Trial & Error is the 4th book in Levine’s celebrated and comical Solomon-vs.-Lord series about feuding lawyer lovebirds Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord. It opens on a high point of action with Steve Solomon sprinting along a seawall at 2am. He’s at Cetacean Park in Miami Florida, trying to save a couple of dolphins at the request of his beloved nephew Bobby.

A sinister creep in a wetsuit is in the channel on a Jet-ski, herding the dolphins towards the Biscayne Bay. Obviously a radical animal-rights activist, he shakes his fist at Steve, and yells, “Liberation!” Steve, who never does things halfway, launches himself off the seawall and tackles the guy right off the Jet-ski and into the water.

The next chapter succinctly sums up what brought Steve to this strange moment: Steve had been asleep in bed with legal- and love-partner Victoria when he got a phone call from Grisby, the exasperated owner of Cetacean Park who had just caught Bobby at his favorite new activity – sneaking into the park after-hours to hang out with his favorite dolphins, Misty and Spunky.

Thirteen year-old Bobby is an unusual kid, equal parts autistic and genius. Bobby had a harrowing past with his drug-addicted mother, and now his uncle Steve (who had to go through a lot to get custody in the first book Solomon vs. Lord) would do anything to protect him.

Steve drives out to the park, expecting to find Grisby scolding Bobby, and instead witnesses the Jet-ski man in the channel herding away the dolphins. Bobby’s frantic cry to save Misty and Spunky propels Steve into his mad sprint and dive off the seawall. What a guy! How many of us have an uncle like that?

The police show up in time to fish Steve and Jet-ski man out of the channel. However, a second Jet-ski rider further out manages to abscond with the dolphins. Bobby is inconsolable. However, Steve has bigger issues grabbing his attention because the cops have stumbled upon a dead body. Apparently Grisby killed a third member of the dolphin-liberation party with his shotgun. Everyone regards the dead man’s body in shock.

Then the State Attorney shows up: Ray Pincher who has the voice of a gospel preacher and the instincts of a barracuda. It turns out that the one animal-rights activist that the cops managed to apprehend (Jet-ski man whom Steve tackled in the channel) is none other than Pincher’s wayward nephew Gerald! Pincher spares Gerald little sympathy.

In fact, Pincher informs Gerald that he has committed a felony-murder, which means that Grisby might have shot the dead guy, but Gerald will be held responsible. Talk about a weird quirk of the law! Steve immediately offers his legal services to Gerald.

Little does Steve know that plot complications and favors owed to Ray Pincher will put his lover Victoria on the side of the prosecution. Now Solomon and Lord will have to duke it out in court! Is this even remotely realistic? Surprisingly, yes. Author Levine is a former trial lawyer who really knows his stuff.

I won’t reveal anything else because it’s more fun for you to experience comical opposites Solomon and Lord in action. (He’s Jewish, spontaneous, and leisurely; she’s WASP, controlled, and driven.) Levine is such a good writer that he makes the incredibly hard disciplines of comedy and fast-pacing look effortless.

I have to leave you with one quote that made me laugh out loud (okay, I’ve got a silly sense of humor). Steve Solomon on page 23 wonders how he’ll retrieve the dolphins: “A writ of habeas porpoise, maybe?”

Trial & Error can be read as a stand-alone though it is the fourth book in the series. Find it at Amazon through this link: Trial & Error