Another great Margolin legal suspense! This was my first in the Robin Lockwood series, and it reminded me why I enjoy legal fiction so much. Part police procedural, part legal strategy, part investigation, and part mob threats. Makes for a killer read!

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Phillip Margolin, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

A long-time fan of Phillip Margolin and this great legal thriller series, I was eager to see what Robin Lockwood would be doing. Building on Robin’s past work as an MMA fighter and stellar lawyer, the story works to merge the two and show how a murder could bring many motives to the surface. Margolin proves his worth and shows how gripping a writer he is when given the chance to let all the pieces fall into place!

Robin Lockwood was once an established MMA fighter on her way up the ranks. After clashing with Mandy Kerrigan a decade ago, Robin’s fighting career came to an abrupt end and she turned her focus to law school, where she excelled and became a lawyer of some regard in the Portland area.

When Mandy reemerges in Robin’s life, things could not be more different. Her career on the literal ropes, Mandy has been arrested for a quadruple homicide, when the entire Finch household is found slain in their home. Mandy turns to Robin to defend her, a Herculean task if ever there was one.

As Robin tries to make sense of the case before her, she comes to realise that the Finches had many enemies. From mother, Margaret, who had been doing some legal work for the Russian mob; father, Nathan, who has racked up many debts with his gambling addiction; and Ryan, the ne’er-do-well son, selling designer drugs that are supposed to be untraceable. These drugs were detected during one post-fight test and have left Mandy suspended, providing the prime motive in the case. There is also the teenaged daughter, whose calm exterior hid a vicious side that had her bullying a fellow student, who ended up committing suicide.

While Robin knows that DA has a slim case, it makes more sense than anything she can muster together. When she presents her facts to a jury, things are not as effective as she might have liked, leaving little doubt about her client’s fate. However, the legal system is full of twists and should one of them tun in Mandy’s favour, Robin and her legal team will be there to pounce. Margolin weaves a wonderful web of deception, betrayal, and legal maneuvers in this piece that is sure to keep the reader flipping pages well into the night.

I can count on a strong piece of thriller work whenever Phillip Margolin is writing. The narrative foundation is always full of keen perspectives and provides the reader with something solid on which to rely as they make their way through any legal matter. The dialogue and short chapters push things along, leaving the reader eager to see where things are headed, as the story’s excitement increases with each new revelation.

Strong characters prove to the cornerstone to this piece. Not only is there a great development of the protagonist, but those around Robin Lockwood show great resolve and flavour the story effectively. There is some development here in Robin’s personal life, though it is not overshadowed by the legal matters. The numerous perspectives presented in this piece allow the reader to see things from a variety of angles and understand how the story emerges as one of Margolin’s best.

Any legal thriller worth its salt will have some great twists throughout story to keep the reader on their toes. Legal matters turn swiftly and Margolin knows how to insert these changes at the right time to ensure maximum impact. Margolin does well to leave the best for last, as the final reveal offers up a moment that few will see coming. though the attentive reader will have seen the clues laid out through the story’s climax. I cannot wait to see what Margolin and Robin Lockwood have on offer with the next instalment in this series.

Kudos, Mr. Margolin, for keeping things sharp and exciting.

Betrayal by Phillip Margolin is a well-written and suspenseful legal thriller. It’s the seventh book in the Robin Lockwood series. Robin is a well-known and distinguished defense attorney in Portland, Oregon. However, ten years ago she as a ranked mixed martial arts fighter until she was knocked out and concussed in a fight with Mandy Kerrigan. Now, Kerrigan is nearing the end of her career and is arrested for the quadruple murder of the Finch family. Her court appointed lawyer is Robin.

Robin has a sense of humor, but is lonely. Mandy doesn’t know what she will do when her fighting career is over. She has no family she can ask for help and begrudgingly accepts Robin’s help. However, Robin will be facing deputy district attorney Tom McKee, the man Robin had just started to date. That means their personal lives must be put on hold until after the trial.

The plot is solid with plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings. There’s plenty of drama both inside and outside the courtroom. However, one of the keys to the case was a little too easy to identify. Themes include murder, corruption, scams, grief, friendship, assault, and much more.

Overall, this was an engaging, fast-paced, and intense novel which kept me turning the pages. While this is the first book that I have read in the series, I had no trouble learning the characters and rapidly coming up to speed. I enjoyed it and can’t wait until the next book in the series is available.

St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Phillip Margolin provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for November 07, 2023.

4.5 stars.

Betrayal brings Robin Lockwood back for one of her most challenging and unique cases yet.

Robin is defending a fellow MMA fighter who is charged with a mass murder of an entire family but insists she is innocent.

In order to defend Mandy, Robin has to put her personal life on hold and she just happens to be newly dating the prosecutor.

Can Robin trust her client's story as evidence points right back at Mandy.

Phillip Margolin always gives us a solid story with twists and turns and red herrings that have you guessing to the end.

Betrayal is no exception and the court room drama is so well done you think that you are sitting right there.

Highly recommend Betrayal and if you are new to the Robin Lockwood series you will want to read them all.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for a page turning suspenseful read.

This is my very first book by Philip Margolin so since this is 7th in its series, I felt lost most of the time. There were a lot of characters to keep track of but I did enjoy this thriller. Thanks to NetGalley for this early release in exchange for my honest review. Looking forward to reading the others.

Betrayal by Phillip Margolin
Robin Lockwood Series Book 7
Hooray! Rockin’ Robin is back in previous form. I was so bummed by the prior book in this series that I could not believe it. It was completely ridiculous. It was practically a gothic novel with a secluded lodge, werewolves and a locked room murder. This book is much more like earlier books in the series and I enjoyed it immensely. It wasn’t really too hard to spot the culprit but I didn’t care. And to top it off, Robin has a new romantic interest. A minor complaint is that there is a main character called Mandy and a minor character called Amanda. Just made me have to stop and think for a second when Amanda was mentioned.
Looking forward to the next book in this much loved series.

This book is the latest and the Robin Lockwood series. She’s an ex fighter turned lawyer. She’s smart, she’s fearless, she takes no sh!t. She’s a female protagonist we all want to be.

In this book, she’s coming off of the death of someone very close to her and trying to figure out where she goes from here. Trying to put the pieces of her almost happily ever after, back together.

As usual, she has another complicated case, with lots of twists and turns. Legal thrillers, or something that Philip Margolin excels at, especially in this series. I’m not someone who is very big on series because I get bored after a while but I love Robin Lockwood’s character so much that I could totally see myself reading this series, even if it goes on and on forever.

This is one of those books that as I’m listening to/reading it I can actually picture everything in my mind as if I’m watching a movie and I just forget that I’m reading.

I highly recommend this series. The books are quick reads, and you’re gonna love all the characters. One thing I missed in this book was Regina Barrister. She was such a great character. I have a terrible memory, but somehow I remember her character so well. I loved the relationship she had with Robin Lockwood.

I highly recommend this book and I think you’ll love it too.

The author continues the Robin Lockwood series. In this edition she ends up defending someone she knew from her MMA fighting days solving who actually committed the murder of an entire family. It is fast paced and a quick read.

BETRAYAL is a book you won't want to miss out on. This is a fast-paced murder mystery thriller. I enjoy a good courtroom trial and this one had it. Robin was such a strong character and I liked her determination to prove her clients’ innocence. I didn't predict the ending and that was just an added bonus. Betrayal is book seven in the Robin Lockwood series but it can read as a stand-alone.

Many thanks to Macmillian Audio and NetGalley for my gifted ARC
This review will be shared to my Instagram @coffee.break.book.reviews closer to publication date.

This book will keep you guessing from the first page, a great story with an interesting cast of characters. There is a twist at the end that came totally out of the blue for me. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

This book was a great installment to the series. I was especially intrigued by the relationship Robin has with the prosecutor and how their professional sides interact. A solid mystery.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Don’t you just love a solid, legal thriller?🏻‍♀️

I’ve been reading Phillip Margolin’s books for years. His series reads are the perfect lite, legal romps I crave in between my darker storylines. And once again he hit a home run!

An entire family is murdered in their home and the police are lazer-focused on MMA fighter Mandy Kerrigan. She had motive and was seen in the area. Of course, she swears she didn’t do it.

And she just may be telling the truth, given that this was one family everyone hated. The list of potential suspects was a mile long!

Let’s see, there’s….
The Russian mob
A widower of an insurance scam gone wrong. Did I mention he is a top army sniper?
The family of a girl that was cyber bullied.
A loan shark that no longer wants to wait for his payment.

And that’s just the short list!

If you ask…did this book me guessing? My answer would be an emphatic YES!
There are load of characters and a swarm of people with grudges, but it’s easy to keep them all straight so not to worry!

The defense attorney representing Mandy Kerrigan is none other than Robin Lockwood who just happens to be a former MMA fighter herself! Can she get her fellow fighter off a murder charge? Or has she met her match? (Couldn’t resist)😜

Ready for a Perry Mason ending?

The courtroom action ramps up, filling the final 25% of the book and keeping me super-glued to every page!

If you enjoy lite legal thrillers don’t miss out. Even though this book is part of a series it can easily stand alone!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the copy of Betrayal by Phillip Margolin. Robin Lockwood continues to be a great character, and I look forward to reading more about her. The whole story was good, but the things that happened weren’t plausible. They made for a suspenseful story, but really didn’t make sense, so it was hard to overlook how ‘convenient’ they were. If you can suspend belief, you will really enjoy this one.

Just wow! My first Phillip Margolin novel but definitely not my last. It’s great to discover a new to me author. The book was totally captivating with a cast of fabulous characters. It was so full of tension and twists and a great reveal. Highly recommend
Thank you NetGalley, Phillip Margolin and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

With plenty of suspects, this intricately-plotted legal thriller kept me engaged right up through the twists and turns and eventual chilling ending.

The horrific murder of an entire family, - mom, dad, adult son and teenage daughter - has the Portland, Oregon community reeling. When Robin Lockwood, criminal defense attorney, finds her way onto the case, her biggest challenge is avoiding the death penalty for her client. Robin, a former professional MMA cage-fighter, has her work cut out for her, as her team looks for additional context, investigates insurance fraud and cyber bullying, battles the Russian mob, and faces more than one episode of personal peril. Which is all the more complicated in the face of Robin’s growing attraction to the handsome Tom McKee, the DA and her opponent on this case.

Part of an ongoing series featuring the main protagonist, this was my first read from this prolific author (himself a former criminal attorney) and easily enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

*** three and a half stars

I am a fan of Phillip Margolin, and Betrayal is a great addition to the Robin Lockwood series. Margolin is a great author to add to your must reads if you love stories about quick thinking lawyers solving crimes!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press ~ Minotaur Books for this ARC.

I enjoy the Robin Lockwood series. She was an MMA fighter who was knocked out in a sorely uneven fight, which convinced her to give up fighting and become a lawyer. Now she is assigned to defend Mandy Kerrigan, the woman who knocked her out, who has been charged with the murder of the Finch family.

The FInches had a lot of people who hated them. The mother was the attorney for a mob that made money by staging accidents. One accident went wrong and killed a woman. Her husband, a former Special Forces sniper wants revenge. She also has a brother and sole heir who was recently released from prison. And the Finches don't have a will that covers the loss of the entire family (very unusual if written by a competent attorney). The dad owes a lot of gambling money and was manufacturing drugs in his basement. His son was selling the drugs, including the performance enhancing drugs that Mandy took and were incorrectly promised to be untraceable in post-fight drug testing. The daughter had a very bad mean streak and bullied a classmate until the girl killed herself. They were not a very pleasant family.

All in all I enjoyed the book, but there were a few things that keep me from giving it 5 stars. First. the police missed some pretty obvious evidence/clues that only Robin seems to have caught. Even the killer, who had access to the house and could have retrieved some of the evidence, missed it. It did not seem that hard to find as Robin quickly noticed it.

The second part, which really bothered me, was that although Robin is presented as a tough woman, the same cannot be said about a female police detective, Carrie Anders. She is introduced by this piece of misogyny: "Anders, whoo was many years younger than her partner, was a large woman who topped six feet and was as strong as some men". Wow. I would venture to say that pretty much every woman alive is as strong as some men. Later she is introduced by another police officer as "this is homicide detective Roger Dillon and his partner, Carrie Anders". No title is given to Detective Anders. I was pretty surprised to see both of these sentences in a book that otherwise showed strong women.

As I said, I did like the book and will be looking forward to the next in the series.

"The knock-out punch is always the one you never see coming." (Aimee Mann)

Robin Lockwood should know. Ten years earlier, Robin was a professional fighter in the MMA while working her way through law school at Yale. She peaked in the top ten until she was flattened by one of the best, Mandy Kerrigan. When the lights go out, you have plenty of time to recharge your career goals. Law took precedence over fists......a far different form of combat.

Robin never thought that their paths would ever cross again. But Mandy has now been accused of murder.....mass murder to be exact. The four bodies of the Finch family were found early one evening in their suburban home. Mandy had had a run-in with Ryan Finch, their son, the night before. She beat him up in a parking lot in front of witnesses for some bad drugs that he was dealing on the side. It's not looking good for Mandy. The family was murdered with a Glock 19. Mandy owns one.

But the circle begins to widen as Robin makes connections to Nathan Finch who owed mega money to a bookie with no signs of being able to pay it back. Margaret Finch, an attorney, had ties to the Russian mob in Portland. She represented quite a few questionable cases over the years. Currently, the mob was pushing an insurance scam where an innocent woman was killed. The Finch family was living on the shady side of the street.

To add more intensity to this case, Robin had just started dating Tom McKee, the deputy DA, who was assigned to this case. She and Tom have vowed to remain neutral in this case. And how will this all affect their relationship?

Betrayal reads as a standalone even though it is the 7th in this series. Margolin sets crime scenes and courtroom scenes with the air of intensity and skill. His female lead character of Robin Lockwood is humanly flawed at times. But Robin is circuited with an analytical mind that she puts to great use. Margolin is wise to bring the reader along in the shifting clues and circumstances as Robin hones in on the smallest of details that may make or break her case. Exciting, clever, and creative......don't miss this one.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Minotaur Books and to the talented Phillip Margolin for the opportunity.

2.5 Stars 🌟

It's been quite a while since I last read a Phillip Margolin book. So, I was excited to be awarded this ARC. I do remember reading several of the Robin Lockwood books, but I know I haven't read all of them. I do remember, however, liking his books. That is why I was so surprised by this book.

The characters in this book were well done. Robin has been well developed as a character and this book continues in that direction. Where I felt like this book went off the rails was the actual plot.

First of all, the case that we are given was crazy. There was absolutely no reason, nor sufficient evidence for an indictment to occur from the evidence we were given. That was the first thing.

Then, the whole storyline about the trial, how it ends, the result and then the final ending.....it just wasn't believable. I LOVE legal thrillers and enjoy the authors who do it well - Steve Cavenaugh and Robert Dugoni come to mind. So, when it falls flat, it is really disappointing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone.

Robin Lockwood, famed defense attorney and former MMF fighter, is defending the woman who defeated her so
badly in her first and only professional fight. Mandy Kerrigan is faced with 4 charges of murder in the brutal slaying of the entire Finch family: mother, father, older son and teen daughter.
Robin believes she is innocent but proving it just may take all the skills she possesses.
Margaret Finch. the mother and a lawyer herself. had ties to the Russian Mafia & they want this case to be
an open and shut one.
The twists and turns are good but the story is still laid out very methodically in the usual
Margolin style.
Great characters and a good solid plot that does not confuse or bore in any way.
Robin is her usual unflappable and compassionate self & her empathy makes her a very likeable lawyer.
That in itself is always a draw.
Definitely 5 stars for me - great legal story with suspense, danger and touches of real ordinary life.