#12 in the continuing misadventures of former Miami Dolphins suicide squad hitter, aka 'wrong way Lassiter', now a solo (mostly) lawyer in Dade County. Remember the old joke, "what do you call the person who graduated last in med school? Doctor." Jake is sort of the lawyer version. "What do you call the person who finally passed the bar on the 4th try? Counselor."
Jake may talk a big game about justice, but when the gavel strikes, he is all about winning. And he just won. Got Marcus "Thunder" Thurston acquitted of murdering his wife. Thunder is a Florida native, Florida State All-American running back and now with the Dolphins. Rich beyond words. Endorsements out the wazoo. Penthouse apartment, a posse, and half naked bimbos playing beach volleyball in his penthouse. Said this 220 pound package of muscle feared for his life when his wife came at him with a pocketknife. So he 'stood his ground' and his wife is shot five times. Florida's 'stand your ground' law was the meat of Jake's defense of Thunder Thurston. Beat the State's homicide trial attorney Suzie (or was it Sallie?) Strychnine who needed a win to help propel her run for the State's top attorney office.
And right after the verdict was announced, Jake decided that Thunder Thurston has to die.
Early middle age Jake is mellowing a bit. Winning is giving way to 'truth, justice, and redemption.' And no better way to slide into this next stage of his life than to kill his most recent and famous client.
Being solo means the money cycles in like a sine wave. And now he's a bit low on funds. A firm he got fired from about 10yr ago calls and offers his job back along with a cushy assignment to get a summary judgment against an insurance company tossed. Seems this insurance company was balking at paying out after the death of a client. The policy has a clause that a suicide within 12 months of activating the policy leads to no payout. The MMA mom of two kids took a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol at around 9-10pm on the 364th day of the policy and died early the next morning. Pretty clear cut. The 2 kids are S.O.L. Should be an easy win for Jake.
As Jake is reading over the timeline of the client's last year, he starts to see a pattern of behavior that suggests she was acting more erratically with each month. During the discovery process, Jake lets it slip that this MMA brawler was exhibiting all the classic signs of post-concussion syndrome and was probably unable to make the conscious decision to take her own life; her life was slipping away while the tau protein starts to assemble in her brain leading to CTE. With the help of a head injury expert witness, a new strategy forms.
Truth, justice. redemption.
And there is some truth, justice and redemption coming Thunder Thurston's way courtesy of Jake Lassiter.
While there are 12 Jake Lassiter books, this is the 2nd in the Lassiter, Solomon and Lord saga (and 4 Solomon and Lord books). They play the straight man (Solomon)/woman (Lord) to Jake's ever-present sarcasm. As Jake reminds them, he's only there to be close to Lord,but in reality, the three of them are very close and always watching each other's six even when they are facing off against each other in court.
An easy read, the length of which will distract you during a coast-coast flight. A lot of fun. As one reviewer said, 'a cross between Moonlighting and Night Court.' And that's an apt description. Can't imagine anyone looking for a fun escape would be disappointed. Having read a couple Lassiter books, I think I want to track down the first Lassiter book, To Speak for The Dead.
ECD
available March 28, 2017
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