An Insignificant Case
A Thriller
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3.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A new standalone legal thriller from the international bestselling author of GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.
Charlie Webb is a third rate lawyer who graduated from a third rate law-school and, because he couldn’t get hired by any of the major law firms, has opened his own law firm, where he gets by handling cases for dubious associates from his youth and some court appointed cases. Described as “a leaky boat floating down the stream of life,” Charlie has led unremarkable life, personally and professionally. Until he’s appointed to be the attorney for a decidedly crackpot artist who calls himself Guido Sabatini (born Lawrence Weiss). Sabatini has been arrested – again – for breaking into a restaurant and stealing back a painting he sold them because he was insulted by where it was displayed. But as Lawrence Weiss, he’s also an accomplished card shark and burglar and while he was there, he stole a thumb drive from the owner’s safe.
Not knowing what else Sabatani has stolen, Webb negotiates the return of the painting and “other items’ for the owner dropping charges against Sabatini. But the contents of the flash drive threatens very powerful figures who are determined to retrieve it, the restaurant owner (Gretchen Hall) and her driver (Yuri Makarov) are being investigated for the sex trafficking of minors, and there are others who have a violent grudge against Sabatini. When a minor theft case becomes a double homicide, and even more, Charlie Webb, an insignificant lawyer assigned to an insignificant case, is faced with the most important, and deadliest, case of his life. Going back to his long-time bestselling roots, Phillip Margolin returns with a brilliant standalone legal thriller in the tradition of John Grisham.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
An average lawyer is thrown into a potentially deadly case in this pulse-quickening thriller from Phillip Margolin. Larry Weiss is a mathematical genius, world-class gambler, and extremely talented painter. He’s also delusional, believing himself to be a reincarnated Renaissance master named Guido Sabatini. After selling a painting to an exclusive restaurant, he’s so outraged that it isn’t hanging in the dining room, he breaks in and steals it back…along with a flash drive he notices in an open safe. This off-kilter premise had us hooked even before attorney Charlie Webb shows up to defend Guido, with neither of them knowing that the flash drive could implicate some very powerful people in a truly shocking scandal. Margolin fills this exciting story with intense thrills, fantastic wit, and plenty of local colour from its Portland, Oregon, settings. High art is rarely so enthralling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Margolin (Betrayal) delivers a far-fetched legal thriller about an Oregon attorney who gets tangled up in an ever more ominous web of organized crime. Charlie Webb has led an undistinguished career after graduating from a third-rate law school. Things change when restaurant owner Gretchen Hall and her associate, Yuri Makarov, are found murdered in a park near downtown Portland, with a painting partially covering Gretchen's corpse. The artist, Guido Sabatini, is arrested for the killings, because he'd recently broken into Gretchen's restaurant to steal back his painting and, in the process, ended up with a flash drive full of evidence that she and Yuri were sex trafficking young girls. Guido hires Charlie to defend him, thrusting the lawyer into his first high-stakes case. As Charlie fights to keep Guido free, he learns that some of the Pacific Northwest's most powerful people belonged to Gretchen's sex trafficking ring, and they'll stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. What begins as a captivating, noir-tinted tale grows increasingly absurd as the twists stack up, culminating in a dreary conclusion sure to make readers groan. This squanders its potential.
