The papers call him the Ice Man. David Nash, defense attorney -- cool, unruffled, practically unbeatable in the courtroom. Most of his clients are guilty. A few may be monsters.
Suddenly the Ice Man is assailed by doubts and unanswerable questions. What is the cost of each victory, each rapist or murderer set free -- to society and to Nash's soul?
Then comes a case that may be Nash's redemption. A client whose innocence he can believe in, a rising lawyer and family man accused of the brual murder of an undercover vice cop. But as the case moves toward trial, new doubts grip him: What is truth and what is carefully fabricated falsehood? Is Nash, a a master at handling juries, being manipulated himself? And by whom? By the time Nash's perfect case is finished, the questions become a matter of life and death.
First paperack publication of criminal lawyer Margolin's 1981 courtroom thriller. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Jampacked plot... (Margolin) shows us... the difficulties of lawyers as people practicing in a system of justice whisch is the same for the guilty and the innocent... and exposes the costs paid by a conscientious lawyer in the coin of human feeling." -- The Washington Post.
"Exciting stumper, high pitched courtroom drama." -- Booklist.
"An intricate tale that weighs guilt, justice, and the law, this book also has plenty of action and drama. A real spellbinder." -- Library Journal
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 is my first book read by this author. Excellent work, I was overly impressed. This book was filled with the best characters, the best developing plot and the best conclusion. A truly wonderful thriller!
An innocent man is on trial for the rape and murder of a prostitute who was really an undercover cop. David Nash, a defense attorney, must put his career on the line to find the real murderer before the Innocent Man will become the Guilty Man.
This author truly has talent as I normally stay away from the courtroom drama. Suspense would pop out at the simplest element. My attention got me where I could not put the book down until I had read the entire thing. The ending is not what you expect at all. Don't miss this one!
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The Last Innocent Man is a thought provoking thriller that gives Margolin an opportunity to present the moral debate that defense attorneys must go through in defending people accused of indefensible crimes and antisocial behavior. David Nash is a defense attorney who is suffering burn out when he meets a mysterious young woman at a party and takes her back to his house. The next day when he realizes that he wants to see her again, she is no where to be found, surfacing only when her husband is accused of killing a policewoman who was posing as a prostitute. The wife swears that her husband was with her at the time the crime took place, and David agrees to take the defense in spite of his reservations about their involvement. All the while he is trying to come to grips with having successfully defended some guilty clients who will undoubtedly hurt others again as soon as they are free. My review is not nearly as gripping as the book was to read. This is my second book by Phillip Margolin and I am looking forward to my third which will be "Gone But Not Forgotten." In a world full of good legal thriller authors, he is one of the best in my opinion.
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Do the Johnny Cochrans and F. Lee Baileys of this world have a conscience? That's what we mere mortals want to know when we see how fiercely they fight (and manipulate!) to have murderers acquitted and returned to our streets. Are they men to whom money, fame and winning the case are all that matters? Or are they, like Margolin's protagonist David Nash, caught in a system where they are morally and legally obligated to do everything in their power to save their clients -- however guilty they might perceive those clients to be? What happens when a defense attorney becomes too good at what he does -- too good at manipulating facts and mastering juries? Margolin, himself a highly successful defense attorney, as well as author of a growing list of explosive legal thrillers, comes to grips wih this dilemma, where all too often it is not Justice but the ability of the defense that determines whether an innocent person goes to prison or a monster is released to continue preying on society.
Brilliant, unbeatable David Nash has reached the pinnacle of his career, but that pinnacle doesn't look the way he thought it would. He became a defense attorney with the ideal of saving the innocent and improving the world. But now he finds that, "there aren't many innocent people around here," and feels that, for the most part, he is turning the worst kind of fiends loose on the world he had hoped to make better. He is losing faith in himself and in his career. Then, just in time, comes his dream: An Innocent Man, deserving of the best defense Nash can give him. But then, when he learns that his "last innocent man" has lied to him and used him and is therefore Presumed Guilty, he falls into a deep depression. There he wallows in the morass until he receives a shock so horrendous that he is impelled to pull himself up and re-enter the fray. Now Nash must find a way to bring down the wiliest and most diabolical killer in order to save not only his soul but his very life -- and the life of! the woman he loves.
While I found more spine-tingling suspense in some other Mogolin novels, especially in Gone But Not Forgotten, this novel is just as compelling in its own way. Another fabulous win for this author -- and for all of us who just can't wait for another Phillip Margolin to hit the stands!
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