An Atlantica Airlines jet is preparing to land in Miami. Pilot Tony Kingston is thinking about his true love, Lisa, when an explosion rips the aircraft apart. The plane plunges into the Everglades, killing everyone aboard. No evidence is found but it's believed that a bomb must have been placed on the plane.

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on whether the victims' families can sue Atlantica Airlines for negligence. The crucial vote is expected to come from the newest, youngest justice, Sam Truitt, the first Supreme Court justice to hail from Florida. Sam traded the Everglades for Harvard Law School.

Sam leans toward the liberal, his past contains a fling with a female student and he's still unhappily married. In other words, he's ripe for seduction and that's Lisa Freemont's plan. A onetime stripper, Lisa was rescued by Max Wanaker, president of Atlantica Airlines. Now Max needs his longtime mistress' help.

Lisa is supposed to become one of Sam's law clerks and if she can't persuade him with the law, she's to use her beautiful body to help him make up his mind on the airline case. If Lisa can't get Sam's vote, than she and Max are facing certain death from a very nasty corporate henchman named Shank, who likes dismembering people.

Meanwhile, Tony Kingston's son, Greg, is not giving up his search for the reason behind the crash. He doesn't believe the aircraft exploded because of a bomb or pilot error. Lisa Freemont was Greg's babysitter and the woman his father loved. But when Greg goes to her for help, she tells him to let it go and move on with his life. However, Greg shocks Lisa when he comes to her with proof that the plane exploded because of negligence on the part of Atlantica Airlines.

I've worked with numerous female law clerks and these women do not even remotely resemble Lisa Freemont. Not because they lack brains or beauty, but because they aren't as absurd or as shallow. Lisa is supposed to be a strong woman who has managed to overcome a horrendous past to become a brilliant young attorney. Yet her entire life seems to be about moving from man to man.

Tony is supposed to be Lisa's true love but she lets Max pay her way through law school. And after Tony dies she goes right back to Max and his money. And then, after having great sex with Sam, she's quite sure she loves Sam, too. Finally, when Lisa goes to Sam's house for dinner with her fellow clerks, she and Sam's wife discuss fashion while the other clerks discuss the law with Sam!

9 Scorpions just doesn't work as a plausible story. Max is setting Lisa up to be his savior by sending her to law school, but a Supreme Court clerk requires more than just a law degree. Lisa has to have outstanding grades, write for the law review – actually be the editor of the law review. She must clerk for a court of appeals judge – preferably one that has a track record of sending clerks onto the Supreme Court.

Forget about the fact that the odds of being chosen as a law clerk to a Supreme Court Justice are slim to none. Or that the odds of the Atlantica case getting to the Supreme Court and being heard the same year as Lisa is ready to apply for her clerkship are astronomical. Let's talk about the extraordinary number of coincidences that makeup the plot.

What about the fact that Lisa was Greg Kingston's babysitter or the fact that years later she becomes Tony Kingston's true love? How about the fact that Tony just happens to pilot the plane that goes down or that he just happens to work for Lisa's on-again, off-again lover, Max? What about the fact that the plane just happens to crash over Sam Truitt's old stomping grounds: the Florida Everglades?

Well, actually, I must admit I really liked the part about the Everglades. Toward the end of the book there's a first-rate chase scene in the Everglades that helps puts the "thrill" in this thriller. There are a number of exciting scenes in this book, but even they are bit marred by the constant self-flagellation of the good guys, who are always saying things like, "I failed ____." (Fill in the blank with the name of a former lover, a present lover, a father, a friend, etc.)

Oliver Wendell Holmes once described the United States Supreme Court as nine scorpions trapped in a bottle. This book works well when it focuses on the Supreme Court. Mr. Levine definitely did his research on the Court and its inner workings – including how justices work each other for votes and how law clerks influence the decisions made by the justices.

And this book is filled with wonderful bits of history and trivia about the Court and its justices. If the main character and the plot contributed even a fraction of the realism that the antidotes about the Supreme Court provide, Nine Scorpions would be a first-rate legal thriller. As it is, you might want to wait until next summer before you put this book on your reading list.

--Judith Flavell