A Reasonable Doubt by Phillip Margolin is the third installment in the legal thriller Robin Lockwood series, but can be read as a standalone story. Robin Lockwood is a young criminal defense attorney and partner in a prominent law firm in Portland, Oregon. She is also a former MMA fighter and can take care of herself. Regina Barrister was her mentor and boss, but was forced to retire with the onset of Alzheimer’s. Robert Chesterfield, one of Regina's former clients shows up looking for her assistance to acquire a patent for a magic illusion. Robin talks to Regina about Robert, and finds out the story behind his past case. When he performs his new trick, he disappears and can not be found. Did he run? Is he dead? Does any of what is happening now have anything to do with the deaths from twenty years ago?

The story is old in two timelines as we find out what happened twenty years, which is when the legal scenes take place. The present story unfolds with Robin and her investigator trying to sort our what happened to Robert during his illusion. Robert is not well liked and there are many people who would want him dead, many from the old case, but also another magician and some questionable investors. This book was not so much a legal thriller, like the previous two books, but a mystery. The two main characters, Robin and Chesterfield were well developed and I was rooting for Robin to solve the mystery and take down the bad guy. Although I did enjoy this story, I hope the next book goes back to a more legal thriller theme.

It’s been a while since I read a Phillip Margolin book and I don’t know why because I always enjoyed them. This one is no exception. This is the first Robin Lockwood in the series that I’ve read but case-wise it was a stand alone novel. I love that magic is featured because, like many people, I’m a little obsessed by illusions. So, magic, seemingly unrelated murder, a little bit of courtroom a darn good story and we’ve got one heck of a book. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

The book was good, but won't be memorable. I liked the reoccurring characters from the series. The connection to magic was also interesting. The end of the story though was just ok for me. It was wrapped up and done. I do like this author and this series so I will continue with it.

Another book in the Robin Lockwood series.I was drawn right in .The. characters the storyline kept me turning the pages.An author who writes so well highly recommend.#netgalley#st.Martins books,

A sleazy guy walks into a law firm and lies. Shocker.
A magician with an agenda walks into a law firm and perpetrates fraud.
Someone is killed and figuring out who and why becomes the pursuit.

It was confusing to follow sometimes, so wasn't the most fun book to read.

2.5*
I’ve always been a huge fan of Phillip Margolin. In fact I’ve read ever book he’s released. Sadly, I have to say this was my least favorite. So remotely different it felt like a different author.

A magician walks into Robin Lockwood’s law firm. He’s looking for one of the founding partners who gave him some legal help in the past. He needs help with a patenting one of his magic tricks. Soon... that will be the least of the magic mans’ problems.

Since I have been enjoying this author’s work over the years, I will likely be back to pick up his next release. Hoping this is just a case of a one off.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC to read and review.

A Reasonable Doubt is about a Magician named Bobby Chesterfield and his possible cons and crimes. Robin is coerced into becoming Chesterfield's attorney and so becomes involved in all of his previous and future court cases. When Chesterfield shows up dead after one of his magic acts, Robin must figure out who did it and why. I found this book to be very long-winded and hard to follow. There are too many different characters introduced and the story of the crimes takes place over too many years. I wanted to like this story but was not at all impressed.

A Reasonable Doubt is the second book that I've read by Phillip Margolin. Unfortunately, this novel just didn't work for me, unlike "A Perfect Alibi" - which I loved. I struggled from the get go with this one. When a former client of Robin's firm approaches hers needing help, she takes the case, duped by this man who fools everyone at first. He is dastardly however and cannot be trusted as his wife and several other people from his past could attest, that is they were around to tell the tale. How will this work out for Robin? Time will tell.

Sadly, I couldn't help but roll my eyes from time to time. I loved Mr. Margolin's last book and felt as though this novel fell a tad short.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc.

Philip Margolin's Robin Lockwood stories have some virtues--Portland atmosphere, interesting supporting characters, nice backstory, clever courtroom confrontations and semi-realistic picture of practicing lawyers. But the writing is often wooden, and plotting is too obvious, driving the characters rather than letting the characters develop naturally and act consistently. There is much more energy in the initial build-up, after which the story tends to gradually deflate rather than maintaining tension until a satisfying climax.
This particular entry is light on the virtues and heavy on the faults. The plot is barely coherent, and certainly not logical or consistent. The reader never cares much how it resolves. There are many promising ways to mix professional magicians with legal puzzles, but the author ignores those so that the magic and the law never intersect.
If you aren't familiar with the author, he has written much better books. If you've read all those, you might like this series, but I'd start with the earlier entries. This one is only for committed fans.

A few years ago, I used to be a big fan of Phillip Margolin, reading everything I could get my hands on, but at some point, I got away from it again. This book reminded me why I enjoyed his books in the first place. It starts with a murder of magician and then we are given the considerable backstory that led up to the murder, showing us why several could have wanted him dead.
The story is well-told, it has a great pace that has you reading the book in a few big chunks, in fact, before I had a chance to look around the book was disappointingly already finished, leaving me craving for more Margolin.
Highly recommended!

Robin Lockwood and her law firm are tasked to defend a former client of the renowned lawyer Regina Barrister, who retired from the firm because of early onset Alzheimer’s. The client, Robert Chesterfield, a professional magician, has a new trick he wants help patenting. However, this is beyond the scope of the firm. When Robin researches the client and his issues, she finds that years before he was accused of murder, which Regina Barrister easily defended successfully, allowing Robert to return to his magician’s career. This time he wants help, as I said, with a patent. However, soon Robert disappears, leaving questions unanswered: is his disappearance tied to people who despise him, has he managed to disappear on his own, or was he killed, and his body disposed of by whoever did the killing.

I have read most of the author’s many books, and usually enjoy them. This one was not on a par with his books. It dragged, had lots of repetition and not-well-done dialogue or characters. The star of the series, Robin Lockwood, does not really play an important role in the story, as it jumps around giving information on Robin, Robert, and events in their lives. This helps the reader understand, but makes things difficult to follow at times as well as confusing. I think this is a good book, but not as good as many of the author’s others. Still, a reader will enjoy it, as they enjoy the author’s other books. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

When you open the cover of a PHILLIP MARGOLIN book, you are assured to find a very engrossing story that will take you through your mystery paces trying to figure out the villain before he/she is revealed. In A REASONABLE Doubt, even the innocent seem to have a fair bit of villain in them. This mystery set in the world of commercial magic is a unique background and when you factor in the central magician, you have an excellent background for murder and other crimes. Recurring favorite Robin Lockwood finds herself playing back up to Regina as they follow their client into a magician's trick disappearance. This is most definitely a different, though equally excellent, mystery/thriller. A welcome break from the usual.. Prepare to be amazed!!!!

Thankyou to NetGalley, the publishers and the author, Phillip Margolin, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of A Reasonable Doubt in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
This author has managed to deliver another gripping thrill ride. I was hooked from the start.
The characters and narrative are compelling and well written. It keeps you guessing as to how the past and present tie in together.
Worth a read.

This is the first Robin Lockwood mystery I have read. Although it seemed a little slow, I enjoyed it, but having heard about this series from fans, I wish I'd read another book in the series first.

A magician who married for financial gain is the main character. But he is not a likeable character!
I like Robin and have read the other books in this series.
This book left me flat. I wanted to see justice!
But I will continue to read this author!

I am a huge fan of Phillip Margolin .I like the way he creats his scenes and characters.This is my first book in this series so took me a little to understand.This book is different from his previous work so I am getting there .I will have to read the previous books of the series to relish it .

A Reasonable Doubt by Phillip Margolin is the third installment in the legal thriller Robin Lockwood series. Each book of this series really could be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel with each having the case involved wrapped up by the end. There is some character development that carries over from book to book however with all the main characters.

In the first book of the series readers were introduced to Robin Lockwood who had been just beginning as an assistant attorney and now she is back tackling her own cases after working with her mentor Regina Barrister. Now Robin is in her office when magician Robert Chesterfield walks in actually looking for Regina who had defended him 20 years before but instead offers to higher Robin. Robin questions whether she can help him but before she knows it she gets pulled into the magician’s life.

I’m counting this as another winner in the Robin Lockwood series from Phillip Margolin. The story still had that wonderful balance between investigating and court room scenes along now with what I found as a really interesting new case with it involving a magician and that world surrounding the stage and magic. Definitely still look forward to what ever will come next in this series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I picked up a Philip Margolin's Robin Lockwood series at an airport kiosk while traveling. It surprised me, in the best way! Love this series and A Reasonable Doubt does not disappoint - I think it's my favourite so far (maybe because I like magicians?).

There's a lot of characters in this book/series, more than I typically like. But somehow not confusion (perhaps because of the unique names, such as Chesterfield?!).

Definitely recommend this one to detective/lawyer fans.

Robin Lockwood does not feature prominently in A Reasonable Doubt. However, even as somewhat of a background character, she still plays an important part in the story. On the other hand, it is good to see Regina Barrister still involved in the storyline. Phillip Margolin takes us inside the world of magic and shows how the law sometimes favors the criminal—not because he/she is innocent but instead due to the council they have obtained or the strength of the evidence or both. I enjoyed this book by Margolin as I have the others that I have read. However, I must state that it is imperative that you pay attention as there are multiple plot lines and many characters found in this book. This is not a lay-by-the-beach easy read, but it is definitely a thriller that will keep you turning the pages. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

Magic and illusions should feature more frequent in thrillers. Still, Margolin makes the premise more interesting, raising our doubts - the magician in the center of the tale can be a victim or a perpetrator. This is a good idea, to put in the center of the book, and the author uses it for all it's worth.
Great fun!