What do You think about Wild Justice (2001)?
I LOVED this book. It held my interest from the first few pages, and I was riveted to the end. I identified with all the characters. I rooted for the tender-footed attorney, Amanda, and liked her transition over the years into a strong willed woman and capable attorney. I enjoyed the various other doctors implicated in the brutal crimes (I am not going into detail so I won’t spoil the plot), and each one was a complete character that was well fleshed out. I even liked the various bit players, like Amada’s father, or the policemen investigating the crimes, including Vasquez, because even they were complete characters easily identified and kept distinct from one another.The plot was fantastic, and it kept me guessing until about ¾ way through the book. Everything fit together wonderfully, and the obvious conclusions (given subsequent clues/facts) were spoken of/addressed by the characters, ALL of which were smart. They consequently made smart decisions, and then acted on those decisions, which kept me riveted to this book. There was no spot in the book where I didn’t wholeheartedly agree with something a character did (i.e., no characters went into dark rooms where they heard a noise, no character didn’t see a frame job for what it was, none went to meet suspicious characters unarmed, or without telling someone first, etc).There was nothing I didn’t like. My only irritation was this wasn’t a series, because I wanted MORE as soon as I was done. But I’ll have to settle for the author’s next unrelated work.
—Tara Hall
How can you combine doctors, lawyers, local mafia, serial killers, abusive spouses, and harvested organs on the black market, into a psychological thriller set in the beautiful pacific northwest, and not succeed? I'll tell you how! Read Wild Justice.Phillip Margolin lazily wrote Wild Justice, both in character development and from a plot standpoint. For example, we learn on page 160 that local mafia hitman Ed Gordon is an ex-marine who had been dishonorably discharged for assaulting an officer. An entire page later, in a chase scene in the woods, Margolin writes: "Gordon had hiked and camped in the army..." This sloppiness disproportionately bothered me and I wonder how it gets by both the author and the editor that the marines and the army are not the same. The protagonist is a young hotty who graduated at the top of her law school class, completed a prestigious clerkship, has now gone on to work for Daddy doing criminal defense work in the private sector, and is of course eminently single. Her unbelievable character, who has set her love life aside to succeed as a professional, immediately is smitten with an old friend from childhood who is tall, dark and handsome (and a doctor, God love it!). When the impending relationship is consummated, of course, the protagonist is all a quiver. It is perhaps the worst gratuitous sex scene in fiction, ever.The plot revolves around a serial killer and there are only 3 possible suspects: the coked-out doctor, his ex-wife he abused and who has a trail of dead husbands from whom she has collected life insurance proceeds, and the tall, dark and handsome love interest (did I mention he's a doctor?!). You'll never guess which one it is. Or, more likely, you'll guess who it is within the first hundred pages.Setting aside that we are not concerned with the characters and the psychology is not interesting, the narrative does not have a credible inner logic. In three of the primary professions in this book, law enforcement, law practice, and medicine, we see unethical and unbelievable conduct throughout. I debated giving this book 2 stars because it was interesting. But then I thought that train wrecks are interesting too, but that doesn't make them good.On the plus side, this is a fast read and if you are given the book, like I was, then it is free!
—Robbie
Finally, Margolin is back on his game!I've read Margolin's books since I came across The Burning Man but I've been sorely disappointed by many one of them since because they have never approached the power or the storytelling of that book. While Wild Justice is very much different than The Burning Man, it is a great page turner. I found the story to be inventive, if not twisted. Although, I figured out who the killer was with about 100 pages to go, there were so many plot twists that I doubted my conclusion several times. The ending was tension-filled and full of poetic justice. I'll be reading more.Read all of my Phillip Margolin reviews here: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/searc...
—Dale
