The Perfect Alibi
A Novel
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4.1 • 29 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The “master of heart-pounding suspense”—New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin—returns with a new legal thriller starring Robin Lockwood.
A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape. Convicted with the help of undisputable DNA evidence, the athlete swears his innocence and threatens both his lawyer and his accuser as he's sent to prison. Not long after, there's another rape and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes—which is seemingly impossible since the man convicted of the first rape was in prison at the time of the second one. Now, the convicted athlete, joined by a new lawyer, is granted a new trial and bail. Shortly thereafter, his original lawyer disappears and his law partner is murdered.
Robin Lockwood is a young lawyer with a prestigious small law firm and a former MMA fighter who helped pay for Yale Law School with her bouts. She is representing the victim of the first rape for her civil lawsuit against her rapist, who is now convinced the rapist is stalking her and trying to intimidate her. At the same time, another client is up on a murder charge—one that should be dismissed as self-defense—but the D.A. trying the case is determined to bring it to trial. Now she has to mastermind two impossible cases, trying to find the hidden truth that links the two of them.
Phillip Margolin, the master of the legal thriller, returns in one of his twistiest, most compelling crime novels yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
More a murder mystery than a legal thriller, bestseller Margolin's sequel to 2018's The Third Victim features an intriguing lead, Portland, Ore., defense attorney Robin Lockwood, but offers few genuine thrills. Lockwood becomes entangled in the case of University of Oregon football star Blaine Hastings, who was convicted of rape and sent to prison based on DNA evidence. The DNA evidence in a second rape case also points to Hastings, but he was in prison at the time, so something fishy is going on. Hastings gets a new lawyer, who secures him a new trial, and he's soon out on bail. But the subsequent murder of the law partner of the college athlete's original lawyer creates complications. Lockwood disappears for long stretches as other characters take center stage, which lessens the story's overall intensity and emotional impact. In addition, her personal story arc particularly her relationship with her firm's investigator, Jeff Hodges develops only incrementally. Still, Margolin convincingly portrays the workings of the legal system and has created a worthy heroine. 100,000-copy announced first printing.)
