Customer Reviews

Illegal

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some of the characters start off feeling a bit flat, particularly the expectably spunky and tough-talking Tino, but thankfully they grow into their roles, around much the same time that I started finding the book more dark than depressing. I never really could figure out why on earth Sharon was with her current fiancee, however; Levine never succeeds in making him seem charming enough to counterbalance his total jackassery.

The details of the human trafficking in illegals are fascinating, and definitely bring the book alive. We get to see plenty of sides to the issue under many different circumstances. The author never tries to reduce the issue to some platitude or provide a magical solution. Instead, he allows it to simply act as an incredible backdrop for his story.

Make no mistake--whether you agree that this book is depressing or not, it's definitely dark. There are themes and often scenes of murder, abuse, sexual abuse, rape, attempted rape, attempted pedophilia, and more. Illegal isn't for everyone.

My only other reservation is that some of the details at the end wrap up entirely too neatly. I don't want to give the events away; I'll merely say that there are things that hang over Jimmy's head for most of the novel as dire threats that are swept under the rug with barely an explanation when the time comes to wrap things up, and it broke the ability to suspend disbelief for me.

This is definitely a fascinating thriller, and if you're looking for a peek into the dark world of illegal immigrants and human trafficking then definitely give it a shot. But it does have a few flaws.

ILLEGAL is not a Solomon vs. Lord novel. Paul Levine, creator of the unique attorney duo who fought for justice with almost as much passion as they fought each other (and often hilariously so), has created a new mythos, one closer to his Jake Lassiter series than to Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. His new protagonist is attorney Jimmy "Royal" Payne. While his previous creations made South Florida their home base, Payne is headquartered across the country from them in Los Angeles. The change of locale is accompanied by a darker tone, which is not to say that ILLEGAL finds Levine's well of humor to be dry. Payne uses humor more as a weapon than as a conversational instrument, unlike the characters who populate the author's earlier works. And with good reason.

We come to find out that Payne has experienced a devastating personal tragedy, one that has cost him his family and apparently his judgment. As the book begins, Payne is recruited --- "coerced" may be a better word --- into entrapping a judge in a bribery scheme. He is successful, but, as with many things with which Payne is involved, it backfires badly on him, more so when he is accused of diverting some of the bribery money for himself. The accusation is career-threatening, all the more so because it's true. On the run from the police, Payne crosses paths with a 12-year-old Mexican runaway who is in even more trouble than he is.

Tino Perez and his mother, Marisol, have been forced to flee their native Mexico and use a notorious coyote to negotiate the illegal crossing into the United States. Mother and son become separated along the way, with the result being that Tino suddenly finds himself penniless on the streets of Los Angeles without papers or guidance. His only hope is a business card that his mother slipped him shortly before they lost touch, bearing the address and phone number of a "powerful" attorney: J. Atticus Payne, who had assisted a group of migrant workers in attaining legal status in the U.S. But when Tino ultimately arrives at Payne's place of business, he is disappointed to find a disheveled office and an even more down-at-the-heels Payne. Himself on the run from the police, Payne quickly though inadvertently places Tino in even more jeopardy than he was in previously. Still, Tino notices one quality that his mother had valued above all others: Payne is a man who keeps his promises, and she would describe him as a real valiente.

For reasons of his own, Payne agrees to accompany Tino on a clandestine trip back to Mexico, hoping to retrace Tino's path so they can locate the coyote that disappeared with Marisol and ascertain her whereabouts so that mother and son can be united. Such a task is not easy. Payne and Tino doggedly pursue Marisol's path along a desolate landscape littered with false starts, bad luck and danger at every turn. Marisol, for her part, is being held as a de facto prisoner on a farm that provides the sole income for a small California town and where the word of Sim Rutledge, the owner, is law. Payne and Tino speed toward an uncertain rescue and a deadly, tragic climax where much, but by no means all, is resolved, while more than one innocent life hangs in the balance.

Those familiar with Levine's past work will find that his ever-present penchant for accuracy in the settings of his stories has reached new heights. The varied backdrops of ILLEGAL are more exotic than those featured in his previous novels. For example, Levine could have phoned in a standard border town description in which Payne could have run wild; instead, he takes him down dangerous side streets away from the casual tourists to a bowling alley where bowling is a mere side business. As one reads the book and follows in the footsteps of Marisol, Payne and Tino, the feeling is inescapable that Levine's research wore out more shoe leather than word processing keys. This is true in particular of the slaughterhouse scenes, which will have you at least considering a change in dietary habits. Most significant, however, is his presentation of the problem of illegal immigration. While the illegal immigrants themselves are portrayed in a sympathetic light, Levine does an excellent job of highlighting the issues surrounding them.

The combination of real-world situations, nail-biting suspense and a new character in the Levine mythos make ILLEGAL a title for your must-read list.

If you are looking for a gift for the man in your life, try "Illegal", the intelligent fast-paced action-packed hard boiled novel by Paul Levine.
The story is about Jimmy (Royal) Payne, an ethically-challenged lawyer who finds himself caught in the world of human trafficking. The story takes place in Southern California and Mexico (local setting), brings up the issues of immigration (intellectual), contains great testosterone-packed fights, laugh-out-loud moments (quotable ones) , and sex scenes. (sensitive souls beware: a few graphic scenes and foul language. A great read!

This suspense thriller about the hazardous journey that a woman and her young son make to the U.S. from Mexico is as riveting and suspenseful as it is shocking, to anyone not familiar with illegal immigration issues along the border.

The novel centers around trial lawyer Jimmy Payne, whose life, marriage, and career has spiralled downward after the death of his teenage son Adam in a car accident caused by a drunken worker from Mexico, Manuel Garcia. The accident weighs on Payne's mind as something he could have prevented. He hits bottom low after he keeps some of the bribe money in a sting operation to expose a crooked L.A. judge. The judge, exposed as corrupt, commits suicide, and fellow lawyers start shaking their heads at Payne's folly.

Payne decides to take a new turn in his life. He drives to Mexico to find Garcia, the man who killed his son. In reality, he heads to Mexico to help a precocious and gutsy 12-year-old Mexican boy find his mother, Marisol, who was separated from the boy during their long trip to the U.S.

The boy, Tino, had sought Jimmy out in L.A. as someone famous and sympathetic, someone who had successfully defended several illegal immigrants who had survived a notorious border crossing some time back.

The trip to Mexico to trace the route taken by Marisol reveals the hazards she faced trying to reach the U.S., and the new dangers after she arrived. Called pollos, chickens, by the coyotes - men who sneak the illegals into the U.S. - Marisol and others were at the mercy of ruthless people traffickers, drug smugglers, and people running safe houses for illegals in transit from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American countries.

Marisol's journey leads Payne and Tio to safehouses both in Mexico and in the U.S. and finally to a ranch and farm in the San Joaquin Valley. The book is a thriller with no holds barred. It reads like stark realism and has graphic violence, against men and women, but the book 's harsh reality depicts the journeys as full of danger, despair, and death, even for some who make it across the border.

The novel also shows Payne resolving his personal problems and finding purpose in his life. Well worth reading! I recommend the book for anyone interested in the plight of Mexican nationals seeking to enter the U.S.

Thanks to the author/publisher for an opportunity to review this book.

I have read all Paul Levine's books, starting with the Jake Lassiter series and the the Solomon v. Lord books and this is one of the darkest of his thrillers.

If you are used to Paul Levine's writing in the Solomon v. Lord series, this is going to be a strong dose of medicine for you. Those books are much lighter and more humorous than this book. Steve Solomon believes in cutting corners in his law practice but he's not a bad guy and he's good for some snappy bantering with Victoria Lord. Levine's first books, the Jake Lassiter series, are closer in tone and danger to this one, but Jake Lassiter is such a good guy they don't come close to the personal darkness that inhabits Jimmy Payne, the "hero" of this book. In addition to a very dark and troubled protagonist, the subject matter of the book is depressing in itself -- the fate of illegal immigrants. Jimmy's earlier success had been on behalf of a group of illegal immigrants.

Jimmy Payne is a lawyer in trouble; in the past he has defied the system to get justice for his clients but now his personal life is in shambles and his professional life is going down the drain. He comes into contact with Tino Perez, a 12 year-old boy who has been separated from his mother Marisol after an illegal border crossing from Mexico. Jimmy's ex-wife forces him to help Tino and that takes Jimmy and Tino on a dangerous trip down to Mexico and up to the San Joaquin Valley looking for Marisol.

The descriptions of what happens to Marisol and the others who have crossed the border are some of the darkest and most disturbing passages in the book. No matter your opinion on immigration, this is tough stuff to read. I couldn't put this book down even though it was disturbing. I'm wondering where the author is going to take Jimmy Payne in this new series and hoping it gets a little less dark.

My personal favorite Paul Levine books are in the Jake Lassiter series. Jake is also a lawyer but is a former pro football player and practices in Miami. If you have not read them, I highly recommend starting with To Speak for the Dead and continue with [...] (all of which are shockingly out of print but available on Amazon Marketplace).

The protagonist in this novel has a lot going for him personality wise, and quirk wise. Levine has written an overly detailed, yet interesting enough, novel of the hazards of illegally crossing over the Mexico/USA border. It's hard to say whose side of the immigration war Levine favors, as he attempts to present both sides of the argument. The main female lead has more disasters happen to her in this book than Job did in the bible. Readers skilled in foreshadowing processing will have no trouble figuring out what eventually occurs in this book. This book should have been subtitled, "The Idiots Guide to NOT Sneaking Into the USA."

The biggest problem this book has is that the lead lawyer, J. Atticus Payne, keeps busting heads of opponents who are more heavily armed than he is, younger than he is, and who should never let Payne get anywhere near them to begin with. Once a book is OK on the believability scale. Twice is stretching it. This book has it happen 4-5 times, and that makes the whole realism angle fly out the window.

This was an OK book, but I skimmed a lot of the pages.

Paul Levine's latest thriller is more roller coaster suspense and action than courtroom drama, and I had a blast with the characters and plot. With this novel, Levine just throws his previous playbook out the window, pulls a page from Raymond Chandler's "The Simple Art Of Murder," and plunges his readers through ranks of gunmen, car chases, and crooked cops.

I absolutely fell in love with Jimmy "Royal" Payne as he makes a complete wreck of his life, then struggles to put to rights the life of a twelve-year-old boy that won me over too. When I found out that Payne is the author's new signature character, and that a second book is already in the works, I was a happy reader.

Jimmy is a fantastic character. In this first book, he starts out so close to the bottom that anything he does is going to show as character growth. I kept picturing a young Richard Dreyfuss playing the lead, and I think that's a good fit. Jimmy has been hammered at every turn by life, and in the opening chapters of this book he gets blackmailed into bribing a judge, which results in even harsher circumstances.

Watching Jimmy in action is kind of like seeing a chain reaction car wreck taking place in slow motion. You see it, you know it's coming, and you can't believe the guy can't get out of the way of it. But, miraculously, Jimmy is the kind of guy that racks up a lot of damage and still manages to limp through by sheer force of will, cleverness, and desperation. I'm a sucker for those kinds of characters every time, and it stands to reason that Jimmy's favorite fictional hero is Jim Rockford, of The Rockford Files. Rockford is one of my favorites as well.

After Jimmy puts his life and career in the toilet at the beginning of this novel, things get even more interesting. A 12 year old illegal named Tino comes looking for him after getting separated from his mother during a border crossing. Jimmy's work to get some illegals their paperwork only a short time ago has made him a hero down in Mexico. But after Tino breaks into Jimmy's office and steals money that Jimmy has stolen to get a cop in trouble, neither one of them are exactly enchanted with the other.

However, they need each other to escape from the police. It's this forced symbiosis, this artificial father/son relationship, that takes shape during the course of this novel that is the heart and soul of the story. No matter what they do, they can't escape each other. Especially after Jimmy's ex-wife, whom he's still in love with, forces them to work together to try to find Marisol, Tino's missing mom.

The novel takes a little bit of time setting up all the characters at the beginning. But once the road trip begins, Levine drives the plot full tilt, like an eighteen-wheeler that's just blown the brakeline on a downhill run. I couldn't put the novel down, and I'm betting that any reader who picks it up won't be able to either.

Levine deals with the illegal immigration and employee problems with honesty, and presents both sides. But that's a small part of the entertainment he offers. I never got the impression that this was a politically based book. Levine just uses the California Mexico situation as a great backdrop to the simple father/son redemption story he wants to tell. I can't wait till the second one.

Paul Levine is a former trial attorney and a talented writer. He has written Solomon vs. Lord and a couple of other books that feature lawyers doing unbelievably unethical and illegal things and somehow always coming out on top. These books were well received and featured the kind of characters that you might see on Boston Legal or Ally McBeal. If you like those shows, you'd like his previous books.

I didn't.

I'm glad that he decided to write Illegal which has a little more meat to it. The story centers around a trial lawyer named Jimmy Payne who gets in a little trouble and needs to skip town, but not before 12-year old Tino Perez robs him. Perez is in the country illegally and his mother, Marisol, needs his help. She had disappeared in her attempt to cross into the country.

Faced with the choice of staying and going to jail, or leaving and helping the kid find his mother, it's no contest. The trip takes Payne and his young side-kick Perez from Mexico to the site of Marisol's crossing into the U.S. Along the way, Payne learns first hand the dangers of illegal immigration, human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Levine does a good job of portraying the human suffering of those attempting to get into this country illegally. After Marisol and eighteen men, women and children are packed into a windowless white van, Levine describes some of her trip this way:

Marisol lost all sense of time. Inside the van, the air grew stale and unbearably hot. She felt queasy, forced herself to picture trees, swaying in a breeze. Remembered the Mexicans trapped in the trailer truck the summer before. If she died here, what would become of Tino?

Fight off the fear.

Across from her, an Indio woman struggled to her knees, changed something Marisol did not understand, and keeled over, facedown onto the filthy floor. Her lips frosted with white foam and her body twitched.

Marisol squeezed past two men, lifted the woman's head to help her breathe. Someone banged on the wall separating them from Guillermo, the driver. Someone else shouted in Spanish to stop, a woman is dying, but the van continued on.

A Honduran man tore apart the matting that covered the taillight assembly, then punched through a plastic casing and tore out the light by its cord. The pavement appeared through the hole.

Marisol helped carry the woman to the back. Two men held her face close to the opening, begging her to suck in the fresh air. Her body twitched then stilled, twisted into unnatural angles.

Women screamed. Men prayed. Others averted their faces, as if shamed to see the woman so exposed in death.

This novel will do more than just entertain; it'll make you think. And any book that can do both, ranks high on my list.

Those of us who have followed Levine since the great Jake Lassiter books have wondered what happened to his old "gonzo" since he left Miami and moved to L.A. If you haven't read those books, you don't know where this man came from, so get busy.

The cloying yuppie characters in the dismal "9 Scorpions" seemed to be a portentous sign that Levine had abandoned his old style and was venturing into more commercial territory. The ensuing Solomon vs. Lord books were amusing but were still watered-down Lassiter.

Levine's new novel "Illegal" shows signs of life. The protagonist, Jimmy Payne, is a real Lassiter type. He's somewhat corruptible, with a dismal record as an attorney, but he's a decent guy at heart. In the opening scene, he's bribing a judge--not for personal gain, but because he was blackmailed into it. That sets the stage for a fast-moving story that's full of the twists and turns fans expect from Levine.

The setting here--the California-Mexico border--is brought to life just as Miami and South Florida were brought to life in the Lassiter series. Levine really creates a sense of "place." You have the feeling that Levine is back on track and happy to be there.

Even in the back cover photo, Levine has this smirk on his face that seems to say, "See? I can still write gonzo crime novels."

I recommend this one. It's not quite Jake Lassiter, but it's pretty damn close. Levine still has the gift. I think he always had it, but for whatever reasons, he was temporarily diverted into writing commercial stuff for a while. Probably for the money--Who can blame him?

Another encouraging sign is that he's working on a second Payne book.

Illegal is the first book in a new series by Paul Levine, author of the Jake Lassiter and Solomon vs. Lord books. Readers of the latter series (I haven't read the Lassiter books) will find much familiar in Levine's new protagonist, Jimmy Payne. Like Steve Solomon, Payne is a smart-alecky, low-rent defense attorney who's not above bending the law to get justice for a client. Also like Solomon, Payne is involved with a a woman who's way out of his league. But in this case the woman is Payne's ex-wife, an Amazonian, volleyball-playing police officer, and the laws Payne bends are in California rather than Florida. Illegal is also not as light-hearted a read as Levine's earlier series. Payne is haunted by the tragedy that destroyed his marriage and his happiness. In this outing, however, he has a chance to regain some measure of purpose and self-worth, as he's called upon to help reunite a boy, a Mexican illegal, with his mother, from whom he was separated during the crossing.

Levine tackles some serious issues in Illegal, with its ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter: border patrol and vigilantism, the economics of American agriculture, the abuses of coyotes, drug-trafficking, rape. Levine paints the anti-immigration crowd with a broad brush: his principle guard-the-borders character is depicted as a cartoonish buffoon. The illegals, Tino and his mother, are the heroes of the story, forced by their oppressive circumstances to make the best of bad situations. We are meant to like them, and for the most part we do, but Tino definitely tests the limit of what we'll accept from a "good guy" character, given his stealing and general cockiness and violence. At some point--and I think pulling a 12-gauge shotgun on a policeman is that point--the innocent boy looking for his mommy starts looking like an underage thug.

Though I didn't love Illegal, particularly in its first few pages, the book did grow on me. I'd be happy to see what else is in story for Jimmy Payne when Levine's next installment is released.

-- Debra Hamel