Mike Papantonio and Alan Russell. Inhuman Trafficking. Skyhorse, 2021.

A couple of years ago, we reviewed a legal potboiler by Mike Papantonio which not only told a harrowing and exciting tale, but presented some serious concerns about drug addiction. Inhuman Trafficking does the same. If anything, the story is more harrowing and more serious than Law and Addiction.

Inhuman Trafficking introduces us to the same Florida law firm as in the previous book. In this case, the lead attorney is Nick “Deke” Deketomis, a partner in the firm. Also involved is Jake Rutledge, the young and idealistic lawyer from West Virginia who gets in over his head in Law and Addiction. He was hired by the Bergman/Deketomis law firm at the end of the previous novel. He will have more adventures.

As the title suggests, this novel is about human trafficking. We sometimes think of families selling their children as is done in some Asian countries or Central America, and then their daughters (mostly) and sons are sold as shrine prostitutes or simply prostitutes. Either way, they are kept as virtual slaves. Indeed, one point this novel makes is that slavery in the United States has been illegal since 1865, but the Thirteenth Amendment is rarely used to prosecute pimps and people smugglers.

Inhuman Trafficking makes this more than merely theoretical. Deke’s fifteen-year-old goddaughter runs away with an older boyfriend. He, then, uses her to pay off a debt he owes some criminals. She has disappeared, and no one seems to know anything. Carlos, the boyfriend, says he gave her to guy known as Tío Leo. He also seems to have disappeared.

At the same time, the law firm has been involved in a class action lawsuit against a motel chain that allegedly allows a prostitution ring use of its facilities. After this lawsuit makes the news, an office assistant at the firm gets a call from a young woman named Karina looking for help. She says that she came to the United States on a work visa legally, but instead of just working in a hotel as a housekeeper, she was forced into prostitution. She is now kept virtually imprisoned and expected to obey her handler, an older woman who may be from Eastern Europe as Karina is.

Tracing her call takes Jake and legal assistant Michael into a world they may not have known existed: strip clubs, booze cruises, and private hotels that are really bordellos. Then Karina’s body is washed ashore on the Florida Gulf Coast near where the law offices are.

It gets complicated and dangerous. Needless to say, part of the action takes place in Las Vegas, a city where prostitution is legal, but even there sex slavery exists. We are reminded of Papantonio’s Law and Addiction. The opioids may be legally produced but the distribution leaves something to be desired. So in Vegas the prostitutes are not all in the business willingly.

Michael has an interesting backstory. He was an Air Force pararescuer (PJ) until he was injured in the spine in the Middle East on a mission. His awareness of his surroundings, his Air force connections, and his pararescue skills all come into play. In other words, there is a lot of adventurous action. Even if some of the events seem a little far fetched, we are invested enough in the story that we have to say that it could happen this way.

This book is not for everyone. There are characters that are not only evil but creepily so. But we have to figure that anyone who treats girls and young women as sexual commodities has to have been twisted in some way. If we follow the news at all, we know that sex trafficking can happen at the highest political and economic levels. Those reports remind us that the creepy fictional characters in this novel are no more creepy than some of the men and women in our all-too-real world.

Inhuman Trafficking can open our eyes to the evils of human smuggling and prostitution. That is what Law and Addiction did with opioid abuse. Perhaps there is something we can do. It might be a dangerous call, but there are things that can be done even by lawyers. Yes, sadly, there are lawyers, who are more interested in power and money than justice (see a warning in James 5:6), but some are helping people who really need it.

I recall years ago sharing in one of my classes a joke comparing lawyers to sharks. Here is what this book says about that:

Deke knew Robin was just kidding with his shark reference, but the lawyer stereotypes still grew old. The powerful forces that lawyers opposed had done a pretty good job of painting the legal profession as rapacious and predatory. Having worked in the trenches as long as he had, Deke knew just how influential and deep-rooted the opposition was. There were plenty of forces allied against the rule of law. If lawyers were to fail, autocracy and corporatocracy would win the day. (130)

One of the students in that class is now a lawyer who has been in the news. He has bravely stood up to powerful politicians who make no apologies about being autocrats. I am grateful he has kept his integrity. Hopefully, all who read this book will consider their own integrity. Just because we can get away with something does not mean it is what we should do. Does might make right?