BETRAYAL

4 stars out of 5

After reading one other in this series featuring former MMA fighter Robin Lockwood, I looked forward to another. And I'm happy to say this one (the 7th) doesn't disappoint - if anything, I enjoyed it more. This time around, Robin is a highly regarded defense attorney in Portland, Oregon. When a local family of four is murdered, the primary suspect is Mandy Kerrigan, a washed-up MMA fighter who once roundly defeated Robin, causing her to get out of the professional fight arena. Mandy, it seems, had beaten up the grown son of the murdered family and was even seen at their door not long before the bodies were discovered.

But Robin suspects the truth is more elusive, agreeing to defend her and, hopefully, identify the real killer or killers. Among the discoveries is the fact that the mother, Margaret Finch, was an attorney with a lucrative history of defending powerful mobsters, the father owed a ton of gambling debt and the aforementioned son was a drug dealer (plenty of reasons for payback, then).

The story, which employs flashbacks, follows Robin's investigation and courtroom proceedings as well as her budding romance with a colleague. There's plenty of action, all building up to a surprising end (well, sort of; fairly early on I made a deduction on my own that proved right on the money). All told, it's a very entertaining book, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Betrayal by Phillip Margolin (Minotaur Books, November 2023); 303 pp.

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

4 stars out of 5

This new-to-me series features attorney and former professional fighter Robin Lockwood as she takes on a case of a man charged with murder who's facing the death penalty. He claims he was set up, and after reviewing what few details are known, Robin smells a rat as well. 

The client, Joe Lattimore, is a former boxer with a wife and young daughter - and they're homeless. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to participate in an illicit street fight  in exchange for cash. The fight easily goes Joe's way until it doesn't; Joe is told that his blows killed his opponent and that there's a video of the fight. Later, he's asked to commit a high-end home robbery - with the threat of releasing the video if he refuses. Believing he has no choice, he does as asked - only to find a brutally murdered woman inside the home. Terrified, he runs out - leaving his finger and hand prints behind. To make matters worse, his victim's husband, a prominent local judge, returns home just in time to see Joe running away.

An anonymous call to the police conveniently identifies Joe's whereabouts, the and he's picked him up and tossed in jail. Joe knows of Robin from their days in the fight game, so he contacts her and begs for help. As she searches for evidence of Joe's innocence, nothing of substance turns up - but the smell of that rat doesn't subside. She keeps digging, expanding the hole to include several shady characters, more blackmail and yes, more murders - all adding up to an adventure with plenty of twists and turns.

If I have to nit-pick, I'll point to a little too lengthy and basic explanations of legal issues that we die-hard "Law and Order" or "Perry Mason" fans could recite by heart and that at times, it seemed as if Robin was playing a secondary role here. But overall, this is a well-written, exciting way to spend an afternoon or two (and for the record, even though this is the fifth in the series, it stands alone very well). Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.

A Matter of Life and Death by Phillip Margolin (Minotaur Books, March 2021); 281 pp.