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Violent Crimes

ebook
4 of 4 copies available
4 of 4 copies available

In this mesmerizing tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin, attorney Amanda Jaffe—star of Wild Justice, Ties That Bind, Proof Positive, and Fugitive—becomes entangled in a murder case involving Big Oil, an estranged father and son, and the greatest ethical dilemma of her career .

Dale Masterson, senior partner in a large Portland, Oregon, law firm, has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. When his colleague, Christine Larson, is found dead, Masterson's business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused.

The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified tenfold when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. But this time Dale's son, Brandon, is seen fleeing the scene. A dedicated eco-warrior obsessed with saving the planet, Brandon confesses to killing his father—for revenge, he claims—on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his father's questionable clients.

Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel. If Brandon is really innocent—a radical activist determined to martyr himself for his cause—then who viciously murdered Dale Masterson? And what, if any, is the connection between his murder and the murder of Christine Larson? Smart, fierce, and unafraid of the truth even if it puts her in danger, Amanda begins to look deeper. What she finds will force the seasoned legal pro to make the hardest professional decision of her life.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 14, 2015
      In bestseller Margolin’s subpar fifth Amanda Jaffe novel (after 2009’s Fugitive), the Portland, Ore., DA decides to defend paralegal Tom Beatty, a veteran with PTSD, after he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his boss, Christine Larson, whose battered body turned up in Beatty’s bedroom. Then Dale Masterson, a senior partner at the prestigious law firm where Larson worked, is found dead in his home. This time, the assailant appears obvious: Masterson’s 26-year-old son, Brandon, was seen running from his father’s house, covered in blood. After Brandon’s mother approaches Jaffe, she agrees to represent Brandon, an outspoken environmental activist who claims he killed his father to send a message to Big Oil. Unsettling connections between the Masterson and Larson murders put Jaffe in an ethical pickle as she tries to help both her
      clients without harming the other’s case. Sympathetic characters compensate only in part for an overly complicated plot. Agents: Jean Naggar and Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

    • Kirkus

      November 1, 2015
      What the title promises is exactly what Margolin (Worthy Brown's Daughter, 2014, etc.) delivers: another torrent of violent crimes for Oregon defense attorney Amanda Jaffe. Christine Larson, of Masterson, Hamilton, Rickman, and Thomas, wants Amanda to defend Tom Beatty, a former Navy SEAL with PTSD who's working as a paralegal at the firm. Harold Roux, a bully who started a bar fight with Beatty, has sworn out a complaint from his hospital bed. Amanda gets the charge dismissed without breaking a sweat, unaware that the real trouble is just beginning. Someone murders Christine, plants her body in Beatty's place, and sends Detective Greg Nowicki, of Portland Narcotics, there on a trumped-up tip that Beatty's selling heroin. The cops pick up Beatty, but Amanda assures him she'll get bail for him, because she's certain Christine was killed by Dale Masterson, Mark Hamilton, or one of the other higher-ups in the firm whose falsified financial statements Christine had been looking into. Amanda, as good as her word, springs Beatty from police custody just in time for Masterson to get murdered. The presumption of Beatty's guilt would be overwhelming if only Dale's son, Brandon, hadn't been spotted running from the murder scene covered in blood. In fact, Brandon, an environmental activist bent on using his trial as a platform to broadcast his father's misdeeds to the world, is only too eager to confess to the murder, but Amanda doesn't believe him, and soon enough she's gotten herself hired as his attorney even though getting him off may involve implicating Beatty, who's also her client. This last problem may sound like a thorny ethical dilemma, but it's just as weightless as every other complication in this fleet, guileless, inch-deep yarn, a tale guaranteed to get you to bed in plenty of time and leave your dreams untroubled.

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2015

      A lawyer who's gleamingly lined his coffers by representing oil and coal interests, Dale Masterson is found beaten to death, and ecowarrior son Brandon confesses. But the case falls apart, and defense lawyer Amanda Jaffe (popular with Margolin fans) considers who the real killer might be. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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