A fast paced read. With a great first line:

"Thirty seconds after the jury announced its verdict, I decided to kill my client."

This story was brilliantly crafted. The main character was quite flawed and realistic. The secondary characters were fleshed out like main characters to add spice to the story. Lassiter truly rocks this story.

http://www.premeditatedfiction.com/book-recommendation-bum-luck/

Imagine a lawyer being upset when his client is found not guilty by a jury. That is the set up to Bum Luck by Paul Levine.

Jake Lassiter is a former football player turned lawyer. He was not very good as an NFL linebacker and seems to be just slightly above average as an attorney.

The story opens with Lassiter finding out his client, star football player Thunder Thurston, is not guilty of murder. The victim was Thurston's wife. Lassiter was sure his client was guilty and had offered up a less than stellar defense. To his surprise, the jury must have bought it.

In the weeks after the trial Lassiter contacts both the District Attorney and the victim's father for help in finding a way to put Thurston behind bars.

The father is furious with Attorney Lassiter for getting Thurston off. He would rather see Lassiter die than help with a vigilante mission against Thurston.

At the same, time the DA can't help because there has been an allegation against Lassiter for jury tampering. Which sends the lawyer on a mission to both clear his name and see his client serve time for his crime.

Overall the novel has a good pace to it. Lassiter has some family and dating issues so while he is working to make sure a murderer does not go scot free he has his home life to juggle.

The book takes a few twists. One of the big ones deals with Lassiter wondering if he has concussive brain injuries suffered during his pro football career. Is it possible Thurston truly was innocent, and a possible brain injury is manifesting an irrational anger?

This was a fun read. As a police officer, I always wondered what lawyers think when they know a client is guilty. Granted this is a work of fiction but the author's bio lists him as a former attorney. Which would make me think some of the guilty feelings Lassiter expresses might parallel some of the more ethical lawyers in the world.

Bum Luck is available in eBook, Paperback, and audio.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting story. I had trouble connecting with the story and the characters until about 75% in. It felt like a back and forth for so many pages. Once I connected with the story, I realized the story was brilliantly crafted. The main character was a bit too flawed for me in the beginning, but I understood why he was that way at the end. The secondary characters were fleshed out like main characters and added flavor to the story. This was my first Jake Lassiter book, but thankfully there are plenty more for me to choose from to add to my TBR.

This was a fast paced read. Plenty of action to hold your attention. Enjoyed it.

Jake Lassiter is a former pro-athlete whose career was less than stellar. He received the nickname "Wrong Way Lassiter" when, in his single scoring play in the NFL, he recovered an errant kick-off and returned it to the opposing team's goal... That pretty well sums up Lassiter's life, always in the mix but rarely on top. Now he's middle-aged ("I'm fifty so... yeah, assuming I live to be 100, I'm middle-aged"), an attorney, and surrounded by eccentric oddballs, misfits and just plain defective people. And it's starting to get to him.

After his most recent client is acquitted of murder charges Lassiter decides that the man was, in fact, guilty. Therefore, he must be killed. As he goes about deciding how best to make this happen he becomes involved in several other cases as both attorney and defendant. Meanwhile his erratic behavior begins to call into question whether he may be suffering from some sort of brain damage as a result of all the concussions he's had over the years.

I found Bum Luck to be fun, engaging, and fairly original. There are a few plot twists and surprises in the story but rather than being of the "Wow - where did that come from?!" variety they fall more into the category of "Okay, sure, that makes sense." It's a good, solid piece of humorous crime fiction.

I've seen some references to Bum Luck as being hard-boiled. In my opinion it falls more into what I call the "soft-boiled" category - harder edged than a cozy but not quite gritty, hard or tough enough to be considered hard-boiled.

A couple of things I want to make special mention of:

Bum Luck is part of an ongoing series featuring Jake Lassiter and company, I haven't read any other books in the series and wasn't even aware that this was part of a series until I had nearly finished the book. It truly is a stand alone story.

While the whole sub-plot involving concussions and pro sports is obviously something the author wants to shine a light on, it rarely devolves into a preaching or agenda over story situation. As a reader I appreciate that.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good crime story with some humor mixed in. I think fans of Donald E. Westlake would especially like it.

There are adult situations, some violence and strong language.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this title

Fast paced and entertaining, this is a well done legal thriller with topical interest. Levine manages to be witty even where many would have us reading dry details. Jake is a terrific character; he knows what his limitations are and he knows what he wants. I've read some but not all of this series and wasn't bothered in the least- you get enough of the back story (but there's not too much to annoy those who have read the all.) Thanks to Netgalley for the ArC. This is a genuinely good read.

Fairly standard mystery with a detective that is almost an old trope. Ex sports player, now big old mess with women falling all over him. This book is a bit more nuanced, but not by much. That makes it a quick entertaining read and worth a couple hours of your time. But, doesn't stand out from the crowd.

Combining the characters from his two highly recommended series (Jake Lassiter with Solomon & Lord), Paul Levine creates an engaging, fast-paced, quick witted legal thriller. Highly recommended as are all the books in both series.

Is Jake Lassiter really going to kill his client? Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are concerned enough to keep an eye on Jake. Paul Levine's writing never gets old and as a matter of fact, since his two series characters have teamed up, this writing is sharper than ever. I'll be interviewing Paul tonight on my radio show. Thanks for letting me read this.

BUM LUCK
Paul Levine
Thomas & Mercer
ISBN 978-1477823107
Trade Paperback
Thriller

BUM LUCK has something for everyone. Comedy? There are several laugh-out-loud moment. Romance? Indeed, and it’s not even improbable. Thriller? Yes, indeed. BUM LUCK nudges into the crime genre and and also into legal thriller territory, as well (more on that in a moment). Author Paul Levine additionally injects a legitimate mystery (make that two mysteries, or maybe even three) into the proceedings and you have a one-sit, must-read novel full of memorable characters and unforgettable vignettes, well worth your time and retainer.

Levine is one of those rare veteran authors who, well into his third decade of writing, continues to exceed his own self-imposed standards. BUM LUCK once again unites Jake Lassiter, Levine’s somewhat unorthodox trial attorney, with the partnership (both on and off of the bench, heh heh) of (Steve) Solomon and (Victoria) Lord. Their relationship is complicated, to say the least. Solomon and Lord are engaged, while Lassiter is deeply attracted to Lord, a situation of which both Solomon and Lord are aware. This makes for a somewhat prickly relationship between Lassiter and Solomon, complicated by the factor that their personalities and legal practice styles are so much alike. BUM LUCK, however, begins with Lassiter on his own, just after a trial in which he successful represents his client, a football star of great renown who had been charged with murdering his wife. Lassiter isn’t proud of his actions; he in fact has to restrain himself, more than once, from killing his client. Impulse control and anger management are the least of Lassiter’s problems, however. He barely has time to bask in the blush of victory, however, pale it may be, when he learns that the District Attorney’s office has convened a grand jury in an attempt to have him charged with jury tampering. Making matters worse is that Lassiter, who is of counsel to a large legal firm in Miami, is tasked with defending an insurance company against a large policy claim. None other than the team of Solomon and Lord is representing the deceased policyholder’s beneficiary. Lassiter, for his part, is well aware that his client is in the wrong, yet under the canon of ethics is required to represent it zealously. This would all be more than enough for someone to reasonably deal with, but Lassiter has also noticed that he is having some physical difficulties as well, ones which may well be related to his prior football career. That career has served him well both in the past and now --- no one is better than Lassiter at broken field running in the courtroom --- but it is possible that he has run out of yardage this time. It will take all of Lassiter’s wit and skills --- and that of Solomon, Lord, and a newly introduced character to the Lassiter canon --- to get him out of all of these situations. If they can.

BUM LUCK makes for fascinating reading from beginning to end, particularly for defense attorneys who will see many elements of Lassiter’s personalities in themselves as well as their colleagues. Lay readers will find much to love as well, including the confirmation that everything that they had heard about attorneys is true, to an extent. Everyone, however, will enjoy Levine’s style in BUM LUCK. Levine’s pacing is perfect, as always. The pages just fly by, even as Levine juggles multiple plots, including Lassiter’s personal life, with his own unique aplomb. Put BUM LUCK at the top of your list for the spring. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2017, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

I loved this book, I really like this series.
it has lots of humor and wonderful characters and very good mystery

A legal thriller filled with sharp wit and dry humor; the perfect read to lighten your spirits and capture your attention.

#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

Another great book by Paul Levine! Jake Lassiter`s internal struggle between ethics and morality as the story progressed made for an interesting read. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book.

Courtney

I was a big fan of Paul Levine’s Solomon vs. Lord series, which featured a pair of South Florida lawyers who were constantly at each other’s throats—that is, when they weren’t jumping into bed. The mismatched couple starred in a handful of books, but it had been so long since the last one came out (2007’s Habeas Porpoise) that I figured Levine had retired them.

Well, Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are back, though they play a supporting role in Bum Luck, which primarily features another one of his series characters, Jake Lassiter. Like Solomon & Lord, Lassiter is an attorney (Levine himself was a lawyer before turning to fiction). A self-described “brew and burger guy in a pâté and chardonnay world,” Lassiter had a less-than-illustrious career playing for the Miami Dolphins a couple decades back. His latest client is also a Dolphin: the former benchwarmer is defending a current superstar. And thanks to Jake’s work on his behalf, “Thunder” Thurston was acquitted of murdering his wife. There’s just one problem—Jake is convinced Thurston was guilty, and after the acquittal, he finds himself wanting to wreak vengeance: “Thirty seconds after the jury announced its verdict, I decided to kill my client.”

The dead woman’s father, Clyde Garner, is out for revenge as well, threatening both attorney and client: “You know what you are, Lassiter? Dead lawyer walking.”

Another case, which pits Jake against his pals Solomon and Lord, brings up CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a degenerative disease that often strikes football players and others who have suffered repeated blows to the head. Learning more about CTE makes Jake realize that his frequent headaches and occasional memory lapses may be related to the condition. The book takes a poignant turn as Jake reluctantly decides to undergo testing and find out if his football career may have caused lasting damage.

Bum Luck has a few touches of South Florida wackiness that will resonate with fans of Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey (Jake’s granny’s home cooking involves a heaping helping of iguana), but it’s not quite as outrageously over-the-top, which is fine with me. Even though I was meeting Jake for the first time, I found myself rooting for him, even when he made some morally questionable decisions. And I was pleased to find that his previous adventure, Bum Rap, also features Solomon and Lord; that book, along with almost the whole Levine backlist, is available free of charge to Amazon Prime members. I’ve already downloaded Bum Rap, and am looking forward to catching up with Lassiter’s earlier cases.

"These days more than ever, I feel like a brew and burger guy in a pâté and chardonnay world.”

Jake Lassiter is an ex-linebacker for the Miami Dolphins and is now a Miami defense attorney. He just won a murder case for his client, a football player accused of killing his wife, and has instant regrets on winning the case. So many regrets, in fact, that he wants to kill his client himself - seriously.

This was a fun book to read. I enjoyed Jake's character a lot and also his best friends, Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, also attorneys. There's lots of great dialogue scattered throughout the story and there's also a serious issue discussed in some depth - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that particularly afflicts athletes who have suffered multiple concussions.

There were a few different storylines in the book, from court cases to bribing jurors to a bit of romance here and there plus more.

I enjoyed the story and will keep my eyes open for future books in the series.

I received this book from Thomas & Mercer through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Very good start and excellent story. Jake is back defending people who may or may not be innocent. Soloman and Victoria are back to help. What I really like about his books are they always involve a sports figure but the story is not "sports" related. Jake my seem like a shark of a lawyer but he really fights for the underdog who usually ends up being his client.

A flawless book. It hooked me from the 1st page. (5) stars.