My only read of November 2022 that I'm reviewing on this blog is the legal thriller Early Grave by Paul Levine which was sent to me by publicist Wiley Saichek. This is the fourth book I've reviewed from Levine's Lassiter series on this blog. The previous three of these novels were Bum Luck , Bum Deal and Cheater's Game. My reviews of those books can be found at their respective hyperlinks. I decided that I could reveal that Early Grave is the last book in the Lassiter series because this information has already appeared in the description of Early Grave on Goodreads.
It's been two years since I last encountered Levine's protagonist, lawyer Jake Lassiter . Lassiter's health, never very good because of the repeated concussions that he received when he was a professional football player, has declined even more in Early Grave. Yet he has soldiered on. At this phase of his career, he has been prosecuting dishonest or incompetent lawyers.
Lassiter went to a high school football game because his godson, Rod, was on the team. Rod was seriously injured and ended up in the hospital. Lassiter was bothered by the lack of a physician on the field when Rod was injured.
So he filed a lawsuit to temporarily enjoin high school football games until it could be determined that they were safe. The definition of enjoin that I am using in this context is "to prohibit by judicial order" which is a quote from Merriam-Webster.
Regarding attitudes toward lawyers, Jake says "They don't call us sharks for our ability to swim." I've never considered lawyers as a whole predatory. I think that any profession contains predatory individuals, but there are also well-meaning lawyers who may even be idealistic. After all, there are lawyers who do pro-bono work.
If we didn't have lawyers, people would have to defend themselves in court with varying degrees of success. People who don't have the ability to argue well would be at a disadvantage. So would people who couldn't afford to pay legal expenses which are considerable. It seems to me that without lawyers our society would be even more unjust and lacking in equality than it is now.
The opposing lawyer in this case, mentioned that participation in high school football had been declining for the last ten years. I found an article on the National Federation of State High School Associations website about the decline of participation in high school sports in general at NFHS.org. I noted that they said they were working to make high school football as safe as possible by "teaching proper tackling skills".
The poet Langston Hughes and his poem "Let America Be America Again" was brought up in this novel. I wasn't familiar with this poem and did a search for it. I found it here. Though the style isn't what I prefer in poetry, I thought it was thematically significant. I recommend reading it.
The resolution wasn't surprising to me, but I still found it moving. I will give Early Grave four stars on Goodreads.
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