The Undertaker's Widow [Mass Market Paperback]

Phillip M. Margolin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 1999

A cold-blooded murder.  A beautiful suspect.  An honest judge forced to do the unthinkable.

New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is a master of legal suspense.  In this explosive novel, a simple case of self-defense becomes a nightmare in which justice itself is held hostage.

Judge Richard Quinn is young, idealistic, and honest to a fault.  That's why he's handed the most sensational homicide case in Oregon history.  Locked in a race for the U.S.  Senate, Ellen Crease gunned down the intruder who murdered her wealthy husband.  In a single, brutal instant she became a widow, a victim, and a hero.  

Yet disturbing questions remain.  What secrets did the man who started his fortune running mortuaries keep that might have cost him his life? What about the son frozen out of his will? Or his wife's political enemies? And what about Ellen Crease herself?

Soon it becomes clear that a deadly plot of murder, blackmail, passion, and double cross is unfolding around Judge Richard Quinn.  And unless he breaks the rules, justice will not only be blind, it will be the final victim.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this legal thriller, a young judge in Portland, Oregon, struggles to save his marriage and his career after he becomes personally involved in the murder case he's adjudicating. The judge, Richard Quinn, is a deeply principled man who has proven himself an honorable and fair-minded public servant. When an extremely wealthy undertaker is murdered in his mansion in the West Hills of town, Quinn is chosen to preside over the case. The dead man's widow, Ellen Crease, is a driven state congressional representative who is running for a seat in the United States Senate. She's a shapely, pistol-packing Republican and a former cop. She's also a suspect, as is the dead man's underachieving son. Crease's political enemies also appear to be involved in the intrigue, but it's difficult to tell. After someone connected to the case tries to blackmail the judge for an extramarital misstep, Quinn decides to take matters into his own hands. He does some investigating, shares his discoveries with people who seem to be trustworthy (but aren't), and puts himself in harm's way.

It's interesting to follow Quinn as he grapples with the ethical issues of the case. When the blackmailers want him to tip the scales of justice one way, he considers tipping them the other direction. There is also something inherently diverting about observing a basically good man who is helplessly mired in a whole heap of trouble. Throughout the book, Quinn keeps stumbling into mortal danger and confiding in all the wrong people, digging himself deeper and deeper in trouble. --Jill Marquis --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Best known for his stunning thriller Gone but Not Forgotten (LJ 8/1/93), Margolin disappoints in this new novel. Wealthy Portland, OR, businessman Lamar Hoyt Sr. is shot to death in his bed. His wife, Ellen Crease, fires upon and kills the shooter. When the forensic scientist studies the photographs of the crime scene, he sees a discrepancy in the blood spatters, which points to Crease's lying about what happened. Her arraignment and bail hearing is before Richard Quinn, an honest, by-the-book judge who is being blackmailed into ruling against Crease. Despite Margolin's storytelling ability, the novel features unadorned prose and is thin on characterization and shallow in plot. The one bright spot here is Mary Garrett, an attorney with a great deal of aplomb and courtroom savvy who should be considered for her own novel soon. For most fiction collections because of demand for the author's books.
-?Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-Univ. Heights P.L., OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (March 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553580884
• ISBN-13: 978-0553580884
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Legal

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but Forgotten, May 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Undertaker's Widow (Hardcover)

I added Margolin to my list of "must-read" authors after reading "Gone, But Not Forgotten" and have enjoyed reading his entire collection. Margolin's maturity as a fiction writer is evident when you go back to "Heartstone" and read his works consecutively.

I do think, however, that Margolin's recent efforts have been slightly less enjoyable than the previous. "Gone But Not Forgotten" was a 10, "After Dark" was excellent too, I gave it a strong 9. "The Burning Man", while good, was not up to the previous two novels standards and I rated it an 8. Now comes "The Undertaker's Widow".

Do not misunderstand me, it is an enjoyable read with several plot twists - actually, too many in my opinion. It is as if Margolin was trying his best to create scenarios where anybody could have "done it". It is like one of those books where you create your own ending - one could re-write the ending of this book several different ways with different characters being the "culprit" and not compromise the integrity of the story line.

Mr. Margolin, it WAS a good read, but we expect more!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who killed Lamar Hoyt, March 12, 2001

By 

Suzanne Vitale "jackeroophillip" (Bowling Green, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Undertaker's Widow (Mass Market Paperback)

Ellen Crease, Oregon State Senator, former crack shot and policewoman, is found holding her dead husband's body in her arms while an intruder lies dead on the floor nearby. Her husband, Lamar Hoyt had a history of running around on his wives and then trading them in on a new model as the old one became tiresome. His son hated him for not giving him a bigger piece of the Undertaking business that had created the family fortune.

A new and relatively inexperienced, but brilliant, Judge is assigned the case after having been newly transferred to the homicide rotation. Judge Quinn is idealistic and in love with the law ... maybe more so than his wife who wants power and money more that Judge Quinn appears to. A subplot takes place when Judge Quinn travels to an island for a convention only find at the last minute that his wife cannot accompany him. She has been tricked into making another trip so that Judge Quinn can be seduced on his trip by a call girl who is eventually killed. The judge proves to be naive and gullable.

The book begins with the fact that Ellen Crease did shoot her husband. It has more than enough characters to be somewhat confusing, but the suspense is sustained by the fact that we don't know WHY Lamar Hoyt died until we reach the end. And then we find out about the mystery bad guy. Read the book. This doesn't make five starts, but it's a good read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and interesting, but some major flaws, July 27, 2000

By 

Stan Vernooy (Henderson, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Undertaker's Widow (Mass Market Paperback)

This is an exciting and well written mystery, with a couple of flaws. The story is of a judge who presides over a murder case with political ramifications. His marriage is shaky as the book begins, and there is a plot by some people with interests in the case to capitalize on his marital problems by setting him up and blackmailing him. The plot is complex and interesting enough to maintain the interest of most mystery fans, but there are a couple of problems. Probably the main problem is that I knew the guilty party almost immediately, purely on the basis of the political philosophies of the characters [and I'm being deliberately vague here to avoid giving things away]. When a book is as predictably politically correct as that, it is a major drawback. Secondly, as many other reviewers have mentioned, the plot to blackmail the judge was so transparent that it is inconceivable that anyone smart enough to be a judge would not have seen through it.

Neither of those problems prevented me from enjoying the book. They just caused me to feel some annoyance when the book was finished. As is so often the case, I want more flexibility in Amazon's rating system, and would have given it three and a half stars if that were allowed. So read this book, but don't expect a masterpiece.