With this third installment in his Robin Lockwood series, Phillip Margolin yet again presents an exciting mystery full of engaging suspects, unique twists and reveals, and both the brilliant Robin Lockwood and her still-full-of-surprises mentor Regina Barrister. While this is referred to as the Robin Lockwood “series,” in truth all three books also work as stand-alone novels. Reading the series gives you extra background on the main characters, but each book, The Third Victim, The Perfect Alibi, and A Reasonable Doubt, has a self-contained mystery. A solution is reached in each book, and the next book starts an entirely new mystery, so it is easy for a reader to begin at any point.
Robin Lockwood is a senior partner in a well-respected law firm and a highly skilled criminal defense attorney, who also was a Mixed Martial Arts fighter while she was in law school at Yale. Those looking for books with a female character who is written with a perfect balance of brain and brawn, need look no further. Robin is talented, and confident in her abilities, but she is also modest and well-liked in her professional circles.
In A Reasonable Doubt, Robin meets with a client who is actually looking for Robin’s former boss, and mentor, Regina Barrister, but upon finding that she has retired, he seeks Robin’s help with a unique situation. He wants to patent a magic trick. The client is well known magician Robert Chesterfield, who Regina had successfully defended against murder charges almost 20 years earlier. The first third of the book revisits that shocking story as Regina recounts all the details for Robin.
Though unable to patent his trick (The Chamber of Death), Chesterfield debuts it in front of a crowd, with unbelievable results. Though no longer serving as Chesterfield’s lawyer, Robin is tangled up in the case and must help put all the pieces together, sorting through Chesterfield’s long list of enemies, from mobsters to other magicians.
Perhaps best categorised as a legal-thriller or as mystery-suspense, A Reasonable Doubt does not go down the gory, dark path that some thrillers do. It is instead the kind of mystery put together with surgical precision. Full of thrills and excitement, the Robin Lockwood books from Phillip Margolin are perfect for those who loved Angie Kim’s Miracle Creek or Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent.
The surprises never end, making this a true page-turner, in every sense of the word, form beginning to end! Each Robin Lockwood book presents a truly unique case, which has obviously been created by (and solved by) a masterful hand.
As a side note, the audio-versions of all three of the Robin Lockwood books are read by Therese Plummer, who does a fantastic job.
A Reasonable Doubt is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A magician linked to three murders and suspicious deaths years ago disappears in the middle of his new act in New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin’s latest thriller featuring Robin Lockwood, A Reasonable Doubt.
Robin Lockwood is a young criminal defense attorney and partner in a prominent law firm in Portland, Oregon. A former MMA fighter and Yale Law graduate, she joined the firm of legal legend Regina Barrister not long before Regina was forced into retirement by early onset Alzheimer’s.
One of Regina’s former clients, Robert Chesterfield shows up in the law office with an odd request – he’s seeking help form his old attorney in acquiring patent protection for an illusion. Chesterfield is a professional magician of some renown and he has a major new trick he’s about to debut. This is out of the scope of the law firm’s expertise, but when Robin Lockwood looks into his previous relationship with the firm, she learns that twenty years ago he was arrested for two murders, one attempted murder, and was involved in the potentially suspicious death of his very rich wife. At the time, Regina Barrister defended him with ease, after which he resumed his career as a magician in Las Vegas.
Now, decades later, he debuts his new trick – only to disappear at the end. He’s a man with more than one dark past and many enemies – is his disappearance tied to one of the many people who have good reason to hate him? Was he killed and his body disposed of, or did he use his considerable skills to engineer his own disappearance?
Robin Lockwood must unravel the tangled skein of murder and bloody mischief to learn how it all ties together.
