'Wild Justice'
By Phillip Margolin
HarperCollins,$26
When Portland Detective Bobby Vasquez receives an anonymous tip that notorious drug dealer Martin Breach is about to make a large cocaine sale to prominent surgeon Vincent Cardoni in a remote mountain cabin, he's faced with a choice. He can try to corroborate the tip, obtain a lawful warrant, and search the cabin. Or he can just search the cabin without a warrant and hope his fabricated excuse for doing so holds up in court. Intent on nailing Breach, Vasquez opts to ignore the legal niceties.
The cabin, as it turns out, holds no cocaine but does feature two severed heads carefully stored in the fridge. A nearby makeshift burial ground contains the mutilated remains of nine bodies. The bloodstained operating table in the basement makes it clear that this was the work of an insane serial killer. And all but conclusive evidence points to Cardoni, a notoriously violent surgeon.
All this by Page 59, and the pace only begins to accelerate in Portland writer Phillip Margolin's new thriller, "Wild Justice." Margolin, who specializes in the serial-murderer-gone-amok genre, is a splendid writer. Several of his prior books have been New York Times best sellers since his 1994 best known novel, "Gone, But Not Forgotten."
Cardoni, a spectacularly unappealing man dubbed "Dr. Death" by the tabloids, is arrested, but he protests his innocence and fingers his estranged wife, Dr. Justine Castle, as framing him. Cardoni hires top-gun criminal defense lawyer Frank Jaffe and his daughter, Amanda, who has just graduated from law school. In a showstopping hearing, Jaffe exposes Vasquez's perfidity and wins Cardoni his freedom, much to Jaffe's, and his daughter's, discomfort. Cardoni swiftly disappears, leaving behind a handful of evidence indicating that he is apparently dead.
But four years later another series of disturbingly sadistic and grisly murders are discovered in a remote farm house, complete with torture notes and body parts. (Really, it's hard to find this many severed heads and body parts for just $26.) Justine Castle is arrested at the scene and the evidence tips rather dramatically against her. She insists on her innocence and claims she's being framed by her ex-husband. But she has a more complicated history than we've been let on and her defense - led by Amanda Jaffe, now a seasoned lawyer in her own right - is no cake walk. Amanda struggles to reconcile who she thinks is really guilty with her duty to defend her client.
"Wild Justice" has the gritty feel of reality, with careful and accurate descriptions of Portland-area locations, and character development that lets you feel for Amanda's struggle to emerge from her father's shadow, as well as her internal conflict over her duty to defend even a client who she believes is guilty. Make no mistake: this is no Grisham cutout. Margolin's compelling writing, thoughtful plot and colorful narrative all put the best seller of the courtroom genre to shame.
Margolin is a former criminal defense attorney from Portland, and his experience shows. Virtually all of the courtroom maneuvers are accurate, which is no small trick to accomplish while at the same time maintaining an accelerating narrative velocity. But the attorney-client privilege sure takes a beating here: Amanda blabs her clients' confidences left and right (which a lawyer is forbidden from doing). Perhaps we are to discern the errors of a new lawyer, or maybe it's just literary license. Either way, it's not much comfort to her clients, though, who are facing the death penalty or worse.
The book's title is taken from a quote from Francis Bacon, quoted at the outset: "Revenge is a kind of wild justice." And there's certainly plenty to spread around. Justine Castle wants revenge for her brutal mistreatment by her husband during their marriage; Vincent Cardoni wants revenge against his wife for setting him up; the drug dealer Martin Breach wants revenge for a body-part sale gone awry for which he blames Cardoni; Vasquez wants revenge for a ruined career. Amid the flying accusations and counteraccusations, its hard to find a character who does not cross your mind as a suspect before you finally snap your fingers and figure it all out.
