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In "Wild Justice," attorney and best-selling author
Phillip Margolin creates a tale full of psychological suspense.
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SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
r
ormer criminal defense
attorney Phillip Margolin
wants his books to "move
like a bandit," and what
could be more appropriate for legal
thrillers that delve into the lives of
quick-handed killers?
Wild Justice (HarperCollins; $26),
Margolin's seventh mystery, seeks out a
serial murderer adept at eluding
police. It's the subject of his talk
Sunday, Nov. 12, at the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center, as part of the 49th Annual
Jewish Book Fair.
"I love to read, and the most fun for
me is reading a book that I can't put
down," says Margolin, 56, who moved
from a full-time attorney/part-time
novelist to a full-time writer in 1996.
"I try to write that type of book, with
lots of surprises and a surprise ending,
"The media can
make out lawyers
to be jerks and
horrible people,
which I think is
totally false.
I was very proud
to be a criminal
defense lawyer"
— Phillip Margolin
and I felt Wild Justice succeeded.
"All of my books have a murder, a
framework of multiple suspects and a
lawyer who's the main character, but I
try to do something different with
each one. Heartstone is almost like a
historical novel. The Burning Man is a
coming-of-age book."
Margolin has watched his mysteries
make the New York Times bestsellers
lists and was cast as a jury foreman
when his second thriller, The Last
Innocent Man, was made into an HBO
movie.
In Wild Justice, a father-daughter
legal team, Frank and Amanda Jaffe,
stay at the center of an investigation.
"I'm Jewish so I thought, 'Why
not make the characters Jewish?"'
says Margolin, who keeps religion
out of this plot. "I didn't have any
reason other than that. I try to give
people an idea of what it's like to be
a criminal defense lawyer, [touching
on] some of the pressures and the
ethical choices they confront.
"Frank and Amanda are pretty good
examples of what I try to do. Some of
the conversations they have show that
lawyers can feel good professionally
and still have moral reservations.
"The media can make out lawyers to
be jerks and horrible people, which I
think is totally false. I was very proud
to be a criminal defense lawyer. I lived
in a West African dictatorship while I
was in the Peace Corps for two years
and really came to appreciate just how
important our system of justice is."
Margolin doesn't look to his person-
al experience for story lines. Instead,
he keeps a clipping file of articles that
could steer him in one direction or
another and mulls over an idea until it
starts taking off.
Once into the writing, Margolin
tries to keep courtroom procedures, as
well as lawyerly attitudes and dialogue,
as realistic as possible but uses literary
license if a surprise is needed to build
the tension. The author considers his
books abridgements of what goes on
as people go to court. He keeps the
action and does away with the delays
he believes readers would find boring.
"Trying a case in reality is totally
different from trying a case in fiction,"
says the author, who has represented
30 homicide suspects and has been
retained in 12 death-penalty cases dur-
ing his 25 years in practice.
"Most cases are fairly clear as to who
the actual perpetrator is. A lot of times
you go to trial because the district
attorney's office won't offer a deal or
because there's a good chance they
won't be able to prove [their allega-
tions].
"Real cases frequently turn on last-
minute guilty pleas or some technical
evidence rules that keep something
out. They're much more mundane
than what you find on Perry Mason or
in my stuff"
Book tours motivated Margolin's
decision to stop practicing because of
the time commitment. His appearance
in Michigan comes as part of his fifth
national tour. He also has done three
book tours in Europe.
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