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Trial & Error (Solomon vs. Lord, Book 4) Mass Market Paperback – May 29, 2007

by Paul Levine (Author)

4.3 18 ratings

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When Steve Solomon is awakened from a sound sleep beside his lover and law partner, Victoria Lord, the last thing he expects is to find himself in a high-speed chase against dolphin-kidnapping ecoterrorists on Jet Skis. But that is what you get when your nephew hangs out at water parks and speaks cetacean–a.k.a. dolphin. By morning, a person is dead and Steve has a new client: none other than one of the animal liberators. There’s just one loophole: Victoria is on the case too—on the opposite side.

No wonder Larry King says that this is “mystery writing at its very best” and Dave Barry says Paul Levine writes a terrific courtroom drama that’s also funny as hell!”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fourth Solomon vs. Lord novel finds the two romantically entwined attorneys-at-law unwittingly taking opposing sides of an ecoterrorism case. After heroically thwarting the theft of two prized dolphins from a wildlife park, Steve Solomon finds himself representing the very environmentalist radical he helped apprehend, a clueless idealist who, due to a legal technicality, is likely to be convicted of murder. Meanwhile, Steve's long-term girlfriend, Victoria Lord, has been tapped by the state's attorney to spearhead the prosecution. While the two lovers exchange characteristically incisive banter over their case and their relationship, Solomon's autistic adopted son, Bobby, provides insight that may crack the case wide open—only to reveal a seriously dangerous conspiracy. The book shines throughout the legal melodrama, treating over-the-top courtroom antics with enough legalese to keep the proceedings from tipping into suspense-killing absurdity. There are some rough patches—Bobby's thoughts on his struggling social life are distracting (and unnaturally wholesome), and the closing chapters discard witty courthouse repartee for contrived B-movie action fare—but no more than series fans have come to expect. This quick and tightly crafted caper has enough cheeseball humor, endearing wit and memorable characters to make it a fine rainy-day read. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Paul Levine is a former trial lawyer and the award-winning author of the Solomon vs. Lord legal thrillers. He has also written for the CBS television program, JAG. Levine lives in Los Angeles, where he is working on his next Jimmy Payne thriller.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Runing Tall

Just after two a.m., Steve Solomon sprinted along the seawall, chasing the man on the Jet Ski. Black wet suit. Black helmet. Dark visor. A Darth Vader look.

The man shot Steve the bird, then shoved the throttle wide open. The Jet Ski jolted airborne, splashed down, and roared along the channel toward Biscayne Bay.

"Stop him, Uncle Steve!"

Bobby, urging him on. Steve had ordered his twelve-year-old nephew to stay on the dock, but the boy was running, too, trailing behind.

"You can catch him!"

Sure, kiddo. Leave it to me to capture the bad guy, rescue the dolphins, save the world.

A quarter-moon hung like a scythe over the Bay. Cetacean Park should have been quiet. The channel should have rippled placidly in the moist breeze, the air scented with salt and seaweed. Instead, the Jet Ski growled like an angry beast, belching greasy vapors in its wake.

Steve picked up his pace. Years earlier, he had been the fastest Jewish kid on Pine Tree Drive, admittedly a group with more shleppers than sprinters.

He figured there was one chance to catch the man. The channel ran straight for three hundred yards, then dog-legged right for another two hundred yards before reaching open water. He could cut diagonally across an empty field, the shortest leg of the triangle, and intercept the Jet Ski at the inlet to the Bay.

Steve looked back over his shoulder. Bobby had stopped along the seawall, either because he was pooped or because he was belatedly following his uncle's orders.

Steve ran tall, back straight, shoulders relaxed, head still. He had always been fast over short distances. Stealing bases at U of M, a painless ninety-foot sprint. But lousy at distance running. No patience for the training, no tolerance for the pain. Before Victoria, his live-in girlfriend, he'd been a sprinter in his personal life, too. Hundred-yard dashes, hundred-hour relationships.

Flying now, feet barely touching the ground. Hopped over a fallen pond frond, never breaking stride. Shot a look at the Jet Skier, the dive knife sheathed at his ankle. Calculated time and distance. And possible injuries.

Knife wound, concussion, drowning.

They would reach the intersection of channel and Bay simultaneously.

Steve hit the embankment and drove off his back foot. He launched into space, arms spread like wings, soaring toward the man on the Jet Ski, thinking . . .

Just what the hell am I doing?

Chapter Two

From Bedroom to Bay

One hour before leaping into the darkness of Biscayne Bay, Steve was locked in the spooning position with his girlfriend and law partner, Victoria Lord, her hair tickling his nose, her sweet scent fueling his dreams. The phone jarred him awake. Wade Grisby at Cetacean Park.

Victoria stirred as Steve pulled on his Hurricanes running shorts and a T-shirt with the slogan: "What If the Hokey Pokey Is What It's All About?"

"Bobby," Steve whispered. Explanation enough.

She rolled over, her blond hair splayed across the pillow. "Dolphins or stars?"

Steve understood the shorthand. Bobby had broken into the planetarium the night of a meteor shower. Lately, the kid had been sneaking out of the house to play with the dolphins on Key Biscayne.

He stroked Victoria's cheek. "Dolphins. Wade Grisby caught him talking to Spunky and Misty."

Talking and listening. Bobby believed he could understand dolphinese, as he called it. The boy was even writing a dictionary of the clicks, whistles, and moans that came from their blowholes.

Victoria propped up on one elbow. In her sheer black negligee, with her sleepy eyes, she looked like a star in one of the old black-and-white movies. Lauren Bacall, about to entice her man back to bed.

"Steve, I just can't get enough of you."

Instead, Victoria said, "Steve, maybe it's time Bobby saw a therapist."

"I'll talk to him. He'll be okay."

Steve leaned over and kissed her, Victoria exhaling a warm breath. Asleep before he was out the door.

Every day another drama, Steve thought, driving across the Rickenbacker Causeway. Getting Bobby out of another jam. This didn't sound as serious as climbing on a catwalk over I-95 to spray paint an exit sign. Bobby had removed the apostrophe from the word "Beaches' " because the typographical error drove him nuts. The kid was sweet and loveable, and in some mysterious way, a genius. But he wasn't socially developed, and lately he'd been acting out.

Breaking curfew. Trespassing. Keeping secrets.

Steve had asked Bobby if everything was okay, if he was having problems, if he wanted to talk about anything.

"Yep."

"Nope."

"Huh?"

Typical adolescent. But unusual for a kid who was ordinarily so verbal. Steve wondered if Bobby's central nervous system disorders were in play. A little klutzy, a lot brainy. The kid seesawed between semi-autistic behavior and savantlike abilities of memory and language feats. "Paradoxical functional facilitation," the doctors called it. Bobby could create anagrams in his head. But lately, his wordplay had been limited to chirping sounds at the breakfast table. Dolphinese.

Steve pulled his Mustang convertible into the empty lot at the bayside attraction. Signs pointed toward the bottlenose dolphin channel, the killer whale tank, the indoor aquarium.

Steve hustled toward the channel. Wondering if he'd been too lax with Bobby, too reluctant to discipline him. Grounding his nephew didn't seem to work. The kid just crawled out his bedroom window and took off.

Steve followed a path of palm trees to the channel. Spotlights on metal poles illuminated the dark water. He figured Grisby would be in his small dockside office, lecturing Bobby on the dangers of breaking into other people's businesses.

That's when Steve heard the roar of the engine. Spotted Darth Vader. Totally surreal.

The Jet Ski carved a turn, kicked up spray, and slowed near the dock. The rider glared at Steve. Early twenties with a pugnacious jaw and cruel mouth. Raising a fist above his head, he shouted, "Liberation!"

What the hell's going on? Where's Grisby? Where's Bobby?

"Bobby!"

Steve heard sneakered footsteps on the concrete dock, his nephew running toward him, all flying elbows and knees, a skinny arm pointing at the masked man on the Jet Ski. "He's stealing Spunky and Misty!"

The man cruised close to the seawall and bared his teeth. "Freedom for the animals!"

So that's it. The guy's a dolphin-kidnapping, animal-libbing, eco-terrorist asshole.

Steve was all for animal rights. But not burning down labs. Or bombing research centers. Or terrorizing scientists. If a few rats had to die to find a cure for cancer--well, it was a trade-off that made sense.

The man gave Steve the finger, gunned the Jet Ski, and headed out the channel toward the Bay.

"Stop him, Uncle Steve!"

Chapter Three

Call Me Fishmeal

One hour before Bobby Solomon begged his uncle to stop Darth Vader from stealing the two dolphins, the boy had climbed a chain-link fence, sneaked across a concrete dock, and crept over a catwalk to a floating wooden platform.

Praying he wouldn't be caught.

Uncle Steve would be so pissed. But Bobby had decided to take the risk.

I need to talk to Misty and Spunky.

His best friends.

Waiting for their signal, Bobby sprawled on his back. He let his eyes grow accustomed to the dark. In a moment, he spotted the constellation Sagittarius in the clear night sky.

A splash, then a rapid-fire click-creak-click. A second splash and a familiar high-pitched whistle.

Misty and Spunky saying hello.

They were the stars at Cetacean Park. Spunky was the color of a blue-steel revolver, with a long beak and a gray belly. His fluke--the wing-shaped paddle at the end of his tail--was oversize, powering his giant leaps. He weighed about 250 pounds, depending on how much mackerel he'd had for breakfast. Misty, his girlfriend, had a sleek, silvery-blue body with a pink belly. She loved to be rubbed at the base of her dorsal fin.

Bobby put two fingers to his lips and whistled. Two short blasts. "Hi guys."

Spunky slapped the water with a fin, splashing Bobby. The Spunkster joking around.

No tanks to confine them, the two dolphins lived in a channel that ran to Biscayne Bay, a steel gate blocking their path to open water. Bobby swam with the dolphins, fed them, played with them. Even watched them have sex, belly-to-belly.

Not an everyday sighting. Not like seeing Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton do the big nasty on video.
Pennants strung across the channel crackled in the sea breeze. The park had been closed for hours, but sugary songs about a thousand years old still poured from the speakers. Barbra Streisand was ordering someone not to rain on her parade. Barbra Streisand. SAD BREAST BRAIN.

So easy. You just picture the letters, and they fly around and anagrammatize themselves. Bobby thought in pictures and sounds, just like the dolphins. He could remember almost everything he'd ever seen or heard.

For the past year, he'd been listening to the sounds coming from Spunky's and Misty's blowholes, trying to untangle their language. Building a dictionary of dolphin talk. The clicks and squeaks, moans and whistles all meant something, but you had to be patient. You had to really listen and remember the patterns. Tonight, he hoped to add a few new phrases to his notebook. Then he'd bicycle home, sneak back into the house without waking Uncle Steve and Victoria, and catch some z's before school.

Earlier tonight, he'd told Victoria a big fat fib. More than one, really. She'd been cooking meat loaf, filled with onions and dripping with Worcestershire an...

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam (May 29, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 267 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0440242762
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0440242765
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.27 x 0.82 x 6.87 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,853,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #125,650 in American Literature (Books)
- #184,843 in Mysteries (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 18 ratings

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Paul Levine

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Paul Levine is the Amazon Number One Bestselling Author of the "Jake Lassiter" and "Solomon vs. Lord" series.

NEW: EARLY GRAVE launches to widespread acclaim. "Levine scores with this complex and witty legal thriller. This winner works even for those new to the series." - Publishers Weekly (★starred review★)

"An extraordinary hero stars in a legal tale as believable as it is riveting...an unforgettable closing scene." - Kirkus Reviews

Here's the setup: When his godson suffers a catastrophic injury in a high school football game, lawyer Jake Lassiter sues to abolish the sport and becomes Public Enemy Number One. The former NFL linebacker also battles CTE, the fatal brain disease. With his personal life in tatters, he's in couple's therapy with fiancée Dr. Melissa Gold and vows to live long enough to fix his relationship and achieve justice for his godson. As with all of the author's novels, EARLY GRAVE is a Kindle Unlimited title.

Next, consider CHEATER'S GAME: "One of the best legal thrillers of the year." - Best Thrillers.com

Here's the setup: Jake Lassiter tackles the college admissions scandal, and somebody is going to take a hit. Suffering brain damage from his days as a football player, Lassiter says goodbye to the courtroom...until his nephew Kip desperately needs his help. Kip has been working with millionaire Max Ringle in a shady scheme to help rich, entitled kids gain admission to elite universities. The mastermind of the fraud, Ringle cops a plea to save his own hide and shifts the blame to Kip who’s charged with multiple federal crimes. Dr. Melissa Gold, a famed neurologist, supervises experimental treatments intended to keep the ailing lawyer strong enough for a grueling trial. As a fiery showdown looms with Ringle, Lassiter risks everything – including his own life – to keep his nephew out of prison.

BUM DEAL, BUM LUCK, AND BUM RAP WOW READERS AND CRITICS

In BUM DEAL, Lassiter switches sides and prosecutes a surgeon accused of killing his wife. It's an impossible case with no forensic evidence, no witness, and no body. Even worse: Lassiter's symptoms of C.T.E., the fatal brain disease from his football days, are growing more severe. Upon publication, BUM DEAL soared to Number One on Amazon's "legal thriller" bestseller list.

"A drop-everything, read-it-now book for me - and this one has Solomon & Lord too. BUM DEAL is fantastic.” – Lee Child, #1 Bestselling Author of the “Jack Reacher” series

“BUM DEAL is the real deal. Jake Lassiter at his smart-talking, fast-thinking best. A funny, compelling and canny courtroom thriller.” — Scott Turow, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Fascinating, fully developed characters and smart, well-paced dialogue keep the pages turning. Levine manipulates the expectations of the reader as skillfully as Jake manipulates the expectations of the jury” — Publishers Weekly (★starred review★)

Thirteen of Levine's novels have hit Number One bestseller status on Amazon in their genres, and in June 2015, he was the Number One bestselling author on Amazon Kindle.

Now available in paperback, ebook and audio: BUM LUCK. Here's what Oline H. Cogdill in the Sun-Sentinel had to say: "Paul Levine continues his trademark brisk pacing with timely storytelling and well-placed humor. Lassiter, Solomon and Lord make an unstoppable team — concerned about the law but even more about people."

And this, from Bookreporter: "BUM LUCK is a one-sit, must-read novel full of memorable characters and unforgettable vignettes Put BUM LUCK at the top of your spring reading list.”

Levine is best known for two series of legal thrillers: "Jake Lassiter" and "Solomon vs. Lord." The international bestseller BUM RAP brings together the protagonists of both series in an explosive murder case set on glitzy South Beach.

BUM RAP was a Number One bestseller out of six million books in the Amazon Kindle Store. The setup: Lassiter has had it with sleazy clients, shifty prosecutors, and a legal system out of whack. He's about to hang up his shingle when Victoria Lord calls. Solomon has been arrested for murder. What's worse: the only person who can clear him has disappeared. Now it's up to Lassiter and Lord to track down the witness--a stunning Bar girl--before she's roped in by the feds...or eliminated by the Russian mob.

"The pages fly by and the laughs keep coming in this irresistible South Florida crime romp. A delicious mix of thriller and comic crime caper." - Booklist (★starred review★)

Levine's first novel, TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, introduced the world to Jake Lassiter, an NFL linebacker turned hard-nosed lawyer. Lassiter has been described by Booklist as "one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction."

Levine's other series features squabbling lawyers - and lovers - Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, who duel in and out of court. The Chicago Sun-Times praised "Solomon vs. Lord" as "remarkably fresh and original with characters you can't help loving and sparkling dialogue that echoes the Hepburn-Tracy screwball comedies. A hilarious, touching and entertaining twist on the legal thriller."

Levine has won the John D. MacDonald fiction award and has been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Macavity, the International Thriller Writers Award, the Shamus Award, and the James Thurber Humor Prize. A graduate of Penn State and the University of Miami School of Law, he was a trial lawyer before becoming a full-time novelist. He divides his time between Santa Barbara, CA and Miami, FL.

The "Jake Lassiter" books in order of publication:

To Speak for the Dead

Night Vision

False Dawn

Mortal Sin

Riptide (previously titled Slashback)

Fool Me Twice

Flesh & Bones

Lassiter

Last Chance Lassiter

State vs. Lassiter

Bum Rap

Bum Luck

Bum Deal

Cheater's Game

The "Solomon vs. Lord" series:

Solomon vs. Lord

The Deep Blue Alibi

Kill All the Lawyers

Habeas Porpoise

Stand-Alone Thrillers:

Impact

Paydirt

Ballistic

Illegal

Boxed Sets:

Shattered Justice

3 Deadly Sins

Miami Law

Short Story Collections:

The Road to Hell (free on Amazon)

OTHER ENDEAVORS: Paul wrote 20 episodes of the TV series "JAG" and co-created the Supreme Court drama "First Monday," both on CBS.

More info at www.paul-levine.com

Follow Paul @Jake_Lassiter

Visit Paul's updated Facebook Author Page for the latest news: https://www.facebook.com/PaulLevineAuthorPage

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Candagallo

VERY SATISFYING

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2007

Verified Purchase

In many ways, this is Paul Levine's best entry in the Solomon vs. Lord series. In the past, the author seemed to concentrate most of his attention and best lines on the main character, the outragous Steve Solomon, the highly unorthodox, wise-cracking, "do anything to upset your opponent to win a case", defense attorney. Solomon is just as wild in his antics in "Trial and Error", but Levine has delved deeper into the character of his live-in-lover and law partner, Victoria Lord. She is usually the by-the-book, well-prepared, logical attorney who is constantly exasperated by Steve's unorganized, play-the-hunch approach to solving a problem, and spends most of her time unsuccessfully trying to get him to play by the rules.

But in "Trial and Error", Levine masterfully engineers a plot where Solomon and Lord end up facing each other in court. The result is that Victoria Lord uses a little of what Steve Solomon taught her, along with her own methods, to parry Steve at every turn.

It's great fun to see the sparks between them, and the evenly matched repartee and court proceedings.

Levine also deepened the stakes emotionally by making his autistic, savant nephew, who lives with him and Victoria, part of the plot. Bobbby's ability to figure out the language of dolphins and communicate with them puts him in danger when the two dolphins he has started a friendship with get kidnapped from a local "Sea World-like" facility. Without giving away the plot, Bobby endangers his own life when he tries to do something to save the dolphins, behind Victoria's and Steve's back.

It forces Victoria and Steve, who have strong parental feelings for the boy, to work together to save him, while still being combative in their court case.

It's very rich and rewarding writing. I can only hope that we will see more of Solomon and Lord. If this book is any indication, they haev some wonderful adventures ahead - for them and us.

3 people found this helpful

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Cylb

Solomon and Lord are Back

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2007

Verified Purchase

Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are back and on different sides of the courtroom. They are at odds on a high profile court case and Victoria has been chosen to prosecute and Steve to defend. It's fun how these two have to try and maintain their relationship while trying not to kill each other in the courtroom. I love these books - the stories are great and the characters are fun!

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2008

Verified Purchase

After writing a set of fun books featuring lawyer Jake Lassiter, Paul Levine seemed to disappear for years; finally, a couple years back, he returned with his Solomon vs. Lord books, featuring Steve Solomon (in many ways, a slightly more responsible version of Lassiter) and his lover/law partner Victoria Lord. Trial & Error is the fourth novel in this series and it is as good as the others.

In this novel, Solomon gets involved with stopping animal liberator Gerald Nash out to free a couple dolphins from a water park. It'd be a minor crime except one of the Nash's partners was killed and now Nash is charged with murder. Despite his involvement with the initial arrest, Solomon winds up being Nash's lawyer.

Unfortunately, Nash is related to the State Attorney, so an independent prosecutor is required, and ex-prosecutor Lord is recruited. Neither Solomon nor Lord will back off, so the two lovers are pitted against each other in court. Solomon's aggressive, bend-the-rules approach to trials is completely different from Lord's intelligent by-the-book methods. (In fact, their first contest against each other, in the book Solomon vs. Lord, wound up completely flattening her.)

Though they share the billing, it is clear that Solomon is the central character of these books. As with the earlier books, the formula is essentially the same: two polar-opposite personalities fight over their approaches to a crime until they work together to bring about a solution. It is Levine's strength that he can make this formula repeatedly work, though he will eventually need to develop things further to keep things from getting stale. In Trial & Error, however, things remain fresh and this is an entertaining addition to the series.

2 people found this helpful

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Hartley M. Lubin

great mystery series

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2018

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real funny murder/mystery series. main characters are real enjoyable to follow.

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Susan P.

reprinting of same story published by bantom called trial & error

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019

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either, I received a scam book wrapped in the wrong cover, or bantam nittany valley productions inc. have put out the same book under different titles & covers!
beware

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

Like this couple. Funny but with nice trials too.

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2015