Review: Kill All The Lawyers: A Solomon vs. Lord Novel
Posted: Wednesday, November 01, 2006
by ngoldman
Norm Goldman
Author: Paul Levine
ISBN: 0440242754
Paul Levine’s third Solomon Lord novel, Kill All the Lawyers, opens with Steve Solomon one early morning discovering on his front steps a three hundred pound blue marlin. He hasn’t the foggiest notion as to who is the jokester, until his lady law partner, Victoria Lord shows up. Lord asks Solomon if he had listened to the morning news where a former client of his, psychiatrist William Kreeger had just been released from prison after serving six years for manslaughter. What was quite noteworthy was that Kreeger, when interviewed upon his release, described his attorney as “Steve-the-Shyster-Solomon."
According to Kreeger, Solomon botched his trial resulting in his incarceration of a crime he claimed he never committed. Solomon is quite concerned as to why Kreeger is now insulting him when he had ample opportunity to bring up malpractice in his appeal, unless, as he muses, he discovered what exactly he did during the trial that was detrimental to his defense. As we subsequently learn, Solomon, who didn’t believe in his client’s innocence, committed the unthinkable by violating his lawyer’s oath of confidentiality and supplying damning evidence to the prosecutor that eventually crippled Kreeger’s defense. When Lord finds out what happened she goes ballistic and although she knew her partner would cut corners to win, breaking the law to lose, was a new one. Solomon fears for his life as he now realizes that Kreeger is aware of what transpired and as he already killed two people, he would think nothing of adding another one to his hit list.
As the narrative progresses, Levine throws us a curve ball when Solomon finds himself on the wrong side of the law and is convicted for assault and battery. The judge orders Solomon to participate in anger management therapy under the auspices of William Kreeger. Solomon can’t believe what he is hearing from the judge and tries to convince him that there is some mistake. He further tells the judge that Kreeger is a convicted felon. However, here again, he is flabbergasted when he learns that Kreeger received commendation from the Corrections Department for his work with violent offenders. Restoring his medical license, the department considered him to be a model of rehabilitation. However, as we later discover, Kreeger has many a dirty secret in his closet. Readers are in for quite a roller coaster ride once Solomon discovers what other crimes Kreeger had committed.
The whole mix of events with its twists and turns is vintage Paul Levine who once again has managed to supply us with a compelling adventure with well-developed and endearing characters. Kill All the Lawyer is a solid follow up to Solomon vs Lord and The Deep Blue Alibi.
The above review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN: Editor of Bookpleasures. Here are more of Norm Goldman's Reviews
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