Slashback/Riptide — Paul Levine

Miami Dolphin linebacker-turned-trial-lawyer Jake Lassiter is a throwback, a 'brew and burger guy in a quiche and white wine world.' He has his own definition of chivalry - 'I help little old ladies cross the street ... and sometimes tall young ones' - and lives by his own code: 'I won't lie to a judge, bribe a cop, or steal from a client. Other than that, anything goes.' As always, Jake is restless in the shark-eat-shark world of Miami law. But soon two events send him into far more dangerous waters. First, thieves steal one and half million
dollars from his favorite client, eighty-six-year-old Russian immigrant Sam Kozdoy. Then someone murders Berto Zaldivar, an old buddy who went from lawyering to drug smuggling. Jake is determined to recover Kozdoy's money, and to find out who killed Berto and why. Along the way he meets the mysterious wind-surfer Keaka Kealia and, far more interesting to Jake, his beautiful companion, Lila Summers. A windsurfing pro in her own right, Lila performs split-second slashbacks on breaking waves and is just as capable of changing directions in real life. The action takes Jake from his Miami courtroom across the Gulf Stream to Bimini and then on to Maui for an explosive finale where he learns lessons never taught on the football field or in law books.