The Perfect Alibi

A Novel

By: Phillip Margolin

Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

"With lots of twists and turns to engage the listener and an entertaining narrator, this is a light and entertaining mystery." (Sound Commentary)

The "master of heart-pounding suspense" - New York Times best seller Phillip Margolin - returns with a new legal thriller starring Robin Lockwood.

A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape. Convicted with the help of indisputable DNA evidence, the athlete swears his innocence and threatens both his lawyer and his accuser as he's sent to prison. Not long after, there's another rape, and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes - which is seemingly impossible since the man convicted of the first rape was in prison at the time of the second one.

Now, the convicted athlete, joined by a new lawyer, is granted a new trial and bail. Shortly thereafter, his original lawyer disappears and his law partner is murdered.

Robin Lockwood is a young lawyer with a prestigious small law firm and a former MMA fighter who helped pay for Yale Law School with her bouts. She is representing the victim of the first rape for her civil lawsuit against her rapist, who is now convinced the rapist is stalking her and trying to intimidate her.

At the same time, another client is up on a murder charge - one that should be dismissed as self-defense - but the DA trying the case is determined to bring it to trial. Now, she has to mastermind two impossible cases, trying to find the hidden truth that links the two of them.

Phillip Margolin, the master of the legal thriller, returns in one of his twistiest, most compelling crime audiobooks yet.

©2019 Phillip Margolin (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Crowded.

2.5 stars

It has been several years since I have read a novel by Phillip Margolin. It only took me to chapter 3 to remember why.

I don’t have the short term memory capacity to keep up with the host of first and last names Margolin throws into his readers laps; oftentimes by way of a random off-topic tangent or abrupt switch of POV.

I remember this being the case in his Amanda Jaffee series. I didn’t realize she was the main character until Book 2. She, like Rockin Robin here in The Last alibi, got such minimal play time in the story she never stood out much amongst so many others. Being set in the same Oregon state, Amanda makes a brief and underwhelming cameo here as well...

I do enjoy a good legal thriller, but this felt like a short story filled with empty calories to meet a page count minimum. And after 69 chapters I still don’t know the results of the off-duty cop shooting briefly mentioned in Chapter 8. Loose knots all around.

A Clever Premise but…

I was scratching my head trying to figure out the major mystery. That part was good. But then the author threw in this other story that seemed like it should have been its own novel.
Girl gets raped by handsome jock rich boy who gets away with it because another rape was committed by someone with the same DNA. Twin? No. How is it possible?

Another Solid Margolin Novel

Phillip Margolin is one of my favorite authors, and remains so after I listened to this book. There's a lot going on, but I found the plot easy to follow even as I listened while driving or on my morning walk. It's interesting how some characters who are sympathetic or unsympathetic switch places in the listener's mind by the end of the book.

What Margolin doesn't do is get into deep psychological profiles of his key subjects. This is a more straight-forward novel than some authors write. He gives us enough to understand the characters and what drives them, but there are no moments akin to Hamlets soliloquy in which a character wrestles with demons or exposes deep, dark thoughts that help us understand his or her actions. If that's your cup of tea, you maybe disappointed in The Perfect Alibi.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a narrative that moves quickly, intertwines three distinctly different legal cases, exposes subjects to plausible danger, and brings the narrative to some surprising conclusions, this book's for you.

My one criticism is that he didn't finish off two of the subplots as neatly as I would have liked. One ended abruptly without a satisfactory outcome. The other sort of fizzled. The endings were more than adequate, but not as compelling as the ending to the third subplot.

One trick pony

Hint: The murderer is one of the very few people not slain. Too many bodies, not enough mystery.

Couldn't put it down!

I loved this book ❤️. it was suspenseful and litterally hooked you from beginning to end.

Great twists!

This is the first novel I’ve listened to by this author. The performer was great! I liked the story and it’s many twists!

Too bloody obvious.

Impossible that even idiot lawyer wouldn’t have come up with explanation for DNA evidence. Not impressed.

Somewhat Sketchy

Love this character Robin. The stories are interesting but half baked. A lot of good characters. Performance is top notch. I like the setting Oregon.

Fantastic story that needs to be a movie

I'm new to this author and am now a fan. Please give us another Robin Lockwood book.
Therese Plummer is narrative perfection. I've listened to 36 of her books.

Great read!

From start to finish very engaging. This is why PM is one of my favorites.