Slashback: A Lassiter Novel (Paperback)

by Paul Levine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This continues Levine's Lassiter series about the linebacker-turned-trial-attorney, now investigating the connections between a multimillion-dollar theft, a drug smuggling ring and a murder.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Series lawyer Jake Lassiter, a former linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, tackles a nasty case involving drugs and professional windsurfers. The publication date coincides with the premiere of Lassiter, NBC's made-for-TV movie based on the series.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380721627
• ISBN-13: 978-0380721627
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #675,761 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #18 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( L ) > Levine, Paul

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ho'oheno Li'a, July 26, 2005

By	J. H. Minde "Can you keep up?" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

SLASHBACK is the fifth published of the so-far seven Jake Lassiter novels. Although author Paul Levine discredits it as "the worst," saying it needed "major surgery" and "died on the table," SLASHBACK is better than its creator wants to admit.

The earliest written of the Lassiter series of books, SLASHBACK is very different stylistically from the other Lassiter novels. Written in the third person (not the usual first person narrative style favored by Levine/Lassiter), the reader sees Jake Lassiter from the outside: A more dour, short-tempered, and professionally competent man than emerges in the rest of the series.

SLASHBACK has most of the faults and foibles of any first novel. It's clear that Levine was not familiar with Jake Lassiter's character when SLASHBACK was begun. The reader might wish that more of the getting-acquainted process had taken place even before paper met platen, but it's obvious that SLASHBACK evolved in the telling.

The unneeded attempt to fit SLASHBACK chronologically into the series as "Lassiter Number Five" leaves some very obvious surgical scars. A simple author's note might have been redemption for a multitude of minor sins.

Also, like most first works, SLASHBACK is rather overwritten and suffers from the cardinal flaw of new writers (one which Levine parodies throughout the series): never to use one word when three will do.

Levine sometimes ignores the story and goes off on lyrical tangents, even quoting the Hawaiian love poem "Ho'oheno Li'a" ("To Cherish Li'a") in full in the original, a forgivable bit of authorial overzealousness.

The story carries itself well despite the distractions. Sam Kazdoy, a Czarist-era Russian-Jewish immigrant who runs an Eisenstein movie house for his contemporaries in Miami Beach, takes up with Violet Belfry, a sometime waitress and sometime hooker, who soon discovers that Kazdoy keeps millions of dollars in bonds in his office.

Levine's affectionate depiction of Kazdoy is an homage to the 'green' East European-Jewish immigrants of an earlier age, only a very few of whom remain today among the inhabitants of now-trendy South Beach. Levine obviously learned his Yiddish at his grandparents' knees, and his---or Kazdoy's---culinary prejudice for "a bagel mit a schmeer" even manages to affect the supposedly gentile Lassiter.

Seeing nothing but dollar signs where before there was a kindly old man, Violet quickly enlists her sometime boyfriend Harry Marlin to break into Kazdoy's office and steal the bonds. But Harry and Violet together couldn't burgle a paper bag, and after going back twice to get it right, are stuck, cluelessly, with the bonds.

Enter Keaka Kealia, World Champion sailboarder from Hawaii, who has come to Miami for a race, and tells the confused pair that he can cash the bonds at "The Great Bahama Bank." Since they have no other options they entrust the bonds to Keaka, who promptly sails off into the sunset with them.

Harry follows Keaka back to Hawaii, and so does Jake, in an attempt to recover the bonds for Kazdoy. Jake soon meets Lila Summers, Keaka's female counterpart and occasional lover. As it turns out, the bonds, like the Hawaiian Islands themselves, are only the visible part of something that goes much deeper.

Despite its' flaws, SLASHBACK is an entertaining light read well worth the time and effort.

3.0 out of 5 stars An average legal thriller..., November 30, 2006

By	DWD "intrepid reviewer" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Slashback (Bookcassette(r) Edition) (Audio Cassette)

...although it is quite short on the legal and long on the thriller.

Attornty Jake Lassiter is on the trail of some missing bonds, stolen from an elderly client who has been duped by his young girlfriend. The search for the bonds leads Lassiter on a wild chase from Miami to the Bahamas and ultimately to Hawaii.

I listened to this as an audiobook and found that it was an okay listen, it was not a great one. The reader, Robert Lawrence did an okay job, but neither he nor the book got me terribly enthused. It's not a bad book, but it sure isn't a great one either.

I give this one a grade of C.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars love hawaiian style, August 26, 2000

By	"donatdeux" (maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slashback: A Jake Lassiter Novel (Hardcover)

vraisemblance takes a beating when jake lassiter resorts to show tunes & psychological tap-dancing to stave off certain death at the hand of an uzi bearing reincarnated hawaiian god.not levine's best, though still entertaining. average.