After Dark - Hardcover

Margolin, Phillip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385475489 ISBN 13: 9780385475488

Publisher: Doubleday, 1995

Synopsis

Gone, But Not Forgotten rocketed Phillip Margolin into the select company of million-selling novelists. Here he displays again the same genius for best-selling suspense in another intricate, breathtaking thriller of multiple murder in the legal community of the Pacific Northwest.

Laura Rizzati, a law clerk for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen, is found slain late one night in the deserted courthouse. Her office is ransacked—but nothing seems to be missing. There are no suspects and no clues.

The following month Griffen himself is killed by a car bomb in the driveway of his Portland home. This time, though, there is a suspect: in a shocking turn of events, Abigail Griffen, star prosecutor in the Multnomah County District Attorney's office and estranged wife of Justice Griffen, is charged with first degree murder.

With the same gripping suspense that drove Gone, But Not Forgotten onto the bestseller lists, this is a complex legalthriller with a truly startling ending.


From the Paperback edition.

About this title

About the Author

Phillip Margolin was a practicing criminal defense attorney for twenty-five years, has tried many highprofile cases and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. His previous novels are Heartstone, The Last Innocent Man, Gone, but Not Forgotten, After Dark, and The Burning Man. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two children.


From the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

But Not Forgotten rocketed Phillip Margolin into the select company of million-selling novelists. Here he displays again the same genius for best-selling suspense in another intricate, breathtaking thriller of multiple murder in the legal community of the Pacific Northwest.

Laura Rizzati, a law clerk for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen, is found slain late one night in the deserted courthouse. Her office is ransacked -- but nothing seems to be missing. There are no suspects and no clues.

The following month Griffen himself is killed by a car bomb in the driveway of his Portland home. This time, though, there is a suspect: in a shocking turn of events, Abigail Griffen, star prosecutor in the Multnomah County District Attorney's office and estranged wife of Justice Griffen, is charged with first degree murder.

With the same gripping suspense that drove Gone, But Not Forgotten onto the bestseller lists, this is a complex legalthrill

Reviews

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.

Margolin's latest is part courtroom drama, part psychological thriller, part murder mystery, and part love story. But most of all, it's a whopping good read. Young lawyer Tracy Cavanaugh has just spent a year clerking for an Oregon Supreme Court justice and is ready for the big time. She has her pick of prestigious jobs, but she chooses to work for Matthew Reynolds, an eccentric, Abe Lincoln^-type lawyer whose reputation is built on the fact that not one of his clients has ever received the death penalty. The first case Tracy works on with Matthew is a tragic one--Abbie Griffen, a brilliant prosecutor, is accused of killing her husband with a car bomb. Matthew, who has admired Abbie's skill in the courtroom for years, is convinced she's innocent. In fact, he thinks she's been framed by psycho Charlie Deems, a murderer Abbie put on death row years ago. Tracy is awed by Matthew's superb handling of the complex case, and she just knows he'll get Abbie off. But in the course of her background research, Tracy stumbles across information that could have shocking, maybe even lethal, consequences, and suddenly all that was right is horribly wrong as the case moves inexorably to an explosive climax that will leave readers breathless. Margolin hit the best-seller lists with Gone but Not Forgotten (1993), and he's sure to be back with this one. Emily Melton

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385475489
• ISBN 13: 9780385475488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 340