnote: “Subject to the truth being ignored by lying witnesses, obfuscated by sleazy lawyers, excluded by inept judged, and overlooked by sleeping jurors.”

He routinely carries a toothbrush to court in case he’s held in contempt. Witness this exchange:

“Mr. Lassiter, if you persist in this line of questioning, I’ll send you to a place you’ve never been.”

“Already been to jail, Your Honor.”

“Not talking about jail. I’m sending you to law school!”

With those character notes, we can expect his actions – and the books’ plots – to be unconventional. A few examples:

*Talk about conflicts of interest. Lassiter is sleeping with Gina Florio and defending her mob-connected husband in court. Then the husband gets homicidal. – Mortal Sin

Mortal Sin by Paul Levine*Lassiter is charged with killing his girlfriend and banker who was about to report him to the authorities for allegedly stealing from clients. – State vs. Lassiter

* Plagued with guilt, Jake retraces the steps of a model who went missing 18 years earlier…after their one-night stand. – Lassiter

* “Thirty seconds after the jury announced its verdict, I decided to kill my client.” Why? After clearing a guilty client, Lassiter becomes unhinged. Did he suffer one too many concussions playing football? – Bum Luck

* Defending his savant nephew who’s part of a bribery scheme to get lackadaisical students admitted to prestigious universities, Lassiter offers a unique defense. Cheating your way into college may be immoral but isn’t a crime. Cross-examining an admissions officer, Lassiter asks what’s the difference between bribing the university with a huge donation for a building or bribing a coach? The prosecutor objects: “The admissions system isn’t on trial here.” And Lassiter shoots back: “Sure it is. That’s exactly what’s on trial.” – Cheater’s Game

Cheater's GameMaking a nearly identical argument, legendary Miami trial lawyer Roy Black later won an acquittal for a father who had paid Georgetown University’s tennis coach $180,000 to secure admission for his daughter. “Georgetown considers not only academics and athletic ability,” Black argued to the jury, “but also whether the applicant is the child of a wealthy or prominent family that has the potential to donate to the school.”

* If you think that Lassiter walks so close to the ethical boundary that his shadow falls into the gray area, consider this: “I won’t represent a man accused of violence against women or children because my Granny taught me that such scum do not deserve my time and effort.” – False Dawn

* Money doesn’t motivate him. On turning down a case: “I could have used the work, but I prefer cases I believe in. Best is to have a client you like, a cause that’s just and a check that doesn’t bounce. Two out of three and you’re ahead of the game.” – Flesh and Bones

*This passage from Bum Rap is a rare example of Lassiter waxing poetic over the law and his place in it: “Justice is the North Star, the burning bush, the holy virgin. It cannot be bought, sold, or mass produced. It is invisible and ineffable, but if you are to spend your life in its pursuit, you had better believe that it exists.”

In many ways, Lassiter is a throwback: “I don’t drink fizzy water from France or booze in fluorescent colors. I don’t have a life coach or an aroma therapist, and I’m not into tweeting, texting, sexting, or spinning. I still help little old ladies cross the street, and sometimes, tall young ones, too. In short, I’m a carnivore among vegans, a brew and burger guy in a paté and Chardonnay world.” – Lassiter

* An aging Lassiter sues to abolish high school football as a dangerous “public nuisance” and becomes the most hated man in Miami. “When your cause is just, he says, no case is impossible.” With his personal life hitting a rocky patch, he reluctantly begins couples therapy with fiancée Dr. Melissa Gold. – Early Grave

kindle unlimited lassiter early grave kindlebooksAdd all of that together – hard-as-hell cases,  a personal code, a philosophical bent, a healthy dose of cynicism, a fearless courtroom approach, and old-time values – and you have blazed the trail of Jake Lassiter’s destiny.

All of the Jake Lassiter series of legal thrillers are available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback, and all are Kindle Unlimited titles. KU is the Amazon program that allows readers to borrow 20 books at a time for a total fee of $9.99 per month. An earlier version of this story appeared in Mystery Readers Journal.

Jake Lassiter Never Intended to be a Hero…Mission Accomplished

jake lassiter muses about the courtroommage

Excerpt from “FOOL ME TWICE,” available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. A Kindle Unlimited title.

The setup: Before Jake Lassiter is accused of murder, the world weary lawyer is plying his trade in court, defending a con man named Blinky Baroso. We go inside his head:

My name is Jake Lassiter.

I am broad-shouldered and sandy-haired, and my neck is always threatening to pop the top button on my shirt. I have a crooked nose – thanks to a forearm through my facemask – and I look more like a longshoreman than a lawyer.

I am not invited by Ivy League institutions to lecture on the rules of evidence or the fine art of oral advocacy. Downtown lawyers do not flock to the courthouse to see my closing arguments. I was one of the few lawyers in the country not solicited by the television networks to comment on the O. J. Simpson case, even though I am the only one to have missed tackling him—resulting in a touchdown—on a snowy day in Buffalo about a million years ago.

I don’t know the secrets of winning cases, other than playing golf with the judges and contributing cash to their re-election campaigns. I don’t know what goes through jurors’ minds, even when I sidle up to their locked door and listen to the babble through the keyhole.

In short, I am not the world’s greatest trial lawyer. Or even the best in the Miami office building where I hang my shingle, or would, if I knew what a shingle was. I graduated in the top quarter of the bottom third of my law school class…night division. My diploma is fastened by duct tape to the bathroom wall at home. It covers a crack in the plaster above the toilet and forces me to contemplate the sorry state of the justice system a few times each day.

Jake Lassiter in Fool Me Twice
To clear his name in a murder case, Jake Lassiter follows a trail of evidence from Miami to buried treasure in an abandoned silver mine in Aspen, CO.

I went to law school after a few undistinguished years as a bench warming linebacker, earning slightly more than league minimum with the Miami Dolphins. In my first career, including my days as a semi-scholar athlete at Penn State, I had two knee operations, three shoulder separations, a broken nose and ankle, and turf toe so bad my foot was the size and color of an eggplant.

In my second career, I’ve been ridiculed by Armani-suited lawyers, jailed for contempt by ornery judges, and occasionally paid for services rendered.

I never intended to be a hero, and I succeeded.

Jake Lassiter's new adventure
Jake Lassiter tackles the college admissions scandal. (Publication Date: April 20, 2020)

On this humid June morning, I sat at the defense table, gathering my thoughts, then disposing of most of them, while my client continued to whisper unsolicited and irrelevant advice. Meanwhile, I stared at the sign above the judge’s bench: WE WHO LABOR HERE SEEK ONLY THE TRUTH.

Sure, sure, and the check’s in the mail.

Philosophers and poets may be truth seekers. Lawyers only want to win.

I have my own personal code, and you won’t find it in any books. I won’t lie to the judge, bribe a cop, or steal from a client. Other than that, it’s pretty much anything goes. Still, I draw the line on whose colors I’ll wear. I won’t represent child molesters. Yeah, I know, everybody’s entitled to a defense, and the lawyer isn’t there to assert the client’s innocence, just to force the state to meet its burden of proof. Cross-examine, put on your case, and let the chips fall where they may.

Bull!

When I defend someone, I walk in that person’s moccasins, or tasseled loafers, as the case may be. I am not just a hired gun. I lose a piece of myself and take on a piece of the client. That doesn’t mean I represent only innocent defendants. If I did, I would starve.
My first job after law school was in the Public Defender’s office, and my first customers, as I liked to call them, were folks too poor to hire lawyers with a little gray in their hair. I quickly learned that my clients’ poverty didn’t make them noble. I also got an education from my repeat customers, most of whom knew more criminal law than I did. Nearly all were guilty of something, though the state couldn’t necessarily prove it.

Jake Lassiter is a brew and burger guy in a pate and Chardonnay world.

Then I moved up – from the gutter to the curb – and these days, I represent a higher grade of dirtbag. My clients don’t pistol-whip liquor store clerks for a hundred bucks in the till. But they might sell paintings by a clever art student as undiscovered works of Salvador Dali, or ship vials of yogurt as prize bull semen, or hawk land on Machu Picchu as vacation property. All of which Blinky Baroso did, at one time or another. Sometimes twice.

“FOOL ME TWICE” is available in hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and ebook. The Lassiter books are stand-alones that may be enjoyed in any order. They are all Kindle Unlimited titles.

Legal Thrillers and Rough Justice

By Paul Levine

In legal thrillers, rough justice is better than none at all. To explain, let’s start with a quote from my favorite fictional lawyer.

“We eat what we kill. Hey, they don’t call us sharks for our ability to swim.” – Jake Lassiter

It’s been twenty-five years since Jake Lassiter uttered those words in TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, the first of my series of legal thrillers featuring the linebacker-turned-lawyer.

Now, Lassiter defends Steve Solomon, who’s accused of killing a South Beach nightclub owner. To win the case, Lassiter must find a missing bar-girl, battle Russian gangsters, and avoid being indicted himself. Complicating everything: he thinks his client is lying…and he’s falling for the client’s lover, Victoria Lord.

That’s the setup for my legal thriller, BUM RAP, which hit number one in the Kindle Store and lodged me briefly in the top spot of all authors on Amazon, just ahead of a promising fellow scribbler named Stephen King.

paul levine and stephen king
#1 and #2 Bestselling Authors on Amazon, June 6, 2015

UPDATE:Two more novels bring Lassiter together with Solomon & Lord. They’re BUM LUCK and BUM DEAL, and all three are available together as MIAMI LAW.

BUM RAP gives readers a chance to see how Lassiter has developed over the years. In the past, despite all his grumbling about ungrateful clients and lousy judges, he remained an optimist:

“If your cause is just, no case is impossible.” – LAST CHANCE LASSITER

Yet, he rejects the lofty language on the sign in the courtroom: “We Who Labor Here Seek Only the Truth.”

“There ought to be a footnote: subject to the truth being ignored by lying witnesses, concealed by sleazy lawyers, excluded by inept judges, and overlooked by lazy jurors.” – NIGHT VISION

Legal Thrillers: The Games Lawyers Play

He knows the games lawyers play, in and out of court:

“A good lawyer is part con man, part priest…promising riches if you pay the fee, damnation if you don’t.” – STATE vs. LASSITER

He turns down cases, even when he needs the money:

“I could have used the work, but I prefer cases I believe in. Best is to have a client you like, a cause that’s just, and a check that doesn’t bounce. Two out of three and you’re ahead of the game.” – FLESH & BONES

bum rap
BUM RAP is the first novel featuring Jake Lassiter together with squabbling Miami lawyers Steve Solomon & Victoria Lord.

Lassiter looks for loopholes in the Canons of Ethics:

“I won’t lie to a judge, bribe a cop, or sleep with a client’s wife…unless I knew her first.” – MORTAL SIN

That noted writer of legal thrillers, William Shakespeare, famously penned: “What’s past is prologue.” (I consider “The Merchant of Venice” one of the early legal thrillers. Talk about rough justice!)

Lassiter’s view is a little more earthy:

“Our past clings to us like mud on rusty cleats.” – BUM RAP

Against all odds, Lassiter still believes in justice, or at least, his version of it:

“Justice is the North Star, the burning bush, the holy virgin. It cannot be bought, sold, or mass produced. Justice is intangible and invisible, but if you are to spend your life in its pursuit, it is best to believe that it exists. When you fail, fight for the next best thing. Rough justice is better than none at all.”LASSITER

Legal Thrillers: Rough Justice Isn’t Pretty

So just what is rough justice? Pretty much, the ends justify the means. A murderer beats the rap but takes the fall for a crime he didn’t commit. Or vigilante justice or personal retribution. Hey, I didn’t say rough justice was pretty.

This is the key to Lassiter’s character in all eleven of his legal thrillers. He believes in the overriding importance of the quest for justice. He will work outside the law to obtain a just result, or some close approximation. Twenty-five years after starting the quest, he’s still hard at work on the job.

BUM RAP is available in e-book, print, and audio, and all of the Lassiter legal thrillers can be found on Paul Levine’s AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE. Kindle Unlimited members read FREE. Just a few bucks for everyone else. Kindle Unlimited is now available in USA, UK, Canada, Mexico, India, Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, and Japan).

BUM RAP: BAR GIRLS AND MOBSTERS

hard-boiled PI

“The Big Thrill,” the monthly publication of International Thriller Writers, recently grilled author Paul Levine about BUM RAP, his new legal thriller. BUM RAP brings together Jake Lassiter, the linebacker-turned-lawyer, and Steve Solomon & Victoria Lord, squabbling Miami law partners. In a starred review, Booklist calls the novel “an irresistible Florida crime romp.”

Q: Paul, has it really been 25 years since Jake Lassiter burst onto the crime fiction scene with your first novel, “To Speak for the Dead?”

A: Is that a polite way of saying Jake’s old…or that I am?

Q: Only that the Lassiter novels are one of the longest running series in contemporary crime fiction. To what do you attribute their longevity?

A: Maybe because readers grow attached to characters and want to know what becomes of them after the caper ends. In Lassiter’s case, I like to think that his values are timeless.

“I have old habits, old friends and old values. I don’t tweet or blog or order pizza with arugula on top. I don’t have a life coach or an aroma therapist, and I sure as hell don’t do Pilates. I’m so un-hip that I could soon become trendy, like skinny ties and pants that stop at the ankles.” — Jake Lassiter

Q: In BUM RAP, Lassiter defends Steve Solomon, who’s accused of killing a Russian club owner on South Beach. Pretty quickly, Lassiter begins to doubt his client’s story.

A: He always assumes his clients were guilty. It saves time.

Q: Is it true that a real federal case in Miami was the inspiration for the novel?

A: True. Beautiful bar-girls were luring men to joints owned by Russian mobsters. The bar-girls would get the guys drunk and run up thousands of dollars in credit card charges for cheap Champagne, proving once again that men – as a group – have the I.Q. of mollusks.

bum rap
BUM RAP is the first novel featuring Jake Lassiter together with squabbling Miami lawyers Steve Solomon & Victoria Lord.

Q: While defending Solomon, Lassiter falls for Victoria Lord, his client’s law partner and lover. That’s a problem for a lawyer, right?

A: A blatant conflict of interest.

Q: Lassiter’s ethical standards seem somewhat flexible?

“That’s called extortion, Mr. Lassiter.”
“No, it’s not. It’s called lawyering.”

Q: For a trial lawyer, Lassiter seems to get in a lot of fistfights. While snooping around that bar-girl club in BUM RAP, he gets into it with the bouncer. Is this common practice for lawyers in Miami?

A: Buckle your chin strap. In Lassiter’s world, the law is a contact sport.

“I’m not one of those lonely warriors of the courtroom, righting wrongs wherever I find them, blah, blah, blah. I’m just an ex-jock wading through the muck of the so-called justice system. I don’t even mind getting dirty as long as the stains come out.”– Jake Lassiter

Q: How would you describe the theme of the Lassiter novels?

A: True justice is nearly impossible to achieve. But it’s damn sure worth pursuing. And rough justice is better than none at all.

Q: And by “rough justice” you mean…?

A: A murderer beats the rap but takes the fall for a crime he didn’t commit. That’s an oversimplification, but you get the idea. Or it can be vigilante justice or personal retribution.

“In court, mostly I lose. Or plead my guy guilty. It’s a dirty little secret, but that’s the deal with most criminal defense lawyers, even the big names who pontificate on CNN. If the clients knew our real winning percentage, they’d cop a quick plea or flee the jurisdiction.” – Jake Lassiter

Q: What’s next for Paul Levine?

A: Mixing the perfect gin and tonic. Making ice cubes from the tonic water helps.

(BUM RAP is available in trade paperback, e-book, and audio formats. All the “Lassiter” and “Solomon vs. Lord” novels are FREE for Kindle Unlimited members, a few bucks for everybody else. This interview originally appeared in THE BIG THRILL, a publication of the International Thriller Writers organization).

KINDLE UNLIMITED: INFINITE PLEASURE

bum deal books

By Paul Levine

Kindle Unlimited is the ebook reader’s best friend. And it’s great for writers, too.

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service. For $9.99 a month, readers can download up to ten ebooks at a time. Are all titles available? No. But about 1.4 million are.

Kindle Unlimited is expanding. Readers in the U.K., Australia, Germany, France, India, Japan, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico and Canada can now join the subscription service. And of course, you don’t need a Kindle reading device. Your iPhone, iPad, laptop, and many other devices work very well.

In my genre – legal thrillers – seven of the top eleven bestsellers are in the Kindle Unlimited program, including my 2015 novel, BUM RAP.

UPDATE: BUM LUCK (2017) and BUM DEAL(2018) now complete the trilogy. “Is any crime novelist funnier and more serious and more quotable than Levine?” – Mystery Scene review of BUM LUCK. “Any book with Jake Lassiter is a drop-everything, read-it-now for me—and this one has Solomon & Lord too. BUM DEALis fantastic.” – Lee Child, author of the “Jack Reacher” series.

So why would you want to download ten books at a time? I’ll tell you what I do. I sample new genres and find new authors, risk free. Confession: I don’t finish every book I start. But that’s the beauty of a subscription service. The cost stays the same. And the upside: I’ve discovered some terrific new talents.

Kindle Unlimited Scores for Authors, Too

But what about the authors? When Amazon announced the Kindle Unlimited program, I was worried about putting my books into the subscription service. Just how much would authors be paid, and would Kindle Unlimited cut into cash sales? Now in a new formula, authors are paid based on the number of pages read. That’s right. Amazon’s crafty computers know how many pages you read of each book downloaded, how fast you read them, and what you’ve highlighted. Hey, it’s an interconnected world.

I’ve had a run of good fortune with Kindle Unlimited, with more than 30 million pages read in June-July-August (2015), good enough for three months of Amazon “All Star” bonuses and thousands of new readers. Rather than cut into cash sales, Kindle Unlimited boosted them! In fact, for one brief shining moment – June 6, 2015 – I was the number one bestselling author on Amazon Kindle:

Kindle Unlimited authors
Oh, the company I keep with Kindle Unlimited boosting sales!

Also during June, exposure on Kindle Unlimited lifted three of my “Jake Lassiter” novels — BUM RAP, TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, and NIGHT VISION — into the top slots on the legal thriller bestseller list.

Kindle Unlimited sales
Kindle Unlimited Helped Boost Cash Sales, Too.

Analytics for Authors on Kindle Unlimited

Another benefit for authors: the analytics. We can see on an hourly basis which books are being read, right down to the precise page numbers. When I started in this biz in 1990 with TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, my New York publisher sent out royalty statements every six months, based on sales recorded several months before that. The information was obsolete and there were no metrics of any kind. How the publishing world has changed!

In a recent blog post, “Kindle Unlimited Scores a Knockout,” Number one bestselling author Hugh Howey put it this way: “I’m ensuring the best possible reader experience with ebooks…I want greater and greater ebook adoption. I want more and more readers to move to ebooks. It is the artistic medium and the indie medium.”

Amazon makes it easy to join Kindle Unlimited. There’s even a 30-day free trial. Also, you don’t need a Kindle device. Many readers use their phones, tablets or computers. I alternate between a Kindle Fire and my iPad.

So what are you waiting for? The smorgasbord of infinite reading pleasure is here.

Paul Levine