THE ROAD TO HELL edition by Paul Levine Literature Fiction eBooks
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THE ROAD TO HELL edition by Paul Levine Literature Fiction eBooks
Although Paul Levine's The Road to Hell is billed as a short story collection, it's also a promotion designed to interest readers in his other, more expensive works. Many authors on Amazon do this, making a short work available for free or a low price. However, Levine (or whoever wrote his Kindle blurb) is not exactly honest in describing what people will be buying here.As far as the stories go, two of them are excellent, one is very good, and the fourth is merely average. The title of the book is derived from the fact that all four stories have the word "Hell" in their titles, but otherwise they have nothing in common.
In The Brave One in Hell, a 13-year-old Mexican boy trying to enter the U.S. illegally has an encounter with a couple of border-guarding vigilantes who aim to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country at any cost. It's obviously a serious subject (and the subject of at least one of Levine's novels), but it plays out more like a Disney channel feel good fantasy than either a serious drama or a suspense thriller. The description of the action is good, but the ending is a big letdown.
In A Hell of a Crime, a district attorney is at home preparing his closing argument for a big murder case, but he has to put up with a good bit of critiquing from his mother, who isn't so sure the defendant is guilty. This one is highly original with a double twist ending worthy of Alfred Hitchcock that I never saw coming. As soon as I finished the story, I was compelled to reread it to be sure I hadn't missed anything and that Levine had played fair. I hadn't, and he had.
Development Hell is a clever comedy in which "Beazle," a Hollywood producer, tries to buy the film rights to The Pit and the Pendulum from Edgar Allan Poe. However, as he explains to Poe, the story isn't very marketable without a whole lot of changes to make it more cinematic. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this sharp satire.
To Hell and Back features Solomon and Lord, the mismatched attorneys who are the protagonists of one of Levine's two main series. Victoria Lord believes in playing by the book (and the law), while Steve Solomon has at best a nodding acquaintance with legal ethics, which he won't let stand in the way of justice. In this story, the pair's client, an elderly business woman who is a Cuban refugee in South Florida, has been swindled out of a lot of money by a fellow refugee who helped manage her books and then helped herself to the business' assets. Solomon has two problems: he can't locate the missing money or prove the man actually stole it. So he agrees to go on a deep sea fishing trip with the con man which soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Readers won't learn much about Solomon and Lord as characters here, but the confrontation between lawyers (Lord is also on the boat) and con man is quite dramatic with a couple of unexpected plot twists.
Although I would give the book four stars easily on the basis of the four stories, they actually comprise less than half the advertised 100 pages of the book. The remainder of the book (55% according to my Kindle) consists of lengthy excerpts from Solomon vs. Lord, a novel featuring the title duo, and Mortal Sins, another novel featuring Levine's other main character Jake Lassiter. I didn't read these excerpts and I don't base this review on them. However, if I wanted to read those two novels, I would have gotten the actual books.
The blurb on the Amazon web site does call this material "excerpts" but neglects to mention that the excerpts occupy over half the book. It's the equivalent of going to a two hour movie and watching a one-hour TV episode and a whole bunch of trailers. In my view, this is deceptive, especially if the author charges for the book (I did get my copy for free but I believe it has been offered for sale at various times). People may be willing to spend money for a 100-page short story collection but not less than 50 pages of stories and over 50 pages of filler.
Because three out of the four stories here are so good, I gave the book 2 1/2 stars rounded to three. But no matter how good the material is Paul Levine (or his publisher) does his audience a disservice by not being straightforward in describing what's actually in this book.
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THE ROAD TO HELL edition by Paul Levine Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
After 5 min in to each book, déjà vu attacks. You won't be disappointed or challenged because you know the ending...
Okay but not his best work. This is actually a collection of very short stories. They are lighter reading and don't take long to read. More of a story rather than character development and in depth story. Not your typical Paul Levine stories.
A daytime read, for sure, because these four short stories would make sleep near impossible for me. Not because they are nightmare inducing but because they are so mind-engaging. I have since read more excellent novels from Paul Levine.
Having read many of the Solomon and Lord books it's fun to get a look at the beginning. Also, the novellas are a kick.
I should have known. The more you find out about Paul, the more amazing it gets. So if he writes best-seller novels, and top TV shows, why not short fiction, too?
It's fun having some short stuff to read in spare moments, and some of these stories are just so typical of the stuff he does, but some are really different from that.
I know there are a lot of Levine fans out there, and they should check this out. And if you aren't a fan, yet, this is a good place to start.
I got this book after I had read Paul Levine's Bum Rap, a fantastic read. This one is 4 short stories with 3 of them just prequels to some of the authors other books about Jake Lassiter and Solomon and Lord. If I had read this first, I probably would not be reading any other books by Mr. Levine, but since I really enjoyed bum Rap, I will read more of his books.
This was, as I say in the Headline, a bit of Tapas, i,e., a little of this, a little of that. This four story book was not my first introduction to Paul Levine. That was "Bum Rap", but I was so taken by it that I later down loaded both this book and a Solomon & Lord book. And that was after I read "Illegal", both of which I wrote a review.
What I liked about "Road..." was its introduction to several continuing characters that I'm looking forward to reading more about. I'm referring to Jake Lassiter ("Bum Rap") and Steve Solomon and Victoria (Vicky) Lord, both of whose stories were two of the stories.
Levine reminds me of Dennis Lehane in his writing style. He is, in a word, conversational in the way he writes, which makes for an easy to follow read and good thread. Thread being my ability to pick up where I last left off, without re-reading pages in order to remember the story line when in those times I put the book down for whatever reason. Although in fairness, I have to say all parts of this book held my continuing interest from page one to page last. The characters are well fleshed out, making them that more realistic to the reader. The riparte between Steve Solomon and Vicky Lord is at times laugh out loud funny. The way Jake Lassiter practices law as a defense counsel is at times so tongue in cheek to make any one based in the law realize the reality of the practice. I never practiced law, but dealing with a multitude of lawyers, both defense as well as plaintiff, while working as an insurance adjuster, well nigh rang home to me.
"The Road to Hell", therefore, is a primer to other books and a good one at that. I know I will have a lot of fun reading more about the exploits of Solomon and Lord as well as walking along side of defense attorney Lassiter as he wrangles with both the court as well as his adversaries in his representation of his "innocent" clients.
Good book, glad I found it.
Although Paul Levine's The Road to Hell is billed as a short story collection, it's also a promotion designed to interest readers in his other, more expensive works. Many authors on do this, making a short work available for free or a low price. However, Levine (or whoever wrote his blurb) is not exactly honest in describing what people will be buying here.
As far as the stories go, two of them are excellent, one is very good, and the fourth is merely average. The title of the book is derived from the fact that all four stories have the word "Hell" in their titles, but otherwise they have nothing in common.
In The Brave One in Hell, a 13-year-old Mexican boy trying to enter the U.S. illegally has an encounter with a couple of border-guarding vigilantes who aim to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country at any cost. It's obviously a serious subject (and the subject of at least one of Levine's novels), but it plays out more like a Disney channel feel good fantasy than either a serious drama or a suspense thriller. The description of the action is good, but the ending is a big letdown.
In A Hell of a Crime, a district attorney is at home preparing his closing argument for a big murder case, but he has to put up with a good bit of critiquing from his mother, who isn't so sure the defendant is guilty. This one is highly original with a double twist ending worthy of Alfred Hitchcock that I never saw coming. As soon as I finished the story, I was compelled to reread it to be sure I hadn't missed anything and that Levine had played fair. I hadn't, and he had.
Development Hell is a clever comedy in which "Beazle," a Hollywood producer, tries to buy the film rights to The Pit and the Pendulum from Edgar Allan Poe. However, as he explains to Poe, the story isn't very marketable without a whole lot of changes to make it more cinematic. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this sharp satire.
To Hell and Back features Solomon and Lord, the mismatched attorneys who are the protagonists of one of Levine's two main series. Victoria Lord believes in playing by the book (and the law), while Steve Solomon has at best a nodding acquaintance with legal ethics, which he won't let stand in the way of justice. In this story, the pair's client, an elderly business woman who is a Cuban refugee in South Florida, has been swindled out of a lot of money by a fellow refugee who helped manage her books and then helped herself to the business' assets. Solomon has two problems he can't locate the missing money or prove the man actually stole it. So he agrees to go on a deep sea fishing trip with the con man which soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Readers won't learn much about Solomon and Lord as characters here, but the confrontation between lawyers (Lord is also on the boat) and con man is quite dramatic with a couple of unexpected plot twists.
Although I would give the book four stars easily on the basis of the four stories, they actually comprise less than half the advertised 100 pages of the book. The remainder of the book (55% according to my ) consists of lengthy excerpts from Solomon vs. Lord, a novel featuring the title duo, and Mortal Sins, another novel featuring Levine's other main character Jake Lassiter. I didn't read these excerpts and I don't base this review on them. However, if I wanted to read those two novels, I would have gotten the actual books.
The blurb on the web site does call this material "excerpts" but neglects to mention that the excerpts occupy over half the book. It's the equivalent of going to a two hour movie and watching a one-hour TV episode and a whole bunch of trailers. In my view, this is deceptive, especially if the author charges for the book (I did get my copy for free but I believe it has been offered for sale at various times). People may be willing to spend money for a 100-page short story collection but not less than 50 pages of stories and over 50 pages of filler.
Because three out of the four stories here are so good, I gave the book 2 1/2 stars rounded to three. But no matter how good the material is Paul Levine (or his publisher) does his audience a disservice by not being straightforward in describing what's actually in this book.
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