Thursday, March 29, 2012

Capitol Murder, by Phillip Margolin (hardcover, $25.99)

The reason Phillip Margolin is a New York Times best-selling author is because he can tell a good story.

Margolin returns with what is billed as the last book in his "Washington Trilogy." Former cop and private investigator Dana Cutler and attorneys Brad Miller and Ginny Striker return for their denouement. I welcomed Dana's piece of the story especially. Margolin does a great job portraying strong women without patronizing or caricaturing them.

Margolin meticulously plots his books as he must have meticulously planned his cases when he was a practicing criminal defense attorney. Each piece of the puzzle is laid in place, and when the final piece is inserted, it turns out the completed picture is not what was shown on the box. (Okay, enough of that metaphor.) What I mean to say is that Margolin has one humdinger of a twisty, twisted ending.

In brief -- although it is a complex plot with lots of characters -- Brad has a new job working for a senator from Oregon. His wife, Ginny, has a new job with the Department of Justice. Dana alternately works as a private eye and as a reporter for a rag publication that hawks both major news stories and an-alien-kidnapped-my-husband fabrications. A terrorist plot to bomb a football stadium during an audience-packed game is afoot. Each of our heroes/heroines becomes involved through separate circumstances. And running amok after escaping from jail is Oregon serial killer Clarence Little. There's enough horror to go around.

This is my favorite book by Phillip Margolin so far. You go, guy!

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