Following his fan-favorite novel The Third Victim (2018), bestselling author Phillip Margolin will release an all-new legal thriller in early 2019 called The Perfect Alibi, which brings back one of his best new characters.
The Third Victim followed the story of Alex Mason, a man accused of kidnapping and torturing three girls before one of them escaped, ultimately leading to his arrest even though he swore he was innocent. Hiring Regina Barrister, a legendary criminal defense attorney known as “The Sorceress” for her courtroom victories, Alex set out to clear his name . . . but Robin Lockwood, one of Regina’s young, recently-hired lawyers, quickly discovers that the iconic attorney wasn’t quite herself. Subsequently, the burden to figure out what was really going on falls to Robin, who on top of trying to defend Alex, must investigate her boss as well.
Now, Robin is set to return in The Perfect Alibi, this time to defend a local athlete who was accused of raping a woman and sent to prison. Later, his DNA is found at another crime scene while her client was behind bars, stirring controversy as a new trial is granted . . . and Lockwood tries to clear his name once and for all.
See the cover art and plot details below!
New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin returns in the latest book in his new series of legal thrillers
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—starting at the same bar—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—with 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.
According to his author bio, 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 longtime criminal defense attorney with decades of trial experience, including a large number of capital cases. Margolin lives in Portland, Oregon.
The Perfect Alibi comes out on March 5, 2019, and is currently available for pre-order here or anywhere else books are sold.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.