Lost Lake

A violent incident at a little league game, a gruesome murder on Lost Lake twenty years prior, a confessed murderer, and an ex-mental patient with conspiracy theories who happens to be the daughter of a General running for president. How all this and other dark events that span the time between the two incidents are related is something attorney Ami Vergano must discover as she becomes caught between reality and delusion. The thrill is trying to figure out which is which. This book packs a powerful punch filled with complex characters and themes. It kept me on edge--I simply couldn't put it down. This is the first novel I've read of Phillip Margolin and I'm hooked. I can't wait to read the others!

I "found" Philip Margolin only six months ago and have read all of his books. This is his best yet, I didn't want to put it down at all. All the characters are explained up front and the story goes along smoothly, then becomes so exciting right in front of your eyes that you are on the "edge of your seat", so to speak. I was so sorry when it ended, I wanted it to go on and on. I would recommend this to anyone loving a good mystery with amazing plot twists.

During Vietnam, a powerful general ran a secret, elite unit of spies and assassins to carry out his private agendas--which included the murder of a United States senator. At least, that's what his daughter, Vanessa Kohler, has maintained for many years. But no one believes Vanessa, who has a history of serious mental illness. She's written off as paranoid, a crank--and the fact she works as a tabloid reporter doesn't elevate her reputation any. Now Vanessa catches a glimpse of a man on the TV news, a man she thought long dead. He is one of her father's assassins. And if he is still alive, he is the one person who could prove the Unit existed. But the man, Carl Rice, now living under an assumed name, has his own problems--namely that he's been charged with attempted murder for intervening in a Little League game when a parent physically threatened the coach. He stuck a ballpoint pen in the guy's throat. Caught in the middle of all this is single-mom lawyer Ami Vergano, who is Carl's landlord. The man has been nothing but gentle and friendly until this incident. So when Vanessa comes to her with her wild claims, demanding that Ami represent Carl, she tries to get out of it. But the more she hears, the more intrigued she becomes. There is a thread of truth to what Vanessa's story. And Ami, though she is not a criminal attorney, gets sucked in to the drama, all the while trying to protect herself and her young son. This is a first-rate thriller reminiscent of the movie Conspiracy Theory. Sometimes paranoids have enemies, and sometimes they're not imagining things. It's easy to sympathize with Vanessa even as she makes one poor choice after another in her quest to prove her father, now a presidential candidate, is a cold-blooded murderer. Even Carl, a trained killer, is made sympathetic. I really could not put this book down.

What would happen when a writer for a tabloid newspaper reporter writes a series of fantastic, or perhaps fanatical, stories about a vast secret conspiracy headed by a popular presidential candidate. First the stories would be totally ignored by the mainstream media. And then when it was discovered that the writer had been hospitalized in a mental institution by her father, the presidential candidate, any possible credulence would disappear. But of course, what if it's true. Then again, what if it's not. If it exists, the conspiracy has killed before. Dangerous people to annoy. Like any good mystery, the tale twists and turns until it gets to the somewhat surprising ending. A very good read.

General Morris Wingate is running for his party' presidential nomination against the incumbent president. To the public at large he is a hero who used his security officers from the company he owns to rescue hostages in Afghanistan. What they don't know is that when Wingate ran the agency for intelligence data coordination, he formed a black ops organization and assigned the men to kill those he declared as enemy combatants of the United States. To dissolve his personal unit, Morris sent his men into a trap in North Vietnam where they all died except for Carl Rice who escaped. Carl was once the lover of Wingate's daughter Vanessa Kohler. When she found about the unit she tried to expose her father as a traitor, but he instead had her committed to a mental institution and now nobody takes her seriously especially since she works on the tabloid Exposed. Carl surfaces after fifteen years on the run; he and Vanessa team up in the hopes of exposing retired General Wingate to the American people. Phillip Margolin has written an exciting political thriller that captures and keeps the audience's attention even when fans know almost from the start that Wingate is evil but cleverly eliminates anyone who knew about his clandestine activities. The audience will keep reading just to find out given the lack of no paper trail or other evidence how Wingate can be convicted in a legal court room or in the court of public opinion. LOST LAKE is a chilling work because the premise feels so plausible. Harriet Klausner