A judge brutally murdered. A star prosecutor indicted. A dangerous obsession that emerges...
From New York Times-bestselling author Phillip Margolin comes a searing legal thriller that begins with two seemingly unrelated murders and ends in a chilling case of perverted justice.
The first woman ever hired by legendary defense lawyer Matthew Reynolds, Tracy Cavanaugh cuts her teeth on a horrifying crime: the car-bomb murder of Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen. Reynolds's client--and the chief suspect--is none other than the icy but celebrated prosecutor Abigail Griffen, the Justice's estranged wife. Tracy's research plunges her into a web of betrayal and revenge, of secret deals and hidden passions. At the heart of the case lies a twisted truth--and when the verdict comes in, she will discover that nothing is as it seems...after dark.
Margolin's last legal thriller, Gone, But Not Forgotten, shot up bestseller lists, fueled by obvious characters-including a maniacal male killer and two tough heroines-lots of melodrama and a plot with more twists than a bowl of fusilli. Perhaps it's no surprise to see that his new novel features the same ingredients, if in different proportions. Here the killer is Charlie Deems, a crazed coke dealer. It's not Deems who's on trial, though, but the woman who sent him for a time to death row. She's Portland, Ore., prosecutor Abbie Griffen, an ice-maiden whom Margolin sculpts with as heavy a hand as he does Deems-who claims that Abbie hired him to kill her husband, the Oregon Supreme Court judge who's just been blown up along with his car. Defending Abbie is heroine number two, idealistic young lawyer Tracy Cavanaugh, whose "cheerleader" looks belie a brilliant mind, and Matt Reynolds, "America's most famous criminal defense attorney." The action is bloated with cliffhangers, overwrought villains and menacing shadows, but all this bombast is forgiven in the face of Margolin's whiplash plotting. The reversals and revelations are many and diabolically clever, with Abbie's-and others'-innocence or guilt always in doubt. No legal-thriller fan, once hooked, will wiggle free of the story line of this hammy but exciting yarn before reaching its utterly surprising, and surprisingly dark, conclusion. Major ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
If Margolin's new novel of legal intrigue isn't hot stuff, a lot of readers will be disappointed; his Gone, but Not Forgotten (LJ 6/15/91) sold over a million copies. Here, a high-profile prosecutor is accused of murder. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I grew up in New York City and Levittown, New York. In 1965, I graduated from the American University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor's degree in government. I spent 1965 to 1967 in Liberia, West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer, and graduated from New York University School of Law in 1970, working my way through the last two years by teaching junior high school at night in the South Bronx. My first job following law school was a clerkship with Herbert M. Schwab, the chief judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals, and from 1972 until 1996, I was in private practice, specializing in criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. As an appellate attorney I have appeared before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Oregon Supreme Court, and the Oregon Court of Appeals. As a trial attorney, I handled all sorts of criminal cases in state and federal court, and have represented approximately thirty people charged with homicide, several of whom faced the death penalty. I was the first Oregon attorney to use battered women's syndrome to defend a woman accused of murdering her spouse.
Since 1996, I have been writing full-time. All of my novels have been bestsellers. Heartstone, my first novel, was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar for best original paperback mystery of 1978. My second novel, The Last Innocent Man, was made into an HBO movie. Gone, But Not Forgotten has been sold to more than twenty-five foreign publishers and was made into a miniseries starring Brooke Shields. It was also the Main Selection of the Literary Guild. After Dark was a Book of the Month Club selection. The Burning Man, my fifth novel, published in August 1996, was the Main Selection of the Literary Guild and a Reader's Digest condensed book. My sixth novel, The Undertaker's Widow, was published in 1998 and was a Book of the Month Club selection. Wild Justice (HarperCollins, September 2000) was a Main Selection of the Literary Guild, a selection of the Book of the Month Club, and was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. The Associate was published by HarperCollins in August 2001, and Ties that Bind was published by HarperCollins in March 2003. My tenth novel, Sleeping Beauty, was published by HarperCollins on March 23, 2004. Lost Lake was published by HarperCollins in March 2005 and was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. Proof Positive was published by HarperCollins in July 2006. Executive Privilege was published by HarperCollins in May 2008 and in 2009 was given the Spotted Owl Award for the Best Northwest Mystery. Fugitive was published by HarperCollins on June 2, 2009. Willamette Writers gave me the 2009 Distinguished Northwest Writers Award. My latest novel, Supreme Justice, was published by HarperCollins in May 2010. My next novel, Capitol Murder, will come out in April 2012.
On October 11, 2011, HarperCollins will publish Vanishing Acts, my first Young Adult novel, which I wrote with my daughter, Ami Margolin Rome. Also in October, the short story "The Case of the Purloined Paget," which I wrote with my brother, Jerry, will be published by Random House in the anthology A Study in Sherlock.
In addition to my novels, I have published short stories and nonfiction articles in magazines and law journals. My short story "The Jailhouse Lawyer" was selected for the anthology The Best American Mystery Stories 1999. The House on Pine Terrace was selected for the anthology The Best American Mystery Stories 2010.
From 1996 to 2009 I was the president and chairman of the Board of Chess for Success. I am still heavily involved in the program, and returned to the board after a one-year absence in 2010. Chess for Success is a nonprofit charity that uses chess to teach study skills to elementary- and middle-school children in Title I schools . From 2007 to the present, I have been on the Board of Literary Arts, which sponsors the Oregon Book Awards, the Writers in the Schools program, and Portland Arts and Lectures.
This one combines the best elements of the "cozy" and "suspense" styles of mystery-writing. The protagonist is Tracy Cavanaugh, a recent law school graduate who clerks for a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.
During her last days at the Oregon Supreme Court, one of Tracy's clerk colleagues is murdered. That murder is followed shortly by the murder of the justice who employed the murdered clerk. The murdered justice's estranged wife, herself a brilliant prosecutor, soon becomes the prime suspect. At the same time, Tracy's year of clerking is up, and she goes to work for renowned defense attorney Matthew Reynolds, who is defending the accused wife.
This is definitely a better novel than "Undertaker's Widow", which was the first Phillip Margolin mystery I read. Most of the primary characters are well-drawn and memorable. The plot is unpredictable but doesn't stretch credulity. The last 75 pages give the plot several twists before the ultimate solution is revealed. The book is captivating and well-written throughout.
This book provides one more example of the foolishness... several years ago, to change the rating system from a 10-star maximum to a 5-star maximum. This book is a cut above Hazel Holt's "Mrs. Malory, Detective in Residence", to which I gave 4 stars. It is also a definite cut below Elizabeth George's novels, all of which deserve 5 stars. I will stick with my contention that only real literature deserves 5 stars, and this isn't real literature. But it's about as good as genre mysteries ever get.
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Now, don't get me wrong - this book has more good things going for it than bad, but the whole thing just seems a bit off to me. There is a lack of focus, for one thing. Whose story is it? Tracy's? Abigail's? Matthews? Charlie's? I also figured it out about 1/3 of the way through the book but I was written well enough that I gladly stuck it out to see if I was right. (I was, but my theory about the motive was a tad bit off). This is not Margolin's best work ('The Burning Man' gets that honor) but it is a good enough read for a long holiday weekend.
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After being completely blown away by 'Gone, But Not Forgotten' I knew I had found an author who had an amazing gift for intense storytelling...and although not quite as intense as 'GBNF' 'After Dark' has all the markings of an incredible whodunnit. I have to admit, by the time I figured it out (and that was only after Margolin let me in on it) I was totally surprised at the ending. That doesn't happen much these days, but 'After Dark' did it for me (my wife didn't seem surprised, but I sure was) and certainly deserves a lot more than to be just another run-of- the-mill legal thriller. Grisham on his best day hasn't written as good as this. From the opening pages where you get to know the characters, you end up feeling for them, developing small but very realistic bonds that make their problems more like YOURS. Just a fantastic read, and very much worth your time.
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