The Third Victim

October 1, 2017

Escaping from a kidnapping that has left two other women dead, the burned and battered "third victim" identifies hotshot local attorney Alex Mason as the culprit. With physical evidence and a damning statement from Mason's wife, the case appears virtually solved. What complicates things: Mason's brilliant defense attorney Regina Barrister is carrying around a deep, dark secret, and second-in-command Robin Lockwood is bothered by her boss's erratic behavior and aspects of the case that don't make sense. With a 100,000-copy announced marketing distribution, which tells you how many copies will be available in all formats upon publication.

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January 1, 2018
This uneven series launch set in Oregon from bestseller Margolin (Violent Crimes and four other Amanda Jaffe novels) revolves around newly hired lawyer Robin Lockwood and her mentor and boss, legendary criminal defense attorney Regina Barrister, who may be experiencing the symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Lockwood is thrown into the fire when Barrister agrees to represent an affluent attorney arrested for the kidnap, torture, and murder of two young women. The third victim escaped, and all evidence points to the accused. While Barrister secretly struggles with a deteriorating memory, Lockwood finds connections between the case and a lawsuit involving a crooked cop with a penchant for abuse. Unfortunately, despite an adequately complex plot and three-dimensional main characters with interesting backstories (Lockwood is also an MMA fighter), the narrative doesn’t generate much tension. Here’s hoping for a more exciting case in the next outing for Lockwood and company. 100,000-copy announced first printing. Agents: Jean Naggar and Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

January 1, 2018
A novice lawyer signs on to an Oregon attorney's practice just in time to catch a case that will leave her skeptical about just about everyone involved, including her boss.Portland prostitutes Tonya Benson and Patricia Rawls were both tortured to death, but barista Meredith Fenner is lucky enough to escape her captivity and eventually leads Detective Carrie Anders back to the cabin where she was held. It belongs to dislikable attorney Alex Mason, whose DNA is found on a piece of cut tape used to gag Meredith. Things rapidly get worse for Mason even after legal superstar Regina Barrister agrees to defend him. His trophy wife, Allison, tells police that he enjoyed S/M sex, provides detailed descriptions of the games they played--which echo Meredith's ordeal in several key particulars--and then files for divorce. Regina declines to pursue Arnold Prater, another highly plausible suspect, not because he's a bent cop, but because of an elaborate series of relationships that create a conflict of interest. Worst of all, as Regina's new associate, Robin Lockwood, gradually realizes, her boss, well-known for her laser-sharp ability to examine witnesses in court without notes, has suddenly developed awkward, sometimes-crippling gaps in her memory that she neither recognizes nor wants to talk about. Could they be a sign of early-onset Alzheimer's? And whatever their cause, do they amount to a sufficient basis for a new trial for Mason, not the world's most appealing defendant, if things continue to go as badly for him as they've been going ever since he was first taken into custody?The setup is arresting, but the structure is awkward, with one large subplot awkwardly integrated and the final solution at once unlikely, obvious, and slow to arrive. A lesser outing for the highly variable Margolin (Violent Crimes, 2016, etc.).

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November 15, 2017
A woman accuses a well-known attorney of kidnapping and torturing her. Despite both evidence found at the location where she says she was held and troubling statements made by the accused's wife, the attorney insists he is innocent. He hires the noted defense lawyer Regina Barrister to prove his innocence, but Robin Lockwood, Barrister's second chair, soon begins to wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes, something that would cast the relationship between Barrister and her client in a whole new light. Margolin continues his return to the exceptional form of his early novels with this gripping, tightly plotted, and smoothly written legal thriller. Barrister is an especially compelling creation: brilliant but deeply flawed, although the particulars of that flaw are withheld from the reader until the author is prepared to divulge them: he gives us hints but nothing solid until it's just the right time. A winner from a veteran genre author who has thoroughly rebooted his career after a lackluster few books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)