PAUL LEVINE ON SOLOMON AND LORD, LASSITER

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 22:55 Paul Levine jumped on the bandwagon of Florida-based mysteries in the early 1990s when he published To Speak for the Dead, which introduced Jake Lassiter, a former Miami Dolphins linebacker turned hard-nosed lawyer.

Levine also writes the Solomon vs. Lord series about two Florida attorneys who battle each other. The Solomon/Lord novels just came out as ebook editions. Levine also has published the original e-novella Last Chance Lassiter, a prequel to the Jake Lassiter series.

We recently talked with Paul about his work.

What prompted you to write the Solomon/Lord series?
Paul Levine: I’ve always loved sharply written banter between men and women. Also, having been married three times, I know a thing or two about squabbling. I was influenced by Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man and the series of William Powell/Myrna Loy movies that it spawned. Then there was the rat-a-tat bickering between David and Maddie on Moonlighting. And how about Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, which slyly winked at Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.  So all of that—literary and personal—led to “Solomon vs. Lord.”

There are so many legal thrillers out today, how do you think this category of mysteries has changed since you began writing novels?
Paul Levine: Certainly, one thing that has changed is the sheer number of legal thrillers. I blame Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent (1987) and John Grisham’s The Firm (1991) for this. Presumed Innocent, by the way, remains my favorite legal thriller. In film, it would have to be Witness for the Prosecution, adapted from Agatha Christie’s play. The Verdict, adapted by David Mamet from Barry Reed’s novel, gets an honorable mention. Nowadays, every probate lawyer who’s handled a dispute over a will wants to write a book about it.

A Coral Gables blueblood, Victoria plays by the book while Coconut Grove beach bum Steve ignores the rules in favor of Solomon's Laws. In these two characters you capture the culture of South Florida. What makes Florida such a rich area for writers?
Paul Levine: I think it was Carl Hiaasen who said something to the effect that the country seems to have been tilted to the southeast so that all the loose marbles rolled to Florida. This is not a new development. John D. MacDonald was mining corruption and venality in the Sunshine State 50 years ago. The Miami Herald recently did a story about Florida being the home of an unbelievable number of Ponzi schemes. Personally, I blame the humidity.

You now live in LA; how often do you get back to Florida?
Paul Levine: I’m becoming bi-coastal. Hoping to have an apartment in Miami soon.  

In researching your novels, what is the funniest or oddest thing you've come across?
Paul Levine: I traveled to Cuba to research scenes for False Dawn, one of the early Jake Lassiter novels. Whereupon I was surprised to learn I couldn’t speak Spanish. I traveled to the Big Island (Hawaii) to research Slashback (now titled Riptide on Kindle). I flew in a helicopter over the erupting volcano Kilauea because in the book, I wanted to dump a guy from a chopper into the flowing lava. Later, I learned that we were flying way too close to the volcano, and the sulfur fumes could have damaged the engine and brought us down.  

What prompted you to do a prequel to the Lassiter series? How does Last Chance Lassiter enhance your novels?
Paul Levine: Over the years, I’ve had a number of readers suggest prequels. A couple people suggested a story where Jake was still a second-string linebacker with the Miami Dolphins. Or while he was struggling through night law school at the University of Miami. I thought it might be fun to see Jake in his formative stage as a young lawyer. He’s just beginning to develop his own code of conduct, and he’s offended by the notion that the rich and powerful can buy justice. So in his first case as a solo practitioner in Last Chance Lassiter, he represents a down-and-out blues musician against the wealthy hip-hop artist who stole his song. Making the case even juicier, Jake’s opponent is his old boss, the sleazy Lyle Krippendorf. I think the prequel gives us hints of what’s to come for young Jake.