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Mortal Sin:  A Novel
 
 
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Mortal Sin: A Novel [Hardcover]

Paul Levine (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 1994
Miami lawyer Jake Lassiter uncovers a scheme to ruin the Everglades and begins to suspect that an environmentalist's death in a client's wine cellar was no accident. By the author of Night Vision. 35,000 first printing. Author tour.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lawyer Jake Lassiter has a rather flexible set of personal ethics. This fourth appearance (after False Dawn ) opens with him in bed with the wife of a client and under threat of disciplinary action by the Florida Bar Association for actions in an earlier case. In his defense, Jake is in hot water professionally because he betrayed a sleazy client to save another man's life. The woman in his bed, Gina Floria, an old flame who has never been extinguished, is less defensible, especially since it was she who urged her husband to hire Lassiter in the first place. It is not totally clear, then, whether it is guilt or lust that drives Jake to want to try and set things right after he becomes convinced that the negligence charges that he helped Nicky Florio beat should probably have been for homicide. Nicky is a real estate developer with plans to rape land in the Everglades that he has leased from an Indian tribe; the dead man was a hotshot environmentalist who froze to death in an apparent drunken stupor in Florio's refrigerated wine cellar. A gruesome post-trial poker game leaves Jake little doubt about Nicky's violent nature and, shortly, on the lam from bribery and murder charges himself. The narrative thereafter is filled with wild chases, improbable escapes and, finally, the revelation of Florio's real purpose in the Everglades. While there's little here to intrigue new readers, fans of the series may get a kick out of Lassiter's tribulations. Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lawyer Jake Lassiter is defending Florida real estate developer Nicky Florio in a civil suit regarding an environmentalist's death at a poolside party. While Lassiter has doubts that the death was accidental, he also worries about the possible conflict of interest involved in sleeping with his client's wife, Gina. After Lassiter wins the case, he is sucked into the machinations of Florio and Gina and finds himself witness to a beheading, accused of embezzlement and murder, and on the run. Indian rights, animal rights, and slimy politicians and lawyers all surface in this fourth Lassiter novel. Permeated with cynicism and the corruption of South Florida that recall the work of Carl Hiaasen, this thriller races to a smashing climax. Recommended for public libraries.
- Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow & Company; 1st edition (February 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0688127177
  • ISBN-13: 978-0688127176
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PAUL LEVINE worked as a newspaper reporter, a law professor and a trial lawyer before becoming a full-time novelist. Obviously, he cannot hold a job. Paul claims that writing fiction comes naturally: he told whoppers for many years in his legal briefs. His books have been translated into 23 languages, none of which he can read.

He has won the John D. MacDonald fiction award and has been nominated for an Edgar, a Macavity, the International Thriller Writers Award, and the James Thurber Humor Prize.

What's new? Now on Amazon Kindle at $2.99: The 20th Anniversary edition of "To Speak for the Dead," the first of the bestselling Jake Lassiter novels. All author proceeds of the novel are pledged to the Four Diamonds Fund, which supports cancer treatment and research at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

Writing in USA TODAY, Larry King called the Lassiter series, "Mystery writing at its very, very best."

To Speak for the Dead
Night Vision
False Dawn
Mortal Sin
Riptide
Fool Me Twice
Flesh & Bones

A Miami Dolphins linebacker turned hard-nosed lawyer, Lassiter has been described by Booklist as "one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction" and by The Miami Herald as having "a lot more charisma than Perry Mason ever did."

Also now available on Kindle, "Impact," a legal thriller set at the Supreme Court; "Ballistic," in which a homegrown terrorist group takes over a missile silo in Wyoming; and "The Road to Hell," four original short stories.

Paul's other work includes the "Solomon and Lord" series, featuring mismatched Miami lawyers Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord:

Solomon vs. Lord
The Deep Blue Alibi
Kill All the Lawyers
Trial & Error

"Fans of Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry will enjoy this humorous Florida crime romp," Publishers Weekly wrote of "Solomon vs. Lord."

Paul also wrote "Illegal," a thriller set in the world of human trafficking on the Mexican border. His next novel will be "Lassiter," due in hardcover from Bantam in September 2011.

Paul wrote 20 episodes of the TV series JAG, which gave him an opportunity to steer a nuclear submarine and land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, all without endangering national security. He is a graduate of Penn State University where he majored in journalism and the University of Miami Law School where he majored in the swimming pool. He passed the Florida Bar exam in his first try in what he suspects was a computer glitch.

He was a trial lawyer with the mammoth international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he did not even pretend to know all his partners' names. He specialized in "complex litigation," cases so abstruse that even lawyers charging 500 bucks an hour didn't fully understand them. He tried hundreds of cases and handled appeals at every level, including the Supreme Court. Along the way, he filed expense accounts nearly as creative as his legal briefs.

Paul says he enjoys writing more than lawyering because he no longer keeps time sheets and gets to work in his underwear. He lives in the hills of Southern California, which he claims are populated by rattlesnakes and coyotes, and those are just the Hollywood agents.

More info at http:www.paul-levine.com

 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "All Life Is Six To Five Against.", July 24, 2005
By 
J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Mortal Sin (Paperback)
MORTAL SIN is Paul Levine's fourth Jake Lassiter novel. Having learned the lessons about excess represented by FALSE DAWN, Levine has written a superbly crafted and finely focused thriller. MORTAL SIN is well deserving of its John D. MacDonald Award, and certainly lives up to its dedication page to MacDonald and its strong debt to Travis McGee.

Entirely a South Florida story, MORTAL SIN is a tale of corruption, payola and murder with excellent pacing and a completely plausible premise and characters. Levine never lets go of the reins. MORTAL SIN is a fine showcase for his talents as a writer.

Jake Lassiter, the ex-Miami Dolphins linebacker, ex-Public Defender, ex-a lot of things, sets out to defend real estate developer Nicky Florio in a wrongful death suit brought by Melinda Tupton, the widow of crusading environmentalist Peter Tupton who froze to death on the hottest day of the year at Florio's pool party.

Complications arise. Jake is having what lawyers quaintly term a 'meretricious relationship' with Florio's wife Gina, formerly Star Hampton, retired Dolphin Doll and Jake's old live-in girlfriend. And on the last day of trial, Jake uncovers evidence that the 'wrongful death' he has just successfully defended may in fact be murder.

A chance remark to Nicky Florio---and Jake finds himself embroiled in a vast cover-up, running for his life through the dusty courthouses of Miami, the trendy clubs of South Beach, the retirement hotels of North Beach, the golf courses that dot Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and finally, the vast 'River of Grass,' otherwise known as the environmentally sensitive Everglades, targeted and encroached upon by men like Florio.

A single sitting enjoyable read with some laugh-out-loud humor, wistful nostalgia, and respect for the natural world of its setting, MORTAL SIN is one of the best entries in the Jake Lassiter series, and comes very highly recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Mortal Sin but much fun, November 3, 2010
By 
FWS (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
My 4th Paul Levine, 3rd Lassiter. The best read so far. Levine is a great legal/suspense writer and in order to enjoy him don't get caught up in how plausible the story line is but relax, enjoy and go for the ride. Lassiter steps into deep "stuff" early on and spends the rest of the tale trying to dig himself out while continuing to complicate matters. A story full of bad guys; most of the rest are only medium bad. No good guys save for Nanny and Dr. Riggs, Lassiter's muse and mentor. The characters are well drawn, the dialog crisp and often very funny, the story slick and fast with enough twists, turns and escapes to satisfy any mystery/adventure fan. Can't miss with this one.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Carl Hiaasen, Say Hello to John D. MacDonald, October 2, 2011
"Mortal Sin" is dedicated "to the memory of John D. MacDonald whose tough lough for an embattled Florida inspires us still." That's the tipoff that the book is about corruption, public and personal, and the environment. Jake Lassiter, who burst into the crime fiction scene with TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD (The Jake Lassiter Series), is back. This time he's got his own ethical problems. He's sleeping with the wife of a client. A dangerous client who may have killed a quirky environmentalist and might do the same to Jake. The book involves a secret plan to develop the Everglades in a money-making operation that I won't disclose here. It's not oil exploration that some Republican candidates are talking about now). The book is dramatic funny, tense, and touches on profound themes. Shades of MacDonald, as i said, plus some Carl Hiaasen for the humor and the dead-on accurate descriptions of a despoiled Florida. Highly recommended.
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