BOOK REVIEW
Workers comp system exposed in legal thriller

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

"CONTINUOUS TRAUMA" by Michael Eric Stein; Dr. Leisure, paper, $23.99

His beleaguered hero is lawyer Charlie Solomon who, after years of representing businesses determined not to pay a dime for worker injuries, finds himself on the other side of the hearing table when a plaintiff flips out and Solomon is suddenly an injured worker himself. It ends badly for Charlie, who loses his job, his girlfriend and identity for a while, but in the end, he makes a dent in the corrupt system that has let so many down.

Stein knows about the system; a friend was hurt on the job and lost significant mobility in one arm because her injury went so long untreated while she fought for compensation. The novel is dedicated to her.

In researching this novel in the aftermath of that experience, Stein sat in on mandatory settlement conferences, judges' conferences and trials and talked to lawyers, judges, insurance examiners and workers. "I've never seen an example of so many presumably decent, educated professionals collaborating with cynical chuckles up their sleeves in a system so irredeemably destructive to the people it was supposedly trying to help," Stein said.

Outrage is a tricky motivation for a writer: While it can fuel the flame, it also can result in turgid, preachy text. Stein has avoided that pitfall here and written a well-paced thriller while exposing a wrong of which many people are not aware.

Available on Amazon.com and at Borders Books & Music, Maui.