Quick, interesting who-done-it story!

First, I started this as an audio. The narrator does a great job and I really enjoyed it, but I found myself getting a bit lost as the cast of characters and side characters grew so I flipped back to my kindle and that helped the flow alot!

So the mystery was interesting. The story, I thought, did get a bit bogged down at a few points as it got tangled in so many other stories. Even though this was #6 in the series, I didn't feel like I was missing any part of the story.

And at the very beginning when there's a confession, my mout dropped open! It was a great beginning and really helped pull me in.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I started reading this book because Phillip Margolin is an author I thoroughly enjoy. I really like the Robin Lockwood series and have read all of the other books and have liked all of those too.

This was not a disappointment and Phillip Margolin hit a home run again with this read. Can't wait for the next book!

Note: I am writing this review, based on listening to the audiobook version. Since I was granted access to the e-book as well, I wanted to share that feedback here.
Robin Lockwood, a successful attorney in Portland, is called upon by a retired attorney to help him get an innocent man released from prison. This attorney lives in isolation in an old mansion in the foothills of the Cascades, a very spooky mansion indeed. While this is a legal mystery, it also includes some ethical dilemmas. The characters at times seemed a bit shallow/stereotypical (particularly the attorney's daughter and the man on death row). The story seemed to drag a bit in the middle, but came to a rather surprising conclusion. Overall, not too bad a mystery.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

4/5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and Phillip Margolin for allowing me to read and review this book.

I know this book 6 of this series, however this book reads as a stand alone. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are well written and the story flows easily. It is a really quick read and keeps you guessing until the very end. It is a well written mystery that makes you question things throughout.

After reading this book I am considering checking out some of the others in this series. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants a quick and easy read that involves a locked-room mystery.

I enjoy books written in a series. You get to be reacquainted with characters from previous books. This book is the 6th book with Robin Lookwood as the main character. You don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one.
Frank Melville was the prosecutor in the case that put Jose Alvarez on death row. A few years later, he is has left the DA's office and is working as a defense attorney. A witness whose testimony helped convict Jose, hires Frank to defend him against rape charges. After Frank wins the case, the client admits that he had committed the rape and he had also committed the murder that had Jose sitting on death row. He enjoyed telling Frank that he couldn't tell anyone. Once the client dies, Frank hires Robin to exonerate Jose.
Frank invites the people involved in freeing Jose to his estate, Black Oaks, to celebrate. While they are there, Robin and her associates solve two murders. There are many twists before we discover who committed the murders.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I do enjoy Margolin’s mystery Lockwood series and catching up with familiar characters. A classic murder-room type mystery that kept me guessing and entertained.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book. I enjoyed this suspenseful mystery story. Kept my interest until the end.

Quick moving closed room murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie. While part of a Robin Lockwood series, I didn’t find it necessary to have read any of the previous entries. I have previously enjoyed Margolin’s writing, and while this novel was entertaining, it didn’t seem to be at the level of past works.

Recommended for fans of Margolin.

Retired District Attorney Francis Melville has asked Robin Lockwood to meet him at Black Oaks, a manor he owns in the Oregon Mountains. It was built in 1628 and has quite the history associated with it, there is even a curse attached to it. Melville.has asked Robin to help him with a legal.problem that has been eating away at him for years. A young man was wrongfully convicted of.killing his girlfriend and the killer has remained free. He wants its Robins help in getting the conviction over turned which she successfully does. Melville decides throw a celebration and asks Robin to attend. The group that arrives is odd to say the least making Robin wonder why each was invited. When Melville is murdered Robin knows she must figure who a killer is before someone else ends up dead. A great read that will keep you guessing the whole way through.

Robin has found her way into a locked door murder mystery.

In the latest Robin Lockwood story it is one year after her fiancee is killed in front of her and she has finally made her way back to Oregon. She has a new client, former DA Francis Hardy, who wants Robin's help in getting innocent men out of jail. Robin is to help Jose Alvarez, a man Hardy sent to death row, out. Once she is successful both Robin and Jose are asked to come to his remote mansion, Black Oaks. They are not the only guests when Hardy is murdered but there seems to be no one who could have done it.

Murder at Black Oaks is a fun mystery that fits in well with the series.In general you do not need to have read the previous ones in order to enjoy this book but some of the personal story line needs the previous books to make sense.

With an invitation to visit Black Oaks, attorney Robin Lockwood, finds herself in the midst of a murder or two. Robin is invited by Francis Hardy, a former attorney to Black Oats, to work on a case that went back a number of years. It was the murder conviction of Jose Alvarez, a man who Hardy learns was unjustly convicted of the crime. Unfortunately, it was another client of Hardy's who did the deed, but because of attorney client privilege, Hardy could not reveal what he knew. When the client dies, things change and Hardy can now tell what he knows and free an innocent man.

As the guests arrive in Black Oaks, not only do they arrive, but also a terrible storm hits as well. Trapped inside Black Oaks, a home that not only houses Hardy and his daughter and staff, but also terrible legends about of all things werewolves and the death of previous owners. And then the closed door murders occur.

This was a quick read, one that kept me occupied while the turkey cooked. Eventually, I would like to have a look at the previous books in this series, although I felt this book could very well be a stand along story.

Thanks are extended to Philip Margolin, Minotour Books and NetGalley for a copy of this tale which published in November of this year.

1990 - a twenty-four-year-old college student is sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend. The deputy district attorney’s victory would come back to haunt him. Actually, it would be the death of him.

This book delves into the very interesting concept of attorney/client privilege - not a new conundrum but sometimes a very difficult position to justify. When Frank Melville, former DA turned criminal defense attorney, has misgivings about his part in the man sitting on death row for almost thirty years he tries to rectify a very real miscarriage of justice. While this is going on and because of this action good people start committing horrible crimes. One of them is a locked-room murder scenario set in an elevator that is stuck between floors. The story fell apart in so many places for me and this was the the ultimate trip and fall.

Margolin has written, in his words, “a novel with an impossible murder, haunted mansion, secret passages, and a werewolf curse.” It should have been an amazing story - unfortunately it fell short. The writing was clunky, uninspired and kept missing the mark. Not a bad effort, just not great.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for a copy.

A totally unputdownable thriller, this book will have you gripped from the very first page until the jaw-dropping final twist. Flawlessly plotted, the story unfolds in layers, each one more shocking than the last. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.

Robin Lockwood is an attorney who is hired to help another lawyer with trying to free innocent people from prison. She meets her client, Frank Melville, at his secluded Black Oaks estate. He gives her all the info about the wronged man, Jose Alvarez, that has spent the last 30 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. After new evidence leads to Alvarez’s release they are both invited to a party at Black Oaks to celebrate.

The novel starts with a wronged man and turns into a locked room murder mystery set in a possibly haunted mansion. It’s part of a series but I wasn’t missing anything from the prior books. While I enjoyed the murder mystery and it being reminiscent of other famous locked room mysteries (Agatha Christie, et al.), I think the path from the beginning of the book to the murder mystery was a bit dubious. But it was a short and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for this eARC. Murder at Black Oaks is out now.

Book Review: Murder at Black Oaks (Robin Lockwood #6) by Phillip Margolin
Published by St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books, November 8, 2022

★★★★☆ (4.25 Stars)

Margolin does a Christie!

In its sixth iteration, author Phillip Margolin takes his strong female protagonist "Robin Lockheed" legal thriller series out on a little detour to the "Golden Age of Mysteries and Detective Fiction", that enduring literary era bannered by prominence of Dame Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, and the master of the "impossible crime /locked room mystery", John Dickson Carr, inter-alia.

// Murder at Black Oaks (Robin Lockwood #6) (2022) by Phillip Margolin //

Portland, Oregon.
At the foot of the majestic Cascade mountain range. And off in the distance, Mount Hood and Mount St Helens.

This is the bailiwick of Robin Lockwood, attorney-at-law.

Five foot eight, ex-high school wrestler, ex-professional pay-per-view UFC cage fighter aka "Rockin' Robin", Yale Law graduate, ex-clerk at the Oregon Supreme Court, ex-associate of the "Sorceress", legendary criminal defense attorney Regina Barrister, and now partner at the firm, Barrister, Berman and Lockwood.

She's still reeling from her Aeschylus moment, one of the darkest hours of her life ("The Darkest Place", Book 5, 2021), a horrific personal and professional tragedy which shall have kept her sidelined for a long while, recuperating in the bosom of her family in Elk Grove.

Now she's back, with a new investigator, even as the Portland, Oregon law firm have themselves up to their eyeballs in case loads, trial preps, investigations and court appearances.

Once again, Phillip Margolin enthralls his readers with assiduous courtroom drama and dazzles with the finer points of the law: a case of habeas corpus, a case of the imminent danger exception to the attorney-client confidence, a statutes of limitation and Sixth Amendment right to counsel case, and finally, the firm's involvement with an "Innocence Project" initiative on behalf of a death row inmate.

The latter of which gets Robin Lockwood and the firm entangled with "Black Oaks"...

// It was a dark and stormy night.

A night of celebration. Victory for justice as an "Innocence Project" initiative heralds a hard-earned triumph: The exoneration of and freedom for one innocent man, after thirty years in death row.

A Portland, Ore. defense attorney and her ex-Navy Seal investigator find themselves in a gothic 17th century English manor, reputably cursed with an ominous lycanthropic legend, rebuilt brick by brick from its origins in Sexton, England, and set high on the foothills of the Cascade Range.

The pair join the manor's eccentric, disabled owner who is a wealthy, retired Portland D.A., along with a "Poirot-esque" cast of characters (or is it Marple-lesque?) including his daughter, his personal assistant, his household staff, a washed-out movie actor, an ambitious estate attorney, a newly-freed, wrongfully-convicted death row inmate, - and, in the course of the evening, a Portland policeman, who walks in out of the raging storm, drenched from head to toe.

As the festive evening winds down, someone is murdered in a creaky cage elevator, stabbed through the heart with a werewolf-themed dagger.

Then someone else is brutally bludgeoned to death... //

Creative. Deliciously retro in parts. A highly entertaining and unique legal thriller.

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley.

Murder at Black Oaks is a fun book that does exactly what author Phillip Margolin promises: pays tribute to the classic mystery writers who he began reading as a young teenager. Margolin brings together attorneys, an escaped criminal or two, a maid, a lovely assistant, a jealous daughter, an actor looking to reignite his career, and a former Navy SEAL in a huge hidden mansion in the Oregon mountains. Add in a few rainy days, mud slides, a criminal psychiatric hospital, and the lore of werewolves and readers will come away with a satisfying experience. Great book--perfect for people who like who-dun-its.

This book started off VERY strong! I loved it!  The book just grabbed me and I was hooked. It's like a thriller, murder mystery and slightly horror rolled in one novel. That's 3 of my 4 favorite genres rolled in one!  SCORE!! It made me think of Agatha Chrisie novels!

The MFC is a bad a$$ lawyer but could totally double as a detective. Her paralegal is a firecracker. Her investigator was retired military.

This is number 6 in a series. It was so well written that I had no clue it was that far in the series until I went to Goodreads. So obviously,  this can be a stand alone book as well. Bonus points added for that aspect 😆 Also, I finished it in 2 days.  🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry the review is kind of choppy. Four hours of sleep won't cut it 😆

《Read》 《This》 《Book》 《If》
🔥 you like murder mysteries
🔥 you want a kind of unqiue back story in your book
🔥 you like strong MFC in your books

attorney Francis Hardy is forever haunted by his past professional life as a district attorney, both after being involved in the wrongful conviction of a young man, and receiving a confession from the actual criminal several years later. Hardy chooses to step down from practicing law when he realizes that he cannot go to the police with this revelation. instead, he hires attorney Robin Lockwood to help bring justice to this case.

as Robin becomes wrapped up in Hardy’s affairs, she is invited to his mansion alongside some questionable guests. here, she finds herself immersed in a whodunnit murder mystery stemming from a long ago curse attached to the mansion.

this book gives off strong Clue/Agatha Christie vibes with its locked-room mystery approach. I thought the actual murder mystery in the book was interesting, but the book itself was kinda all over the place. we have a trial to overturn a convicted murderer’s sentence, then we have a killer on the loose in the middle of the book, then the murders are solved, and THEN—we solve some more random cases afterwards!

the many connections in this book were mostly lost on me. I feel like if you were to cut this book into specific parts, you’d never be able to tell that they were all intended to come together as one cohesive book. between the law & crime aspect, a murder mystery, and a historical curse intermixed, i just felt like there was a lot going on. while I did find the majority of this story interesting & engaging, i wouldn’t say it was the most gripping or memorable book I’ve ever read.

thank you to @netgalley & @stmartinspress for my advanced reader’s copy of this book!

Murder at Black Oaks
Robin Lockwood #6
By Phillip Margolin

Margolin’s writing is Clear, Descriptive and Direct

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Robin Lockwood is a well known defense attorney practicing law in Portland, Oregon. Frank Melville, a retired prosecutor and defense attorney, hires Robin to look at a murder case he had won as a prosecutor. He knows he got it wrong and Jose Alvarez has been sitting on death row ever since. Jose is not the one who killed his college girlfriend, and Frank knows who did, but he is forbidden to talk about it due to attorney-client confidentiality. Can Robin get Jose off before it’s to late?

REVIEW
If you haven’t met Robin Lockwood yet, you are missing out on an intelligent and amazing female literary character. Murder at Black Oaks is part legal drama and part locked-room murder mystery, and Robin carries the day on both counts.

Author Phillip Margolin says that Murder in Blacks Oaks is his homage to all of the great writers from the golden age of mysteries. Think Agatha Christie and Ellory Queen. Margolin says they inspired him to write a novel with an impossible murder, a haunted mansion, secret passages, and a werewolf curse, the wonderful ingredients that make those old mysteries so great. This book has all that and more. Margolin's writing is clear, descriptive and direct, and his characters are intriguing. Worth the read!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Minotaur Books
Published November 8, 2022
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced thriller. I haven’t read the other books in this series but having read this one, I am going to read them. The setting was perfect, an old mansion in a desolate setting that is a replica of a British mansion with many creepy legends attached to it. The owner of the mansion has an interesting backstory. He is a retired judge and former prosecutor. Finding that one of the cases he successfully prosecuted with a death penalty result was due to false evidence, it has haunted him to the point he could no longer practice law. Unfortunately, he was unable to bring the truth to light. With the death of the witness who gave false information, he hired Robin to clear the man’s name. Everyone involved needed to stay at the mansion as it was such a remote location. Many of the related characters were visiting at the same time. There were quite a few interesting storylines going on that were related to the judge, all unbeknownst to the others. When the judge is murdered, everyone in the house is under suspicion. The many twists and turns in this story made for a spectacular ending.