Gone, But Not Forgotten by Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin practiced law in Portland, Oregon for many years before devoting full time to writing novels in the mid 1990’s.  Many of his works including his third novel, Gone, But Not Forgotten made the New York Times Best Seller list.

In this novel, protagonist Betsy Tannenbaum is an up and coming criminal defense attorney in Portland, Oregon.  Wealthy businessman, Martin Darius walks into her office one day and gives her a healthy retainer with no indication for why he needs legal representation.  Soon after, the bodies of women who’ve been kidnapped, tortured and murdered are found on a construction site owned by Darius.  Left behind at each of the women’s homes are a black rose and a note that reads “Gone, But Not Forgotten.”   No physical evidence ties Darius to the crimes and he is released on bail.  Then information surfaces tying Darius to similar crimes in New York state ten years earlier… but he was never charged.

 

Tannenbaum is caught in a moral dilemma.  She believes everyone deserves legal representation whether guilty or innocent but she can’t bring herself to defend Darius if he truly committed these heinous acts.  Then Darius’ wife is murdered while Martin is under surveillance so he is innocent of at least that crime.  But Tannenbaum’s investigator uncovers damning information about Darius concerning the New York crimes.  Could he be guilty of the crimes a decade earlier and be innocent of the recent Portland crimes?  Could there be a copycat killer? The more Tannenbaum learns the more she is drawn to the case and the more the lives of her and her family are in jeopardy.

This is the second time I’ve read Gone, But Not Forgotten… the first nearly twenty years ago.  I’ve read several of Margolin’s novels since that time but of late find myself disappointed by comparison to his earlier books.  Re-reading Gone, But Not Forgotten reaffirms for me that Margolin’s earlier works were as good as I remembered.  Gone, But Not Forgotten has the disturbing grit of Connelly’s Concrete Blond and the startling spin of Turow’s Presumed Innocence… two of my other favorites of the nineties.

The Likeness

This is my fourth Tana French novel, The Likenss, and it is both totally implausible and totally gripping. The murder victim is Detective Cassie Maddox’s doppelganger, so under the name of Lexie Madison, Cassie infiltrates a unique group of college students at the very college where she previously did undercover work. But Lexie Madison was the fake identity Cassie and her boss had created for the prior undercover job, and sometime after that old operation ended and Cassie left the school, it was the identity that the murdered woman had chosen to steal. Do you follow that? With a bit of reality suspension by the reader, it works. Tana French’s writing and character development is wonderful although this one is not quite up to the quality of In The Woods or Faithful Place. I’m a fan, and I’ve already acquired Broken Harbor and will read that one soon.

A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson

Getting on towards fall in Absaroka County, Wyoming. The local high school football team (the Durant Dogies, not Doggies) is set to retire the numbers of Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear. Neither is too interested.

An angel who helps out with the chores and eats the food left for him has frequented an old lady in Durant. The angel is a ‘lost boy’, a Mormon teenager named Cord who was ex-communicated for his behavior. None too bright and unaware of his family other than he is being watched over by one Orrin Porter Rockwell, The Destroying Angel and Danite, Man of God, Son of Thunder - Bodyguard to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. That would make him over 200 years old.

Now Walt doesn’t like loose ends dangling in his county so he sets out to find Cord’s parents without upsetting the sensibilities of the Son of Thunder. Longmire soon learns that an almost nomadic tribe of the Mormon faithful, under the guidance of the massively obese Roy Lynear, has purchased a ranch barely inside Absaroka County. They have had compounds set up in Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, and now Wyoming. Heavily armed to boot. And staffed by ex-military or company types.

Why is it something as simple as a ‘lost boy’ turns into a far more complex case involving six figure drilling bits, a knife throwing Mexican Poet/drug enforcer with the all the humanity of Keyser Soze (1995’s The Usual Suspects), uneducated teenage guards with .50 caliber BFGs (use your imagination), and a local ranch wife rumored to be former CIA. And when the big showdown is imminent, the poorly-armed Walt and Henry set off to face the Lynear compound with Steadfast Resolution (is that great or what?) as their most potent weapon.

‘Nuff said. Another winner from Craig Johnson. Actually, at this point (this is my 9^th Longmire book and will be heading to the library tomorrow for #10) I might say that this one could be my favorite of the bunch so far. High praise for an outstanding series. 

My question is simple: If you have yet to join Longmire’s Posse, what are you waiting for?

East Coast Don

Insider X by Dave Buschi

It's called Facility 67096. In China. The best, brightest, fluent in both book and slang English, as well as being the most Internet savvy are recruited by the People's Liberation Army. Here, they digitally manipulate the West by producing some of the most contrived 'comments' for the social media craze. The idea being that the next war, a digital war, can begin when the West goes into an upheaval over what everyone else is thinking (via these contrived comments) inserted surreptitiously to manipulate retail sales, services, social structure, and, importantly, politics. 

These recruits are given luxury housing, high salaries, access to trendy fashion, gourmet food in exchange for 12h days making up the most outlandish stuff to insert into social media. Marks (muscle) and Lip (geek) lead a small team trying to learn more about what goes on inside this manicured compound. What they learn leads them to set up a near apocalyptic meltdown of the Facility, weakening China's impending war effort. 

I had a number of issues with this book. First, Buschi gives the reader a really long and detailed account of just what is needed to screw up the minds of the Internet-obsessed West. Second, Marks and Lip (who were sort of a mismatched Mutt and Jeff in Buschi's Proportionate Response) are little more than a sidelight to all the goings on inside the Facility. Third, this book could've been cut by well over half and inserted into some Internet Computing magazine providing a cautionary tale about how social media can be (and is) manipulated; but it probably wouldn’t have the same exposure. But seriously, do you reeeeeeeally believe all those reviews or comments (or even waste your time) at the bottom of some many websites? If anything, this book should make the reader either mad that such manipulation is going on or angry that what was essentially (to me at least) a short story turned into a droning lecture. After reading Proportionate Response (not a bad effort, but for reasons beyond my grasp, is our 3^rd most read review), I thought more Marks/Lip might be pretty entertaining. Not any more.

East Coast Don

Some Luck by Jane Smiley

Some Luck by Jane Smiley is the first in what is promised to be a trilogy about an Iowa farm family through multiple generations.  I was attracted to the book after reading Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize winning A Thousand Acres and found it a worthwhile read.  But after a half dozen chapters I gave up on Some Luck.  The author just takes too long to get to the meat of her story.  Her Iowa farm characters from the 1920’s just aren’t that interesting and I didn’t have the patience to see if that would change.  For this to be another Pulitzer Prize winner it will take a lot more than some luck.

Woman with a Gun by Phillip Margolin

Woman with a Gun is very different than any other Phillip Margolin book I’ve read as it is developed around an intriguing premise… a photograph of a woman in a wedding dress holding a six shooter.

 

Stacey Kim is an aspiring young author visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  She is fascinated by this Pulitzer winning photograph taken by Kathy Moran.  Stacey is so inspired that she decides to make this the subject of her first novel.  But she needs to learn all she can about the circumstances surrounding the woman in the photograph.  So she goes to Oregon to research the background.  She learns the woman is Megan Cahill of Palisades Heights, Oregon and the picture was taken ten years earlier outside her ocean front home on the night of her wedding, the night her new husband, Raymond Cahill was murdered.  Even though Megan was holding the murder weapon, she was never charged with the crime… in fact no one was.  Kathy Moran was a local waitress with aspirations to be a photographer and just happened on the right place at the right time to snap the shot that launched her career.

Stacey meets with all the players from the decade old murder.  Police detectives, DA’s, Megan’s attorneys, and several known associates of Megan and Kathy.  She learns Kathy had a previous encounter with one of the DA’s five years before the murder.  All this stirring of the pot brings new evidence to light.  Stacey uncovers a connection between Raymond Cahill and his murderer.  But Stacey’s discovery makes her the target of the murderer’s next crime.

Phillip Margolin does a good job of weaving together three apparently unrelated plot lines over a fifteen year period.  Plus the intriguing photograph of a woman in a wedding dress holding a six shooter sets the stage for high expectations.  But as a fan of Margolin from the late 1990’s, I set my expectations a bit too high and came away somewhat disappointed.  While this is a good story and an entertaining read, I know Margolin is capable of more.  Perhaps I need to go back and reread Gone but Not Forgotten or The Last Innocent Man to confirm my perception is indeed a reality.

Invisible by James Patterson and David Ellis

Invisible is one of those books written by a somewhat unknown author and branded by James Patterson to help sell it.  Sorry for the sarcasm but I’ve read several David Ellis books and find him talented in his own right.  Therefore, I find the marketing gimmick manipulative and even offensive.  I recently saw James Paterson on a morning talk show where he stated he didn’t need to do anything for the money anymore.  So I guess he thinks he’s being philanthropic by helping promising young writers but for me his arrogance over shadows his good intentions.  That said Invisible is a reasonably good thriller and obviously has the David Ellis style.  My advice is to read it and forget about how it was marketed… enough said, maybe too much.