Ties That Bind

By: Phillip Margolin

Narrated by: George Guidall

On the outside, Amanda Jaffe has healed from the traumatic events that concluded the sensational New York Times best seller Wild Justice, but inside, she's struggling to regain her self-assurance. When she is forced to represent a pimp accused of murder (a case no other lawyer will touch), her client threatens her, strirring up the trauma to such an extent that she must finally seek the help of a psychiatrist.

Her opponent on the murder case, ADA Tom McCorkle, is a local hero (he won the Heisman Trophy and secured for the University of Oregon its only victory in the Rose Bowl fifteen years earlier) who is embroiled in his own crisis of confidence, because his popularity is based on a lie. When two people involved in Amanda's case also wind up murdered, Amanda's investigation reveals strange links between a powerful group of men and a drug-related bloodbath many years before. They're called "The Courthouse Athletic Club" but who are they? Why are they interested in a small-time pimp? And is it possible that their power and influence reaches all the way to the presidency?

©2003 Phillip Margolin (P)2003 Recorded Books, Inc. & © 2003 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Slick and convincing and sure to please thriller fans of all kinds." (Booklist)

Good Book!

This was a good book. Well conceived and well executed. The characters are convincing, the plot is credible, coincidences don't happen too often to make things work out.
It had me engaged all the way through.
I recommend this book.

Pretty good

I liked it but it's forgetible... ya know, airplane paperback type of time-passing-but-not-really-deeply-engaging kinda book.

Great story aNd great story teller ! Thanks!

The book surpassed all my expectations.
And was well written and well told!!
Thanks . I'm going to read all Marigold books !!!!

Can't tear yourself away!

I think this is one of his best that I've read (heard)from him. Couldn't put it away, even lost some sleep to get to the end. Well worth the listen. Has some clever twists and secrets all the way through.

Stinko!

Adequate characters, and the writer had craft BUT, this "story" stinks! I have never been so disappointed with the way a writer ended a plot. He betrays the reader with one narrative, then inserts an incongruous, entirely different storyline that assumes the reader is a dolt! Margolin appears to have contempt for his readers, assuming we accept any twaddle that let's him write, "The End" when it's obvious that he's grown tired of the entire thing.

I worried about getting this book after the way Margolin's "Wild Justuce" fell apart at the end, but I enjoyed some of his ensemble enough to try "Ties That Bind". Boy am I sorry. Margolin's needs to become a ghost writer for someone who has plot ideas, his just evaporate in the end.

Don't buy this thing, even with George Guidal, it was - in the end - Un-saveable! Stinko!