Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for my physical arc of MURDER AT BLACK OAKS and for my digital and audio review copies. This one just published Tuesday November 8!

This is the 6th book in the detective Robin Lockwood series and I really liked it!

Like all the others in this series, this was features my favourite FMC- Robin Lockwood, who is one of the best detectives! A former MMA fighter turned lawyer/detective, she is excellent at what she does, and usually outsmarts the men she works with. She was no different in MABO!

This one felt very much like an Agatha Christie novel- locked room, secluded area, killer inside. So if you like AC, then I think you will like this one!

As usual in Margolin’s books, after the conflict is resolved, there is usually something about the case that Robin is still left questioning, despite the case being closed. She eventually figures it out, and it’s the best twist in the book! In this book, the actual culprit is someone you would have never guessed! Which makes for a great thriller 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I listened to about half of this one, and then sketches to my physical copy. I really liked the audio!

Even tho this is the sixth book in the series, they are all standalone s and can be read out of order! I actually haven’t read the second and third ones but still have enjoyed the rest!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the pleasure of listening to an ARC of this book.
The narrator, Thérèse Plummer, is terrific and the story is a quick read. The book is the sixth in the Robin Lockwood series and opens with her having a nightmare about her murdered fiancé (in case anyone forgets Robin's back story). It diverges a bit from Margolin's regular procedurals in that it takes place in a maybe haunted house which is difficult to get to. The story involves DA Frank Melville's successful conviction of a young man accused of murdering his girlfriend. When the real murderer confesses to Melville, after Melville gets him off of a crime he committed, he is bound by Attorney/Client privilege to keep the information to himself. Melville's life goes downhill from there.

Lockwood becomes involved when the true murderer dies and Melville wants to set right the wrong. For reasons that aren't particularly convincing, he and his wealthy wife bought and relocated to Oregon, a haunted, huge manor house that he now lives in alone. But it gives a creepy atmosphere to the story which seems to end only to blossom into more trouble. There is an Agatha Christie feel to everything as you wonder who will get knocked off next and by whom.

On the whole, this is an enjoyable quick-read book and whether everything makes sense doesn't really matter. It addresses issues that attorneys deal with and the repercussions that I'm sure many deal with.
Enjoy!

This is a complex, Agatha Christiesque novel set in a secluded - maybe even haunted- country manor on a mountaintop in the Pacific Northwest. The story begins strong with an intriguing exposé almost true crime- like a retelling of a crime and a conviction that took place around thirty years ago, the actual murder at hand only takes place around the 50% mark and it is a closed door mystery situation - the murdered victim is alone in the elevator when the alarm goes off - who was able to get in and out unseen. The book gets additional suspects when an escapee from a psychiatric ward appears - this story is tightly plotted and kept my attention the whole time and it ends with a wild and unexpected twist. The characters were numerous but believable and enthralling. There was an underlying theme of legal ethics and attorney client privilege and it’s boundaries that was interestingly argued. I enjoyed the similarities to Golden Age British crime novels but also the entire theme and setup of the novel - and I loved Robyn Lockwood the female badass attorney and sleuth. I read this as a stand-alone which is entirely possible but I want to go back and read the other books in the series - this one is getting all five stars from me !!

I was very intrigued by the audio seeing it was narrated by Therese Plummer whom I usually like a lot and the book was fabulously well narrated - I loved it !

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Philip Margolin, and Murder at Black Oaks for allowing me to review early in exchange for an honest opinion. I went into this very excited. Reading the description of the book, I couldn’t wait. In enjoyed the narrator, very timely inflections. I was hooked from the beginning and understood the prosecuting attorney’s dilemma. The Black Oaks has its.secret passages and dark legends, satanic in nature along with the legend of werewolf stories. Lends to the creepy feeling of the house. To get there is traveling by car up a narrow road with hairpin curves. The house is on a remote Oregon mountainside spotty phone service. The first half of the book lived up to the hype. The second half I completely quit enjoying. I will recommend for the first half alone. The second half I felt hard to keep my focus or interest. Just my opinion as a person who enjoys a good thriller. I however found this one disjointed. Currently available for reading/listening.nic in nature along with the legend of werewolf stories. Lends to the creepy feeling of the house. To get there is traveling by car up a narrow road with hairpin curves. The house is on a remote Oregon mountainside spotty phone service. The first half of the book lived up to the hype. The second half I completely quit enjoying. I will recommend for the first half alone. The second half I felt hard to keep my focus or interest. Just my opinion as a person who enjoys a good thriller. I however found this one disjointed. Became available available for reading/listening. 08 Nov 2022.

Much is made of the creepy, mysterious history of the actual house, but the one in the story is a recreation. And none of the creepyness plays into the book. It was my Halloween read and completely disappointing.

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.
I was intrigued right along with our main character, Robin the minute she was asked to come to the secluded and long suspected cursed Black Oaks. The narrator, Thérèse Plummer was wonderful and the audio was much shorter than I had anticipated coming in at just under 6 hrs of listen time. I have not read any of the other books in this series and did not have any issues with listening to this as a stand-alone. I like other reviewers was confused once I hit the halfway point tho as it almost seemed like I was reading a completely separate book; while I found this second half section to be more interesting (I’m very much a lover of locked room whodunits) I didnt feel they worked that well being together in the same book it.
Thank you again NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Murder at Black Oaks took me back to my favorite Agatha Christie book, And Then There Were None. I absolutely loved this book. It was a quick read (or listen) that kept me guessing.

When former district attorney Francis Melville learns helped build a case against an innocent man, landing him on death row, he quits his job and moves to secluded Black Oaks. Knowing about the property’s dark history and the legend of its curse, defense attorney Robin Lockwood is eager to visit and help Francis right his wrongdoing and bring justice to Jose. The story quickly turns into a classic whodunit. While some parts were predictable, it was an enjoyable book and I did not expect the ending twist.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for a review!

Thanks to NetGalley, Phillip Margolin and MacMillian Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ARC, The Murder at Black Oaks. I found this to be a very complex, Agatha Christiesque novel that begins strong and ends with a wild and unexpected twist. The characters were numerous but believable and enthralling. There was an underlying theme of legal Code of Ethics ongoing throughout the course of the book. This novel is complete with the curses at Black Oaks, a secret passageway, considerations of werewolves and the satanic. I liked the Agatha Christy similarities and the entire theme of the novel.

With a twisting tale that included as many characters as there were crimes, I found myself obsessed with trying to figure out how things were connected and who did what.

Going into the second half of this book I was convinced I knew who had killed, why they'd done it, how they'd covered it up, and who would end up in jail, I'm happy to say I was wrong on all but one of those and how it ended was the perfect balancing of the scales of justice.

I have to say this one is going to be hard to beat for mystery/thriller of the year for me, locked room mysteries are always a favorite of mine and this one didn't disappoint in any way.

The narrator on this audiobook is fantastic, listeningt to this book while it was creepy and tense was an enjoyable experience because of the narrator and I would love to listen to more of her books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy of this audiobook, I've listened to it and reviewed it voluntarily and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the sixth book of the Robin Lockwood series. You know what she's about by now and that its a legal drama. Quick listen mystery. Nothing groundbreaking, overall fine and enjoyable

A quick murder mystery and legal thriller.

I finished "Murder at Black Oaks" in a day. I love the audiobook read by Thérèse Plummer. This was quite entertaining if you're looking for a fast pace mystery novel with a light legal storyline. This one deals with capital punishment and attorney-client privilege. Although it's book #6, it can be read as a standalone.

In 1990, deputy DA Frank Melville successfully put Jose Alvarez on death row for the aggravated murder of a fellow student and girlfriend Margo in her dorm room. Despite the victory, Frank had mixed feelings about it. Thirty years later with new information, Frank asked Robin Lockwood, a defense attorney from Portland to help the innocent Jose.

I LOVE the first half. Then the unexpected...

The author did a full 180. A locked room thriller at Frank's Black Oaks manor during an epic rainstorm ...entering a spooky zone with a killer on the loose and other cases to solve. It didn't flow well. I'm sorry, I don't get it. But that's me, you might find the second half as entertaining as the first.

I'm also knocking down half a star with regard to the execution spree under a certain administration. I was curious and did a search and I'm not seeing the spree.... Source link and graph under the spoiler on Goodreads.

This is a fun, short mystery! There is a lot going on from beginning to end with this one - the country house mystery is just once piece of this puzzle. Narrator Thérèse Plummer does a fantastic job bringing the characters and story to life. Not a five star for me - I really liked the premise of the locked room mystery at the isolated (and creepy!) country house, but ultimately there was a lot of different storylines, timelines, and settings throughout and as a whole it just didn't work well for me. But overall I enjoyed the character of Defense Attorney Robin Lockwood, and will be picking up other books in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Francis Melville, a former district attorney, is shocked to learn that a man he had convicted of murder and is currently sitting on death row, is really innocent. He is torn up by guilt because the information was told to him under attorney-client privilege therefore making it impossible to go forward with the truth. 30 years later when the real killer dies, Melville hires Robin Lockwood to try and free the innocent man. When she is successful, a wheelchair bound Melville, invites her, the innocent man and a few other characters to his gothic mansion for the weekend where he is murdered. Lockwood must try to find the killer.

I really struggled with this book and did not enjoy it at all. It was too all over the place with too many characters and a plot that swung the gambit between a courtroom fiction and a gothic horror tale, I was honestly was waiting on Dracula to make an appearance. The trial was nonsense they over turned the ruling with no proof and just on the attorney's say so. The whole story is a mixed up mess that just misses every mark and was painful to get through. What was the need to point out everyone's ethnicity? I had not read any of the other Lockwood stories and will not be reading others. I had the audio version read by Thérèse Plummer who did a fine job.

This is my second book in the series. I looked back at my first review to remind myself and so I thought I was ready for this book. It went fast. Really fast. And there were so many different characters and crimes that I often had to go back and remind myself who was who. At times, it was even pretty corny. There were some law cliches and some obvious oversites by characters and a bit over use of some phrases, too.

I’m asking myself if the last book was this fast-paced, crowded, and cheesy. I don’t remember. Still, I liked it. Sitting here trying to forget about my autumn cold, it was a quick morning read that just never stopped long enough for me to care about the things I’m thinking now. That has to say something. I’ll keep readin this series.

I follow about 100 authors. Phillip Margolin is in my top five. The only reason i cannot list his position is because I cannot decide the order of the best authors. I find Margolin always intriguing. He usually keeps you guessing until the very end.
Murder at Black Oaks gave me a feeling of playing the game Clue. I kept trying to eliminate the whodunits but because of Margolin’s attention to detail i could not figure it out.
Pros:
1 Great dialogue
2 Interesting characters
3 Puzzle to the end
Cons:
1 Long chapters. I just prefer shorter chapters because if I stop in middle of chapter I have to catch up and remember where I was. This problem is more on the editor than the author.
2 I wish the protagonist would have a little more personal problems going on. Just makes them more real.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced mystery up until the end. While yes, it was fast paced and I’m happy with that, the ending came on so fast out of nowhere and then it was just…over?

The whole locked room murder mystery storyline was great. Knowing that the murderer has to be among those that were there was fantastic and the red herrings included were honestly perfect and not overly obvious.

I also enjoyed that this was short but I do wish that the ending had been given the time and depth that it deserved.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio copy!

I had high expectations for this one, and boy I was not disappointed! It was wonderful and I was hooked!

I wasn't aware this was part of a series but found myself falling into the book relatively easily without prior knowledge of the series. The author did a good job of catching you up at the beginning.

I liked the kind of "all in one house" mystery feel of this book once it got going. There were definitely some surprising twists and turns I didn't see coming at first though it was hard to keep everyone separate at some points (I listened to this as an audiobook).

I liked the main character and was able to follow through everything (clue wise) relatively easily. I enjoy the light touch of the legal aspect of it and liked to see "justice done".

I'd recommend to those who like legal thrillers and enjoy a kind of typical murder mystery setting.

My rating: 3.7*

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Thanks to NetGalley for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

Didn't realize this was book six in a series. Think it would have been better if I had read the other stories first.

This has been my week for twisty tale. Robin Lockwood is a lawyer who has been invited to visit a man who used to be a lawyer, a well-respected prosecutor turned defense attorney at his estate. When she arrives she finds out she has been summoned to help clear an inmate who this man had prosecuted many years ago and put behind bars for murder and then later found out was innocent but was not able to free because the man who did the murder was then his client and confessed but he is now dead. Long story short, they found a loophole and she goes to court to try to overturn his conviction. When she is successful, she convinces him to come and visit this man, and while there the former lawyer is murdered. While there, there are more people, possibly someone else Robin is to investigate but they do not get to meet up about. There is also a break at the hospital for the criminally insane. Who is running amok and killing people? This one was good and had me guessing. I would recommend this one.