Mon. Nov 11th, 2024

Wild Justice by Philip Margolin

Wild Justice (1991) by Philip Margolin is a serviceable crime mystery that appeals to me mostly because it is set in my hometown of Portland, Oregon.

The story is pretty good, featuring a medically-trained torturer-slash-serial-killer, an emerging young criminal defense attorney and some Mafioso types. The mystery is fairly well-crafted and worth a read if you just want to be entertained.

I struggled with two parts. First, it was pretty easy to spot the who in the whodunit. It may seem formulaic, but the person who engages in a romantic dalliance with the protagonist should always be suspected. Second, mystery writers should be wary of the urge to have the villain recite his whole (foiled) plan near the end. The speech always has an imagined terminus: “and I would have succeeded if not for you meddlesome kids.” Scooby is okay with this. It doesn’t work in real mystery novels.

Link to Wild Justice on Powells.com

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Posted by Drevil, 6/20/2014

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