I found much to like in Paul Levine’s light legal thriller, Solomon vs. Lord, first in a series. I also found elements that creeped me out. I’ll give you my reaction; judge for yourself.

Like most male readers, I don’t actually hate romance in a story. I just don’t care for stories that are only romance. I want some swords or some guns, or stuff getting blown up. If you’re going to have romance, the best kind is the Benedick and Beatrice sort (as in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”), where the man and the woman fight like a dog and a cat, and everyone but they can see that it’s because they have unusual sexual chemistry.

That’s what we have in Solomon vs. Lord. Steve Solomon is a talented, not-overly-ethical Miami lawyer, who at the beginning is defending a man charged with importing exotic animals illegally. Arguing for the prosecution is Victoria Lord, scion of a wealthy family that’s fallen on hard times. Her life plan calls for her to pay her dues in the DA’s office, then get a job with a respectable law firm. She’s also going to marry Bruce Bigby, a handsome and wealthy avocado grower and real estate tycoon.

Before long Steve has provoked Victoria to the point that they both end up jailed for contempt, which causes the DA to fire her. Then they learn that Katrina Barksdale, the trophy wife of a millionaire whom Victoria knows through her social circle, has been accused of strangling her husband in a kinky sex game. Victoria moves quickly to acquire her as a client, in order to set herself up in private practice. But she finds that Steve has gotten there ahead of her, passing himself off as her partner. Not only that, he manages to maneuver Victoria into accepting just that situation.

Soon they begin to realize that they complement each other perfectly. He has the low cunning and chutzpah she lacks, while she has the solid scholarship and integrity he could very much use.

In an interesting parallel plot, Steve is trying to keep custody of his 11-year-old nephew Bobby, whom he rescued from hellish conditions in a Florida commune where his mother, Steve’s sister, was living. Bobby is an autistic savant, and the state, especially a creepy experimental psychologist and a social worker with a personal grudge against Steve, want to put him in an institution.

The tension never lets up, and the dialogue is often very funny. Solomon vs. Lord was a highly enjoyable read.

My sole problem (aside from the customary foul language and post-revolutionary sexual content) is Steve’s parenting technique. There’s never any doubt that he loves the boy and the boy loves him, but it’s hard for me not to agree with the child welfare people who complain about aspects of their domestic life—in particular the fact that an 11-year-old boy is given free access to pornographic magazines and autopsy reports, and often allowed to see Steve’s one-night-stands half naked. To the author’s credit, he gives Steve a moment of shame when he’s confronted about it.

Solomon vs. Lord is an enjoyable book, with definite moral problems. Highly recommended as a piece of storytelling, less so for world view.