The Darkest Place (Robin Lockwood #5) by Phillip Margolin #bookreview #thriller

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Title: The Darkest Place

Author: Phillip Margolin

Publisher: Minotaur Books 

Publication Date: March 8, 2022

Page Count: 269

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

Defense attorney Robin Lockwood faces an unimaginable personal disaster and her greatest professional challenge in the next New York Times bestselling Phillip Margolin’s new legal thriller, The Darkest Place.

Robin Lockwood is an increasingly prominent defense attorney in the Portland community. A Yale graduate and former MMA fighter, she’s becoming known for her string of innovative and successful defense strategies. As a favor to a judge, Robin takes on the pro bono defense of a reprehensible defendant charged with even more reprehensible crimes. But what she doesn’t know—what she can’t know—is how this one decision, this one case, will wreak complete devastation on her life and plans.

As she recovers from those consequences, Robin heads home to her small town of Elk Grove and the bosom of her family. As she tries to recuperate, a unique legal challenge presents itself—Marjorie Loman, a surrogate, is accused of kidnapping the baby she carried for another couple, and assaulting that couple in the process. There’s no question that she committed these actions but that’s not the same as being guilty of the crime. As Robin works to defend her client, she learns that Marjorie Loman has been hiding under a fake identity and is facing a warrant for her arrest for another, even more serious crime. And buried within the truth may once again be unexpected, deadly consequences.

The Darkest Place by Phillip Margolin is the fifth installment in the legal thriller Robin Lockwood series. Each book of this series really could be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel with each having the case involved wrapped up by the end. There is some important character development that carries over from book to book however with all the main characters so it’s best enjoyed from the beginning.

In the first book of the series readers were introduced to Robin Lockwood, a former MMA fighter, who had been just beginning as an assistant attorney and now she is back tackling her own cases after working with her mentor Regina Barrister. Now Robin has suffered a tragedy in her life sending her back to her hometown where she meets another attorney looking for an assist on a huge case. Robin of course pitches in to help the defendant with another unusual defence.

The Robin Lockwood series is one that I have followed from the beginning being a fan of legal thrillers. This one has that element of action inside and outside of the courtroom that I love and with one tough lead I couldn’t help but become a fan. Even after following from the beginning I can’t help but be surprised with each new book with the direction the story takes with this latest installment being no exception with it’s own shocking twists that kept the pages turning.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

PHILLIP MARGOLIN has written over twenty novels, most of them New York Times bestsellers, including Gone But Not Forgotten, Lost Lake, and Violent Crimes. In addition to being a novelist, he was a long time criminal defense attorney with decades of trial experience, including a large number of capital cases. Margolin lives in Portland, Oregon.