Levine, Paul: Illegal

  Amazon  

Illegal is the first book in a new series by Paul Levine, author of the Jake Lassiter and Solomon vs. Lord books. Readers of the latter series (I haven't read the Lassiter books) will find much familiar in Levine's new protagonist, Jimmy Payne. Like Steve Solomon, Payne is a smart-alecky, low-rent defense attorney who's not above bending the law to get justice for a client. Also like Solomon, Payne is involved with a a woman who's way out of his league. But in this case the woman is Payne's ex-wife, an Amazonian, volleyball-playing police officer, and the laws Payne bends are in California rather than Florida. Illegal is also not as light-hearted a read as Levine's earlier series. Payne is haunted by the tragedy that destroyed his marriage and his happiness. In this outing, however, he has a chance to regain some measure of purpose and self-worth, as he's called upon to help reunite a boy, a Mexican illegal, with his mother, from whom he was separated during the crossing.

Levine tackles some serious issues in Illegal, with its ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter: border patrol and vigilantism, the economics of American agriculture, the abuses of coyotes, drug-trafficking, rape. Levine paints the anti-immigration crowd with a broad brush: his principle guard-the-borders character is depicted as a cartoonish buffoon. The illegals, Tino and his mother, are the heroes of the story, forced by their oppressive circumstances to make the best of bad situations. We are meant to like them, and for the most part we do, but Tino definitely tests the limit of what we'll accept from a "good guy" character, given his stealing and general cockiness and violence. At some point--and I think pulling a 12-gauge shotgun on a policeman is that point--the innocent boy looking for his mommy starts looking like an underage thug.

Though I didn't love Illegal, particularly in its first few pages, the book did grow on me. I'd be happy to see what else is in story for Jimmy Payne when Levine's next installment is released.