9 Scorpions
Chicanery on the Supreme Court is a hot topic these days.  Brad  Meltzer'sTenth Justicemade bestseller headlines, and by now there are nearly enough other thrillers probing the secrets of the federal bench to give the subject a category all its own. In9 Scorpions, former trial attorney Paul Levine  weighs in with his version.  The book features a beautiful ex-stripper with a Stanford law degree who's just won a coveted clerkship with the most junior justice--handsome and charismatic Sam Truitt. Lisa Fremont has come a long way from San Francisco's seedy Tiki Club, thanks to a wealthy patron who's also the CEO of Atlantica Airlines.  But Max Wanaker and his airline are facing a multi-million dollar legal battle that will be won or lost in the high court, and Max is calling in his markers. It's up to Lisa to persuade Sam Truitt to cast the swing vote in Atlantica's favor.  Max's life, and hers, hang in the balance, for Max has sold his soul as well as his airline to a corporation owned by the Japanese mafia, and the Yakuza's strongman, Shank, has already killed once to protect the their interests.  If Lisa's considerable legal skills or even her sensual talents can't convince the justice to see things the mafia way, Shank'll kill again. But what neither the  mafia nor Max know is that it's not just Lisa's passion for justice that stands in the way of their plans.  When she learns what really brought Flight 640 down and killed her one true love as well as 288 other people, a not-so-simple case of blackmail turns into a deadly battle of will and wits.  The action ranges from the marble halls of the Court to the swamps of the Everglades, where most of the bodies and all of the secrets of Atlantica 640 are buried.  Or are they? When Truitt joins forces with Lisa to uncover the truth, they learn that even the federal bench isn't immune to the forces of corruption and violence, in a thrilling denouement that reads like a blockbuster movie.--Jane Adams