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Summary
Summary
It's a beautiful summer night in Portland, Oregon.Ami Vergano, a young attorney and single mother, arrives at her son Ryan's Little League game with their tenant and new friend, Dan Morelli. When the assistant coach calls in sick, Morelli seems happy to help out. But then one player roughly blocks another, and a fight erupts. Before the game ends, Ami witnesses violence that shocks and horrifies her and makes her question everything she thought she knew about Morelli.
On the other side of the continent, in a cheap motel room in Washington, D.C., ex-mental patient Vanessa Kohler, a reporter for Exposed, a tabloid that specializes in alien-abduction stories, watches a piece on television about the Little League massacre and quickly places a call to the FBI. For years she's been telling anyone who will listen about a vast government conspiracy to conceal a secret military unit headed by Gen. Morris Wingate, a presidential candidate, and for years every-one has dismissed her stories. But when Vanessa sees Dan Morelli fighting, she believes she's found the key to proving that her theories are true.
Vanessa hires Ami Vergano to represent Morelli, who is charged with attempted murder, and Ami is drawn into Vanessa's paranoid world. Are Vanessa, a former mental patient, and Morelli, a confessed mass murderer, telling the truth about one of the nation's most respected soldiers and politicians? Or are their charges a product of two sick minds? Ami has to decide who -- and what -- to believe, in Phillip Margolin's most exciting and surprising thriller since his breakout bestseller, Gone, But Not Forgotten.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Like the lake of its title, Margolin's latest suspense novel (a hybrid with traces of legal thriller and whodunit and a big debt to The Manchurian Candidate) is smooth on the surface with tumultuous secrets lurking beneath. In Portland, Ore., lawyer and single mom Ami Vergano is pleased to take in handsome handyman Dan Morelli as a tenant, since he provides a positive male role model for her 10-year-old son, Ryan. Meanwhile, across the country in Washington, tightly wound tabloid reporter Vanessa Kohler spins elaborate paranoid fantasies (or are they?) involving personal danger and government conspiracy. These two women-and their respective plot threads-come together when Dan's volatility turns a Little League game into a crime scene, and Vanessa steps forward to support him, at considerable risk. But this is only the beginning of a labyrinthine plot built on twists and surprises. Hint: Vanessa's father is an influential general and political power broker. Margolin isn't the most original writer, but what he lacks in style he makes up for in clarity. Plotting is his strong suit. The artful arrangement of the story's episodes keeps the suspense high, and the author fills in the puzzle shrewdly, with small pieces from all over the chronology. The surprises keep coming, even after the story settles mostly into a courtroom drama, with Ami defending Dan on a high-stakes charge. Agent, Jean Naggar. 5-city author tour. (Mar. 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Beneath a brawl at a kids' baseball game lies "the biggest scandal in the history of American politics," in this wildly implausible legal thriller from Margolin (Sleeping Beauty, 2004, etc.). Portland lawyer Ami Vergano offers carpenter Dan Morelli the apartment over her garage because she likes his looks and she can use the rent money. But when Dan is attacked by a bullying Little League father, his violent reaction horrifies her, him and the two police officers who subdue him. A preliminary investigation reveals that Dan doesn't exist; everything he's told Ami about himself is a lie, and there's no trace of his identity older than two months. He's really Carl Rice, a U.S. Army captain neck-deep in murderous intrigue. At least that's what tabloid reporter Vanessa Kohler tells Ami when she flies in to demand that Ami represent him. Twenty years ago, according to Vanessa, Carl, her former lover, murdered Congressman Eric Glass on orders from her father, General Morris Wingate, the commander of a top-secret unit specializing in wet work. In the aftermath of the high-profile killing, the general had his daughter committed to an asylum, and Carl disappeared. Now the general, who may have been the second assassin on the grassy knoll (!), is running for president, and Vanessa is as determined to discredit him as he is to liquidate Carl, the key witness against him. Ami, who has no experience in criminal defense, wants off the case, but she ends up defending Carl--and eventually Vanessa, who's soon facing felony charges of her own. Who's telling the truth, the powerful, charismatic candidate or the vengeful daughter discredited by her years in that asylum? As if you had to ask. Except for the overlong flashbacks, Margolin's tenth may be his best, with everything a thriller should have, except thrills. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
It's a mystery why Margolin, the criminal-defense lawyer turned novelist, isn't at least as big as, say, John Grisham. Overall he's a more polished writer, and his stories have an intellectual depth that Grisham's more formulaic potboilers frequently lack. This time the central character, Vanessa Kohler, is a reporter working for Exposed, a tabloid newspaper. She has a troubled psychological history, stemming from her relationship with her father, a high-level military man who's now running for president. Vanessa has written more than a few stories (and one unpublished book) about an alleged government conspiracy masterminded by her father. When Vanessa discovers that a presumed-dead man is very much alive, she sees her opportunity to take down her father and prove that she is not just a conspiracy nut. As usual, Margolin touches on some heavy issues: mental instability, perception versus reality, paranoia. But this is a crime novel, not a treatise, and it delivers the goods, with plenty of action, suspense, and danger. Readers familiar with Margolin's work, especially such fine early novels as Gone but Not Forgotten (1993), will know what to expect here. Newcomers will immediately want to round up all his previous books. --David Pitt Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Vanessa Kohler hates her father. Years ago, in a vacation home in Lost Lake, CA, she witnessed a particularly brutal murder, but instead of hospitalization, her father placed her in a mental institution. Today, she is a reporter for a supermarket tabloid and cannot get anyone to pay attention to her accusations about her father, a retired general and the current front-runner to become President of the United States. In Oregon, a man goes into a murderous rage on a Little League field, and Vanessa recognizes him as the man who committed the Lost Lake murder. Together with the Oregon lawyer who has personal feelings for the killer, Vanessa makes one last attempt to unmask her father. Margolin is a master of the courtroom drama, and Deborah Hazlett skillfully brings his characters to life. She keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, but really shines in the well-written courtroom scenes. The author's books are consistently at the top of the best sellers lists; most libraries will find this a popular item.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.