Lost Lake » (Reprint)

While his love for Perry Mason novels inspired him to spend 25 years as a criminal defense attorney, Phillip Margolin eventually left the courtroom to pen his own authoritative, twist-laden legal thrillers, including Gone but Not Forgotten and Ties That Bind.

Un joven diputado es torturado y asesinado en Lost Lake, a orillas de un lago californiano. Vanessa, hija del general Wingate, cree reconocer al agresor: se trata de Carl Rice, un veterano de Vietnam que trabaja para su padre en una unidad militar secreta con licencia para matar. Pero la chica es recluida en un psiquiátrico y sus acusaciones desoídas. Años después, la joven abogada Ami Vergano acude al partido de su hijo Ryan. Debido a la violencia con que concluye un incidente en el partido, el episodio salta a los informativos nacionales. Ami Vergano, involuntariamente involucrada en el paranoico mundo de Vanessa y Rice, no sabe si las acusaciones de éstos son el producto de dos mentes enfermas: será ella quien deberá decidir a quién y qué creer.

Publishers Weekly

Like the lake of its title, Margolin's latest suspense novel (a hybrid with traces of legal thriller and whodunit and a big debt to The Manchurian Candidate) is smooth on the surface with tumultuous secrets lurking beneath. In Portland, Ore., lawyer and single mom Ami Vergano is pleased to take in handsome handyman Dan Morelli as a tenant, since he provides a positive male role model for her 10-year-old son, Ryan. Meanwhile, across the country in Washington, tightly wound tabloid reporter Vanessa Kohler spins elaborate paranoid fantasies (or are they?) involving personal danger and government conspiracy. These two women-and their respective plot threads-come together when Dan's volatility turns a Little League game into a crime scene, and Vanessa steps forward to support him, at considerable risk. But this is only the beginning of a labyrinthine plot built on twists and surprises. Hint: Vanessa's father is an influential general and political power broker. Margolin isn't the most original writer, but what he lacks in style he makes up for in clarity. Plotting is his strong suit. The artful arrangement of the story's episodes keeps the suspense high, and the author fills in the puzzle shrewdly, with small pieces from all over the chronology. The surprises keep coming, even after the story settles mostly into a courtroom drama, with Ami defending Dan on a high-stakes charge. Agent, Jean Naggar. 5-city author tour. (Mar. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.