Betrayal is the latest Robin Lockwood novel and one of Phillip Margolin’s best. The story centers around the defense of an old opponent of Robin’s during her short-lived career as an MMA fighter. The defense seems hopeless as the evidence mounts up against her client and the interplay between Robin and the prosecutor (a man she is currently dating) is fascinating. There are subplots involving gambling and drugs all woven together to effectuate a great thriller with an extremely satisfying conclusion.
I thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication and, of course, Phillip Margolin for the creation of a series which I enjoy immensely.

What a complicated plot. There are so many people with motives for murder it makes this book a real thriller. You want guess the guilty party until the end b

As a fan of Philip Margolin I was pleased to have this ARC of Betrayal. I am also a fan of good legal thrillers. For the most part, Betrayal is a good story. But it is no legal thriller. First, the accused seems on the face of it to be innocent and it's hard to believe a prosecutor would go for the death penalty on such flimsy evidence. More annoying is the manner in which the author controlled the facts revealed to the reader. I read an entire novel based upon facts which were very weak. When the full story is revealed, it made me feel as though I wasted my time reading until that point.
So, still a fan of Philip Margolin. I guess every author misses from time to time.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Fans of the bestselling Robin Lockwood series by Phillip Margolin have been waiting patiently for the 7th book in the series, Betrayal. In this novel, Robin, who was previously an MMA fighter, and who continues to work out daily, attends a fight featuring the person who beat her so badly10 years prior in a televised competition, that Robin quit competition and focused on her law practice. Mandy Kerrigan is no longer a world champion, and loses the match. Kerrigan finds herself flunking a drug test which finds performance enhancing drugs in her system and beats up the drug dealer who had promised his drugs wouldn’t show up in a test. Then her drug dealer, Ryan Finch is found murdered along with the rest of his family and Kerrigan is accused and jailed. Lockwood takes the case, which, while investigating leads to Russian mafia ties, gambling ties to bookies, and a very dysfunctional family who has all been murdered.

While Margolin is an excellent storyteller, this novel is missing several elements that make it a believable story. For instance, Kerrigan is charged with the murders even though there is no proof or DNA evidence she was ever in the house, yet there was a break-in through the back of the house where Mandy never was. The evidence is only circumstantial and very thin. There are other suspects that have more motive, but law enforcement doesn’t agree. The Russian mafia connection doesn’t ring true, and Margolin fails to tie up loose ends by the end of the story. Alan Chen is a character who isn’t treated like he should be by law enforcement and his scenarios don’t seem plausible.

One thing Margolin does do well in this novel is develop his characters. Robin is a viable attorney and knows her stuff, and the court proceedings show how good of an attorney she really is. The supporting characters are also very believable – some likeable, and some not – but excellent in moving the story along.

Although this is a good novel, it isn't Margolin's best.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.