Wild Justice

Seven years ago, Phillip Margolin seized the imagination of thriller readers everywhere with his chilling breakout bestseller, Gone, but Not Forgotten. After five subsequent New York Times bestsellers, Margolin now returns to the haunting terrain of Gone, but Not Forgotten with a mesmerizing tour de force of psychological suspense, an electrifying tale of revenge and retribution that shows a master storyteller at the very peak of his craft.

Thursday: Subject is still combative after four days of applied pain, sleep deprivation and minimal food.

Vice squad detective Bobby Vasquez, for months on the trail of a slippery underworld figure, receives an anonymous tip that directs him to a mountain cabin. He races through the idyllic Oregon woods, expecting to close the book on a long-standing vendetta. What he finds instead opens a Pandora's box of horror that will haunt him to his dying day.

8:10: Subject bound and gaffed and placed in upstairs closet at end of hall. Turned out lights in house, drove off, then parked and doubled back. Watched from woods.

Within hours, Vincent Cordoni — a brilliant surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse — is arrested for a heinous crime. Facing a seemingly insurmountable wall of evidence, he turns to Portland's top criminal defense attorney, Frank Jaffe — who, along with his ambitious daughter, Amanda, must put on an inspired defense. Amanda's first taste of criminal defense work is as intoxicating as it is chilling, but it raises moral questions she's loath to address. Is she defending an innocent man? Or is she using her considerable skills to set a monster free? Then Cardoni disappears under bizarre circumstances. Four years later, a second set of murders has begun...

8:55: Subject exits house, naked and barefoot, armed with kitchen knife. Remarkable strength of character. Breaking her will be a challenge.

Has Cardoni resurfaced to ply his deadly trade anew? Is there a copycat killer? Or has the real killer been someone else all along? The police will do everything they can to stop Cardoni #&151; but they have to find him first.

Following a twisting trail of clues, including a harrowing diary that clinically records the killer's horrible deeds, Amanda Jaffe and Bobby Vasquez join the hunt — and themselves become targets of the twenty-first century's first genuinely monstrous psychopath.

"The scariest book I've read since Red Dragon. I couldn't put it down." Michael Palmer, author of The Patient

"Breathtaking....Pages will turn fast enough to make the perfect breeze for chilling beachside escapists." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The relentless barrage of gruesome murders and counter-accusations creates a legal thriller that's crude, grisly, horrific, and often suspenseful, though never exactly scary, except when you wonder about the citizens who are buying this stuff." Kirkus Reviews

"A very clever thriller indeed, and a delight for Margolin's many fans." Booklist

When the severed heads of two women are found near a mass grave of long-missing bodies, all signs point toward one man: a surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse. Then evidence amassed against him is overturned, the surgeon disappears, and the killings start again.

Phillip Margolin is the Edgar Award-nominated author of Gone, but not Forgotten; The Undertaker's Widow; The Burning Man; After Dark; Hearstone; and The Last Innocent Man. He and his wife live in Portland, Oregon, where for twenty years he was a practicing criminal defense attorney.