Synopses & Reviews
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 yearslater, 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 -- 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.:
Synopsis
Inside a cabin tucked away in the Oregon woods a grisly scene awaits investigating police. Arrested soon after for the heinous crime, Vincent Cardoni—a brilliant surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse—hires Portland's top attorney, Frank Jaffe, to defend him against a seemingly insurmountable pile of evidence.
Jaffe's daughter, Amanda—a young lawyer getting her first taste of criminal defense—wonders whether she's representing an innocent man or using her considerable skills to set a monster free. Then Cardoni disappears under bizarre circumstances.
Four years later the slaughter begins again. But is it Cardoni plying his gruesome trade, or the work of another equally brilliant, equally inspired killer? And can Amanda and policeman Bobby Vasquez hunt the elusive maniac down before they themselves fall victim to a psychopath's terrible hunger?
About the Author
Phillip Margolin has written more than a dozen
New York Times bestselling mysteries for adults, including
Gone, But Not Forgotten;
Executive Privilege; and
Wild Justice. With
Vanishing Acts, he is achieving two new firstshis first book for young readers and his first book with his daughter, Ami Margolin Rome.
Ami Margolin Rome works in education philanthropy and is a former Peace Corps volunteer. Like Madison, Ami grew up in Portland, Oregon, with a criminal defense attorney for a father. She still lives in Portland today, near her father.