EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE by Phillip Margolin
Phillip Margolin has not released a new novel since 2005’s LOST LAKE. Now he is back on the scene with a new thriller titled EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE. This one has one of his most inventive plots and is full of the trademark Margolin suspense. It is certainly good to have this talented writer back.
In this book Christopher Farrington is the President of the United States. He is running for re-election and one of his biggest campaign assets is his strong and powerful wife, who has just announced she is pregnant with their second child. With this news the candidate looks unbeatable. There is one major problem. He has some dark secrets that are possibly going to be exposed.
The person who might do the exposing is Dana Cutler. She is a private investigator who works for an anonymous client. One of her jobs is to follow a young woman named Charlotte Walsh. Charlotte is a volunteer at the campaign headquarters of Farrington’s opponent. One night she leaves work late and goes to a distant location and meets Christopher Farrington. The next morning she turns up dead.
In Oregon Brad Miller is a low ranking attorney in a high powered law firm. He is assigned to take on the appeal of a serial killer who is on death row. The killer has been convicted of several crimes, which he is not contesting, but there is one murder of which he says he is innocent. Over time a link between this murder and the death of Charlotte Walsh will be established.
Margolin takes his story from one side of the country to the other always having causal links between the two. Finally the major issue of the plot comes down to the question of whether or not the President of the United States is a serial killer.
For some reason this is not one of Margolin’s best novels. It doesn’t seem to have the tightness his stories usually have, and the characters though interesting are not totally believable. The book moves at a swift pace but there are a few plot points that are just too coincidental.
Still a second best Phillip Margolin novel is better than the first rate stories of many other authors. He has a style and a grasp of plot that few can match. You can always rest assured this author knows exactly where his story is headed and he gets you there with thrills to spare.
If you, like I, have been anxiously anticipating the next Philip Margolin novel, well the wait is over and here it is. EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE may not be the best Margolin story ever, but it is a good solid read.
EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE is published by Harper Collins. It contains 360 pages and sells for $25.95.