APRIL 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Therese Plummer immediately engages listeners and keeps them invested in this intricately woven story of murder, power, and justice. Plummer shines as Robin Lockwood, a defense attorney and former MMA fighter. Joe Lattimore is homeless and struggling to provide for his family. To raise money, he agrees to an unsanctioned fight in which his opponent dies. He is then at the mercy of a few powerful people who plan to use him to do their dirty work. Lockwood agrees to take on his case and soon finds herself caught in a web of deception and influence. Plummer voices a wide range of multidimensional characters and infuses each one with nuanced distinctions and unique identifiers. Listeners will be hooked! K.S.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/11/2021
In bestseller Margolin’s lively fourth Robin Lockwood mystery (after 2020’s A Reasonable Doubt), former professional boxer Joe Lattimore, who’s now homeless and desperate to provide for his wife and young child, accepts an offer to participate in an illegal no-holds-barred fight. When Joe’s opponent dies during their bout, he finds himself at the mercy of the fight promoter, who pressures him into robbing the home of circuit court judge Anthony Carasco and the judge’s wealthy wife, Betsy. Joe enters the house only to find Betsy’s battered body. Despite the massive evidence piling up against Joe, Portland, Ore., defense attorney Robin believes his claim that he’s been set up. Prosecuting attorney Vanessa Cole, who views the “high-profile, sure-winner, death penalty case” as a way of keeping her position come election time, provides a perfect foil for Robin. Chicanery, sexual peccadilloes, and plenty of two-fisted action keep the plot moving steadily along the road toward justice. Those who like to see despicable people get their comeuppance will be more than satisfied. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"A series of twists and surprises, including an ending that readers won’t see coming." —Bookreporter
Library Journal
10/01/2020
Desperate to earn money for his family, homeless Joe Lattimore enters an illegal bar fight, inadvertently kills his opponent, is blackmailed by the fight organizers into burglarizing a house, and gets framed for the murder of the victim found within. Good luck with the defense, attorney Robin Lockwood. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
APRIL 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Therese Plummer immediately engages listeners and keeps them invested in this intricately woven story of murder, power, and justice. Plummer shines as Robin Lockwood, a defense attorney and former MMA fighter. Joe Lattimore is homeless and struggling to provide for his family. To raise money, he agrees to an unsanctioned fight in which his opponent dies. He is then at the mercy of a few powerful people who plan to use him to do their dirty work. Lockwood agrees to take on his case and soon finds herself caught in a web of deception and influence. Plummer voices a wide range of multidimensional characters and infuses each one with nuanced distinctions and unique identifiers. Listeners will be hooked! K.S.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-11-27
Portland attorney Robin Lockwood takes on the defense of a homeless boxer who’s been framed but good for murder.
Joe Lattimore has a bad feeling about allowing himself to be drafted into an illegal no-holds-barred fight, but the $300 he’s offered would settle his wife and baby daughter in a motel room for a few nights while he looks for work. Things go from bad to worse when he apparently kills the man he’s fighting and agrees to burgle a stranger’s home as his price for the recording of the fight. Inside, Joe finds the corpse of Elizabeth Carasco, the wealthy wife of Judge Anthony Carasco, whose life has changed in dramatic ways ever since he was picked up by escort Stacey Hayes. Joe swears he’s innocent, but the cops have his fingerprints inside the house and a pair of witnesses, one of them Judge Carasco, who saw a man who looks a lot like him fleeing the scene shortly after the murder. It’s an ideal case for Robin, who’s not only a dab hand in the courtroom, but a former mixed martial arts warrior who, in a rare dead end, expresses an interest in returning to the ring undercover in order to expose the culprits who arranged the illegal fights and a whole lot more felonies. Margolin keeps the story steadily absorbing, replacing whatever surprises you might have expected with new revelations of the plotters’ ever more violent and treacherous behavior that make you nod with appreciation. Everything purrs along until one character too many gets killed and Robin suddenly finds herself wrestling with a genuine whodunit.
“I feel like I’m in a movie sequel,” the presiding judge observes, but there’s nothing wrong with that.
