The Third Victim by Phillip Margolin

Meredith Fenner is found injured but alive on a dark stretch of road in rural Oregon with a tale of being kidnapped, tortured, and beaten.  She had escaped from a nearby cabin.  Her injuries are similar to two earlier victims in Portland who both ended up dead… their murders as yet unsolved.  Meredith recovers and leads the police to the cabin where she was held captive.  It is owned by a successful lawyer, Alex Mason.  Mason has recently married his second wife who tells the police he’s a control freak and likes his sex kinky and sometimes violent.  She says he enjoys bondage and burning her with a cigarette much the same torture used on the two dead victims as well as on Fenner. The police arrest Mason and he hires the best criminal defense lawyer he knows, Regina Barrister.

Regina is a legendary criminal defense lawyer but she has a secret that could end her career… she’s experiencing early signs of Alzheimer’s.  She frequently forgets details and occasionally forgets where she is or where she parked her car.  Her young assistant, Robin Lockwood has noticed her boss’s memory loss but is too intimidated to challenge Regina’s authority.

During the discovery phase of Alex Mason’s trial, Robin and her investigator develop a conviction that Mason is innocent but have no real physical evidence to support their theory.  Mason claims his wife initiated their kinky sexual encounters and he was an unwilling participant.  But it’s his word against hers and the jury finds him guilty.  After the trial Robin finds a witness who knew both Meredith Fenner and Mason’s wife years earlier in Florida and will testify the two women know each other.  But the trial is over.  What can Regina and Robin do at this point to save their client, their professional reputations, and their careers?

The Third Victim is in keeping with Phillip Margolin’s work from his early years as a legal thriller author.  Gone But Not Forgotten is one of a plethora of his hits from the 1990’s and early 2000’s that I enjoyed reading. The Third Victim is a return to that genre and is truly Margolin’s strength.  The ending, however, is a bit too predictable but the journey to get there is an amazing ride.

Thanks for the advance copy from Netgalley.

Gone, But Not Forgotten by Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin practiced law in Portland, Oregon for many years before devoting full time to writing novels in the mid 1990’s.  Many of his works including his third novel, Gone, But Not Forgotten made the New York Times Best Seller list.

In this novel, protagonist Betsy Tannenbaum is an up and coming criminal defense attorney in Portland, Oregon.  Wealthy businessman, Martin Darius walks into her office one day and gives her a healthy retainer with no indication for why he needs legal representation.  Soon after, the bodies of women who’ve been kidnapped, tortured and murdered are found on a construction site owned by Darius.  Left behind at each of the women’s homes are a black rose and a note that reads “Gone, But Not Forgotten.”   No physical evidence ties Darius to the crimes and he is released on bail.  Then information surfaces tying Darius to similar crimes in New York state ten years earlier… but he was never charged.

 

Tannenbaum is caught in a moral dilemma.  She believes everyone deserves legal representation whether guilty or innocent but she can’t bring herself to defend Darius if he truly committed these heinous acts.  Then Darius’ wife is murdered while Martin is under surveillance so he is innocent of at least that crime.  But Tannenbaum’s investigator uncovers damning information about Darius concerning the New York crimes.  Could he be guilty of the crimes a decade earlier and be innocent of the recent Portland crimes?  Could there be a copycat killer? The more Tannenbaum learns the more she is drawn to the case and the more the lives of her and her family are in jeopardy.

This is the second time I’ve read Gone, But Not Forgotten… the first nearly twenty years ago.  I’ve read several of Margolin’s novels since that time but of late find myself disappointed by comparison to his earlier books.  Re-reading Gone, But Not Forgotten reaffirms for me that Margolin’s earlier works were as good as I remembered.  Gone, But Not Forgotten has the disturbing grit of Connelly’s Concrete Blond and the startling spin of Turow’s Presumed Innocence… two of my other favorites of the nineties.

Woman with a Gun by Phillip Margolin

Woman with a Gun is very different than any other Phillip Margolin book I’ve read as it is developed around an intriguing premise… a photograph of a woman in a wedding dress holding a six shooter.

 

Stacey Kim is an aspiring young author visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  She is fascinated by this Pulitzer winning photograph taken by Kathy Moran.  Stacey is so inspired that she decides to make this the subject of her first novel.  But she needs to learn all she can about the circumstances surrounding the woman in the photograph.  So she goes to Oregon to research the background.  She learns the woman is Megan Cahill of Palisades Heights, Oregon and the picture was taken ten years earlier outside her ocean front home on the night of her wedding, the night her new husband, Raymond Cahill was murdered.  Even though Megan was holding the murder weapon, she was never charged with the crime… in fact no one was.  Kathy Moran was a local waitress with aspirations to be a photographer and just happened on the right place at the right time to snap the shot that launched her career.

Stacey meets with all the players from the decade old murder.  Police detectives, DA’s, Megan’s attorneys, and several known associates of Megan and Kathy.  She learns Kathy had a previous encounter with one of the DA’s five years before the murder.  All this stirring of the pot brings new evidence to light.  Stacey uncovers a connection between Raymond Cahill and his murderer.  But Stacey’s discovery makes her the target of the murderer’s next crime.

Phillip Margolin does a good job of weaving together three apparently unrelated plot lines over a fifteen year period.  Plus the intriguing photograph of a woman in a wedding dress holding a six shooter sets the stage for high expectations.  But as a fan of Margolin from the late 1990’s, I set my expectations a bit too high and came away somewhat disappointed.  While this is a good story and an entertaining read, I know Margolin is capable of more.  Perhaps I need to go back and reread Gone but Not Forgotten or The Last Innocent Man to confirm my perception is indeed a reality.

Capital Murder by Phillip Margolin

Capitol Murder by Phillip Margolin is his third in a series of Washington DC based thrillers.  His main characters private investigator Dana Cutler and lawyers Brad and Ginny Miller return to unravel several clever interrelated subplots.

 

After Brad’s boss, a Supreme Court justice is murdered in the previous book, Supreme Justice, Brad goes to work as an aide to Oregon Senator Jack Carson.  Brad’s wife Ginny leaves her high brow Washington legal firm to engage in more satisfying work in the Justice Department.  They look forward to normalcy in their new careers and in their marriage.

 Meanwhile back in Oregon (Brad and Ginny’s home state), Clarence Little, a convicted serial killer now on death row, begins sending disturbing and threatening messages to Brad.  Brad was instrumental in overturning one of Clarence’s many convictions but is no longer involved in Clarence’s legal battles.  Then in the midst of appealing another conviction, Clarence escapes from jail, killing a guard and his current lawyer.  Brad and Ginny are concerned that Clarence will come after them.

Another subplot involves a Middle Eastern terrorist group who had planned to blow up a professional football stadium packed with fans during a Sunday game.  While the plot is foiled before any damage is done, information surfaces that Sen. Carson could somehow be implicated.  Sen. Carson is a high ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.  One of his generous campaign donors, Koshani is a sexually exotic woman who operates a high class escort service in Portland and is suspected of having ties to the foiled terrorist group.  Koshami has compromising photos of the Senator that if published would destroy his career and personal life.   Koshani is summoned to DC and testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee presumably to clear Sen. Carson.  While in DC she stays at Sen. Carson’s Georgetown townhouse and is murdered.  The murder eerily resembles the work of Clarence Little.  With no clear evidence tying Sen. Carson to any illicit activity, P.I. Dana Culter is hired to covertly investigate the Senator before federal agencies risk implicating such a high ranking official.  Since she frequently does investigative reporting for a magazine, she is able to conceal her true employer.

The author successfully weaves several subplots into a compelling story.  Terrorist plots, corruption in government, inter-agency rivalry, and manipulation of the democratic process all set right by likable private citizens make for an entertaining read.  However, with such a complex interconnected plot, I thought plausibility seemed compromised at times; some of the events are a little too coincidental.  Plus, the ‘blow up the football stadium’ plot line has been done before.  Nonetheless, Margolin's Capital Murder is a good effort in the genre and worth a look.  I would however recommend reading the trilogy in order: Executive Privilege, Supreme Justice, Capitol Murder.  Character development builds on itself from one book to the next.

Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin

Supreme Justice by Philip Margolin is a sequel to his best seller Executive Privilege.  In his latest thriller a death row case in Oregon is up for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court and a conspiracy group is willing to kill to keep the case from being heard.

Brad Miller lands a clerkship for US Supreme Court Justice Felicia Moss.  His fiancé, Ginny is also a talented attorney and has moved to DC with Brad to work for a prestigious law firm.  Dennis Masterson is a partner at Ginny’s firm, a former head of the CIA, and college pal to one of the other Supreme Court Justices...abundant political capital.

Meanwhile, Sarah Woodruff is on Death Row in Portland, OR and it is her case that is being considered by the Supreme Court. She was convicted of the murder of her ex-lover who may have been a CIA operative. Information that could clear Sarah of the murder is being withheld by Homeland Security and the CIA.  The Supreme Court is considering whether or not to hear the case when one justice resigns unexpectedly and another is attacked.  Dennis Masterson quickly pulls political strings to fill the court vacancy with his ringer.

Suspicion builds that Masterson and his government cronies may be covering up some improprieties in Oregon.  Justice Moss asks Brad to hire his private investigator friend, Dana Cutler to go to Portland and see if Sara Woodruff’s murder case and the Supreme Court nomination are connected.  Federal authorities cannot be engaged without evidence.  Dana finds that Sarah Woodruff’s dead CIA boyfriend was in the middle of illegal activity and several other unsolved murder cases may be connected to the CIA.  The unraveling of the conspiracy prompts local authorities in Oregon and the FBI to investigate and puts the lives of Brad, Ginny, Dana, and Justice Moss in danger.

Phillip Margolin weaves a good tale…multiple story lines are developed and tied together cleverly in the end.  I thought however, with so many characters it was hard to engage with and relate to many of them.  Since this is a sequel, hopefully the characters were more fully developed in the original.  I’ve read several Phillip Margolin novels in the past…this one is ok but not his best work.  Need proof?  Read Margolin’s Gone, But Not Forgotten.  You won’t regret it.