Synopsis
A ten-year-old New York case involving disappearing wives, supposedly solved, returns to haunt Portland, Oregon, as feminist defense attorney Betsy Tannenbaum is hired by a wealthy developer. A first novel. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild & Doubleday.
Reviews
Images of gruesome violence pervade this gripping tale of abduction and serial murder. Affluent housewives in Portland, Ore., are disappearing without a trace. In each case the only clue is a black rose and a note reading, "Gone, but Not Forgotten." Upstate New York police detective Nancy Gordon arrives to tell Portland's DA of a similar series of murders she had investigated back East. After implicating powerful local developer Martin Darius in the crimes, Gordon herself disappears. When several mutilated bodies are found at a construction site owned by Darius, police take him into custody. Darius's newly retained attorney, criminal lawyer Betsy Tannenbaum--a zealous advocate of women's rights and a successful defender of battered wives--begins her own search, which leaves her wondering if Darius is a psychotic killer on the loose, or the victim of a government cover-up involving the President's nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Margolin ( The Last Innocent Man ) writes with breakneck pacing and just the right injection of lurid detail to make chills race down readers' spines. If his narrative is a bit choppy and some of the plot twists are telegraphed too clearly, he nonetheless delivers a top-notch whodunit with an explosive and satisfying conclusion. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A rash of grisly torture/murders of upscale Portland, Oregon, housewives--each kidnapped by someone who leaves behind a black rose and a note saying ``Gone, but not forgotten''--turns out to have unholy roots in an identical series of killings across the country a decade earlier. Martin Darius, the megalomaniac developer accused of the crimes, swears he's innocent. But Nancy Gordon, an ex-detective from Hunter's Point (New York) homicide, tells his lawyer, Betsy Tannenbaum, that he's Peter Lake, whom she's convinced was behind the Hunter's Point killings--including those of Lake's wife and young daughter. Betsy's own investigation points to a coverup nine years ago: Lake was pardoned by police and a governor desperate to find starving kidnap victims that Nancy Gordon never mentioned to Betsy. Now that that governor's nomination to the Supreme Court could be jeopardized by any whiff of the pardon, Darius admits to Betsy that, yes, he's Lake and that he did indeed kill those women back then--but not the current victims, whom he insists obsessive Gordon has murdered in order to frame him. Gordon, meanwhile, has disappeared, and a third suspect has surfaced: Samantha Reardon, a surviving Hunter's Point victim whose graphically detailed captivity may be fueling a psychotic thirst for revenge. ``Can you imagine a case you wouldn't take?'' a reporter asks Betsy about her repulsive client--but in fact Betsy's ethical dilemma is only the beginning of her troubles. Margolin's writing won't win any prizes (``Darius was in Betsy's soul''; he's ``not just a bad person, but pure evil'')--but this slick, pulpish first novel will keep an awful lot of people up until dawn. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Four women disappear from Hunter's Point, New York, before the murdered bodies of Sandra Lake and her six-year-old daughter are found. Next to Mrs. Lake are a black rose and a note that reads, "Gone, but not forgotten." Ten years later women are vanishing from Portland, Oregon. In each of their homes is a black rose and a note identical to that found in Hunter's Point. After hearing about the New York case and its possible connection to his, Portland's district attorney, Alan Page, arrests wealthy Martin Darius for the torture and murder of the people whose bodies are found on his property. Meanwhile, Betsy Tannenbaum, a rising star in the legal profession and Darius's lawyer, discovers incriminating evidence against him. Margolin combines the riveting suspense of the traditional thriller with the current legal thriller to create a first-rate novel containing all the best elements of a mystery as well. The pat denouement is the only negative in this thoroughly enticing book. Essential for all fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/93.
- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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