Phillip Margolin's latest standalone legal novel follows Charlie Webb, a struggling lawyer thrust into a high-stakes case that begins with a quirky artist's painting theft and quickly escalates into a complex investigation involving sex trafficking and murder. Webb, a third-rate attorney, finds himself defending Guido Sabatini after a seemingly minor legal matter turns deadly.

Some characters feel predictably devious, and it stretches credibility that Sabatini would choose such an inexperienced lawyer for a murder defense. However, Margolin successfully builds tension, turning an insignificant case into a compelling thriller.

The novel's strength lies in Margolin's intimate knowledge of law and Portland's landscape. While the protagonist's naivety and gullibility can be frustrating, the quick pacing and escalating tension keep readers engaged. Webb's transformation from an unremarkable lawyer to an unexpected hero provides an intriguing narrative arc.

I recommend this book to fans of legal thrillers who enjoy underdog narratives and detailed procedural stories, particularly those familiar with Portland's setting. The book offers an entertaining exploration of how a seemingly minor case can dramatically alter one's life.

A big thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from NetGalley and so I finished it. Had I borrowed it from the library, I would have dnf’d by the 20% point.

My biggest complaint is the writing. Subject-verb-predicate, subject-verb-predicate. It didn’t even reach eighth grade level; seventh grade at best. And, of course, as with all poor writing, everything was “tell” instead of “show”. I read books to immerse myself in another world; describing characters in terms of their external traits and past exploits does not do this.

Another complaint was the fact that the plot was put together from other sources. This was still another reiteration of the Harvey Weinstein/Jeffrey Epstein cases, and consequently contained nothing new. The “helpful” motorcycle gang (The Barbarians) seemed familiar as well—possibly a steal from Michael Connelly’s first Lincoln Lawyer novel—can’t be certain about where I ran into a similar story arc previously, but I did, many years ago. And of course the rogue security company consisting of former U.S. servicemen has been overused again and again—and nothing new is added; they simply serve as fodder for the storyline.

Before I reached the 20% point, I had identified the master criminal pulling the strings. This was supposed to be the “surprise” that the reader hadn’t anticipated but it was telegraphed so clearly very early in the story that there was no surprise.

Then there were the obviously ridiculous parts:

* a restaurant owner opens her wall safe in front of a stranger, a safe that was supposed to be hidden, and punches in the safe’s combination. Inside are wads of cash, from which she peels off a few hundreds. She does this because she thinks the stranger is harmless. Give me a break.

* the lawyer, Charlie, hires a stranger to work with him on the biggest case he has ever handled without asking for references, or even ensuring that she is who she says she is. Charlie is described as “average” but not as “stupid”, and his previous actions have shown that he is not stupid. Another ridiculous segment designed to further the narrative.

* I also found the ending ridiculous—upbeat in a moral sense but not legally justified.

Finally, although the Guido/Lawrence character was unique, he too seemed to have been created by combining parts that didn’t psychologically form a whole—a bit of child abuse, combined with a dash of mental illness, possibly with some autism added to the mix. Not believable.

Several readers have thoroughly enjoyed this one, so don’t rely on my critique in making your decision. I would suggest, however, that you not spend your money to read it. Borrow it from a library.

It moves quickly, so it might serve well as an audiobook to listen to while doing monotonous chores.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.

Phillip Margolin created a murder mystery around the Portland, Oregon area. There is good courtroom drama and enough suspense to keep the pages turning! The characters are well developed and unexpected twists as the story unfolds.

Based in and around Portland, Oregon, this legal thriller is peppered with several plot twists, a central and darkly terrible crime, a bevy of suspicious characters, and a long and circuitous road that may or may not lead to justice.

Charlie Webb is an average guy, and an equally average lawyer. Never having hit the big times, academically or in his professional life, Charlie is a nice man, also nice-looking, who is somewhat insecure and has been perhaps (a reader will come to wonder) seriously underestimated his whole life.

When Charlie is unexpectedly involved in the biggest legal case of his career, a painting theft that morphs into a multiple murder case, tied to a horrifying kidnapping and underage sex-ring — a case which comes to bear a huge PR profile, and the suspected involvement of participants of the highest order — Charlie’s world becomes riddled with danger, and confusion, coupled with what can only be seen as an unmistakably gigantic professional opportunity.

Charlie’s client throughout this journey is Guido Sabatini (aka Lawrence Weiss) — a six-foot-four-inch artist with flowing blond locks and a penchant for floor-length white caftans — a colorful and comically unique character, with a super-genius IQ, a serene constitution, and an unshakeable conviction that he is protected by God himself.

As Charlie and Guido’s lives tumble out of control, the author’s pacing of the developing story is brisk, intermingled with several court scenes (a natural fit for this real-life author lawyer) that, for this reader, provide perhaps the most interesting aspects of the story.

An entertaining read, perfect for those who enjoy legal thrillers, a hint of outlandishness in one’s characters, plenty of action sequences, and a rapidly complicating story.

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 shiny stars

An Insignificant Case is a captivating novel about a bumbling, insecure lawyer, who is used to defending small time criminal cases; so when he is appointed to Guido's (preferred name) theft case, what could possibly go wrong? Little does Charlie know the 'Webb' surrounding this case, including murder, sex trafficking, and more. There is nothing insignificant about this case. Charlie, being the insecure lawer he is, requests a more experienced lawyer to take the lead. With a thumb drive, divine protection, and a growing list of potential suspects, Charlie takes on more than he bargained for. I do enjoy a legal thriller, and this one held up quite well. Sometimes it seemed as though things were over-explained, particularly court terms. This can be appreciated to an extent, but it can get in the way with the flow of the story. Overall though, the book delivered on what it set out to do- tell a convoluted legal drama with depth and twists. Thank you to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the ARC!

I have had Phillip Margolin's novels on my TBR list for years. So when given the opportunity to receive an eARC to read and review, I jumped at the chance! This mystery/legal thriller follows Charlie Webb as he defends a man Lawrence who believes he is an Italian artist Guido from Michelangelo's time.

This novel was a mixed bag for me. I loved the premise: a client who is unreliable and the attorney who needs a big break, several incidents that may or may not be related. However, the execution didn't work all the way for me. Part of the reason is because Charlie did not come across as the sharpest tool in the shed (I'm not sure if that was the author's intent) and I guessed some of the plot points very early on (as soon as they were introduced). So, it wasn't jawdropping for me and I would have never believed that the ending would turn out the way it did.

I would recommend this to those who have read and enjoyed Margolin's in the past. I would still read a book by him, especially to try one out of the series he has written. I feel that perhaps in those books, he has fleshed out the main characters more, which would have increased my enjoyment.

More of a lighthearted story than were maybe used to from PM but it was good. Not a lot of depth but an enjoyable read. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

Solid legal drama

I have read books by this author for many years, they normally center on legal procedural as this one did. I enjoyed it, but will say that I didn’t feel like this book had the same intellectual level as previous books. When one of the characters was introduced who later became an important character, I was immediately suspicious and was surprised that the other MC’s weren’t.

I’m hoping this was just a one-off, I will read future books to find out.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

Charlie Webb is the court appointed lawyer to defend Lawrence Weiss aka Guido Sabatini, an artist accused of stealing his painting back from the buyer. During the theft, Guido also unknowingly steals a flash drive that contains information relating to a sex trafficking ring. In exchange for dropping the charges, Guido agrees to return the drive, Then the buyer and her body guard are murdered and Guido becomes the prime suspect. What started as a simple burglary charge is now murder and Charlie is completely out of his depth. This is a quick enjoyable read.

There are some definite flawed characters presented here. An underachieving lawyer who seems to judge women by their looks only. An artist who is crazy. Some horrible people doing horrible things. People who decide the law is for them to decide. But they all work. I was surprised that the book told the entire story instead of making me wait for another sequel. It was satisfying to know, but felt a it abrupt. Even with this one wrapped up, I’d read these characters again. They are imperfect. I like that.

This is an old fashioned airport legal thriller,. I especially enjoyed how the lead character develops over the course of the book from a C student with no confidence to a great lawyer in a really plausible way. So many of these books have a lead character who is smarter then everyone in the room, it is fun to have to watch someone grow into his suit. The case he takes is of a man who thinks he is the reincarnation of Renaissance painter who steals back a painting he sold and ends up with a thumb drive implicating people in sex trafficking. It is a pretty jarring shift from goofy to traumatic that the book rubs up against, but overall I burned through this pretty quick and had a good time with it.

Bestselling NYT and international author Phillip Margolin returns with a tantalizing standalone legal thriller, AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE. An attorney gets caught up in a complex, multi-layered case with a web of secrets and lies in this twisty suspense whodunit.

About...

Charlie Webb has not always had it easy. He considers himself a third-rate lawyer, graduating from a third law school. His confidence is low. Both professionally and personally. When he could not get hired by the major law firms, he hung out his own shingle.

His cases are mostly minor, ranging from friends of his youth to court-appointed ones. He has led an unremarkable and insignificant life.

UNTIL... he is appointed the attorney for a crackpot artist known as Guido Sabatini (Lawrence Weiss).

Sabatini was arrested for breaking into a restaurant and stealing back his painting (he did not like where they hung it or its placement). He is also an accomplished card shark and burglar, and while he is there, he steals a thumb drive from the owner's safe.

Not knowing what Sabatini has stolen, the attorney negotiates the return of the painting to drop the charges. But who knew what dark secrets were contained on the flash drive that would threaten some very powerful figures who would stop at nothing to retrieve it?

The restaurant owner and bodyguard are being investigated for the sex trafficking of minors. The plot thickens when a minor theft becomes a double homicide for Charlie, and a mysterious new woman steps into his life wanting to help. Can he trust her?

Charlie Webb's life soon becomes very intriguing... How are all the characters connected?

My thoughts...

AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE is a gripping legal thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat with unexpected twists and turns!

Readers will root for Charlie as he navigates a new adventure filled with twists and turns. The character development in this book is so strong that I wished for a new series featuring Charlie.

It is fast-paced and intense, a riveting thriller featuring a mysterious, eccentric, and colorful client. He believes he is the reincarnation of a Renaissance painter who worked alongside Michelangelo and de Vinci.

What makes him even more interesting is that he was a brilliant mathemetician, a professional card shark, and a skilled burglar before becoming an artist.

As the bodies start piling up, the case turns into anything but insignificant! Someone is setting up Guido. Charlie is not confident he can handle this case, but Guido wants him, and bingo, he has his first murder trial!

AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE is highly entertaining — blending crime, legal, murder, and vigilante justice. One of my favorites by the author. (I am a huge legal thriller fan).

Audiobook...

The incredibly talented Peter Ganim narrates the audiobook, which brings the story to life with his engaging performance. I highly recommend it for an immersive reading experience.

Recs...

This book is for fans of the author, those who enjoy well-written, compelling legal thrillers with dramatic courtroom scenes, and fans of John Grisham, Robert Dugoni, David Baldacci, and John Lescroart.

Thanks...

Thanks to Minotaur Books, St Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and #MacAudio2024 for gifting an ARC and ALC via NetGalley and Google Play.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Nov 5, 2024
My Rating: 5 Stars
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📚Happy Pub Week📚
- Published Nov 5, 2024

An Insignificant Case by #philipmargolin @minotaur_books

— A legal thriller about a third-rate lawyer, Carlie Webb, who has shady friends who send him business. He represents a man who is a thief and has gotten his hands on a very important thumb drive. Soon, Charlie’s life is in danger and some very bad characters will stop at nothing to get it. I enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more by him! Legal thrillers are my jam!
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Thank you so much to #philipmargolin @minotaur_books for the opportunity

I am a new fan of Philip Margolin, a very prolific writer, and am definitely looking forward to reading more of his books after finishing his most recent release (November 5, 2024) An Insignificant Case. In it we meet Charlie Webb a lawyer with a less than stellar practice, living a simple life in Portland, who is surprisingly assigned a case by a judge that had the potential to become the " big one." To help put Charlie into perspective, the author wrote: " if Charlie Webb were a grade, he would be a C." The case did become quite big with multiple murders, sexual assault, theft, kidnapping and more. The characters on both sides of the law were realistic, and the storyline was well developed and fast- paced. An Insignificant Case is an entertaining and intriguing read; I liked Charlie Webb and was silently cheering him on. Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, St. Martin's Publishing, and Philip Margolin for the opportunity to read an ARC of the book; my review reflects my honest opinion. 4 Stars.

I DNF around 40%. I could not make sense of the storyline, and could not get into the book at all. I expected more of a legal thriller but this was not that.

An average lawyer in the midst of an extraordinary case

Meet Charlie Webb, a guy who graduated from a forgettable law school and makes a living from mostly run-of-the-mill cases. His steadiest referrals come from two former teammates from his high school football squad who now are members of the Barbarians motorcycle club. He gets his fair share of court appointed cases as well, which don’t pay that well but are better than not getting paid at all. He catches one such case, that of eccentric artist Guido Sabatini (real name Lawrence Weiss) who has a pattern of selling his paintings but then stealing them back if he doesn’t feel they are being displayed properly. In this instance, he sold his painting to restaurant owner Gretchen Hall but was incensed to discover that she hung it in her office rather than put it on display in the public areas of her business. Dipping into his Lawrence Weiss-based skills as a card counter and burglar, Guido breaks into the restaurant, cracks open the safe and takes the painting…plus a flash drive that he thought might prove to be a good bargaining chip. Charlie is fairly certain that if he can make Guido return the painting to Gretchen, the case will go away…but he doesn’t know about the flash drive, and that is where the problem lies. When Gretchen, her driver Yuri Makarov and her film director friend Leon Golden are arrested for allegedly running a sex trafficking ring which may involve some very powerful players, the importance of the missing flash drive becomes clear. Soon people are turning up dead, and Guido is arrested for murder. Worse still, he will only accept Charlie as his lawyer, a job for which Charlie is completely unprepared. There are a lot of dangerous people who want that flash drive back and are clearly willing to kill to do so. With help from the more experienced lawyer assigned to assist him and a little back-up from the Barbarians, Charlie will need to keep his client safe and figure out who is behind the killings before someone else pays the ultimate price…and maybe he can even get some justice for the trafficked victims.
Author Phillip Margolin is an accomplished criminal defense attorney as well as an author, and that expertise is evident throughout the book. Charlie is no legal wunderkind (in fact he sees himself as barely adequate) and having a client’s life in his hands is a pretty intimidating experience for him. But he is more clever than he thinks, and as the story unfolds he will grow into his role even as a beautiful woman (who may or may not be on the level) drops into his life and the ugliness of the trafficking group disturbs him. A well-plotted legal thriller with a tangle of possible villains and intriguing storyline that keep the reader guessing till the end, this is a whydunnit as much as a whodunnit, An Insignificant Case is a stand-alone book that fans of author Margolin’s other books will surely enjoy, as will readers of Brad Meltzer, James Grippando and James Patterson. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me early access to this compelling story.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. I really like how the author starts telling the story with seemingly random events that slowly begin to connect. I enjoyed the characters in this story. I found Charlie a great leading character and liked him more and more as the story progressed. Not much was straight forward in this one and I really enjoyed how the layers were uncovered. I was happy with the ending as well. This book reminded me why I like the books by this author so much! I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I've been a Phillip Margolin fan for more years than I'll admit to. He's a terrific writer with the skills to keep readers enthralled in a story from page 1. AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE is just such a story.

Charlie Webb, a lawyer of dubious skills, is probably not your first pick when searching for legal representation. He knows this, keeping his business doors open with clients who can't afford to look for anyone else. When his latest client proves to be more than a simple breaking and entering, Charlie finds he has opened a door and let in a huge amount of trouble. The book synopsis compares this story to a Grisham story and it's a perfect comparison. The background community of Portland, Oregon's lower income citizens and Charlie's list of small time cases, are perfectly pictured in the build up to the race Charlie must run to keep everyone safe. The tension builds as the "rest of the story" rolls over what is supposed to be a simple case. As trouble seems to find them in every chapter, this story builds to a "hold your breath" finish. Anyone who loves legal thrillers will love this one too.

This book was not what I expected. I expected a Courtroom thriller. I got a bad guys/good guys shoot them up instead.
The main character believed he was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, but was able to revert to a high IQ card counter when needed. As a painter, he’ would sell his paintings and then steal them back if the paintings weren’t placed in a high visibility area. When he stole the paintings back he often took something else of value. When he took a thumb drive that chronicled illegal sexual activities, people wanted him dead. The plot was confusing for me—so many people and so many names to keep straight. The plot was also a bit too far-fetched.
Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the digital ARC. This review is my own opinion and has not been coerced in any way.

I've read and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of the author's books featuring former MMA fighter and current attorney Robin Lockwood, so when I got the chance to read this standalone book, I jumped at it. The lawyer here is Charlie Webb, an "average" guy who through no fault of his own got accepted into law school and passed the Bar. Living in Oregon, most of Charlie's clients are in the local Barbarian Motorcycle Club, just because he treats them right (and for the most part wins their court cases).

Charlie is also an old friend of sorts of a man who calls himself Guido Sabatini, a painter by profession. He recently sold one of his paintings to a woman named Gretchen Hall, who hung it on the wall in the office at the restaurant she owns. That, alas, really annoyed Guido, who was mightily offended that it wasn't on display where diners could see it. To rectify the situation, he broke into the office and stole the painting - along with at least one item from Gretchen's office safe.

That, of course, is a big no-no from a legal standpoint; Guido definitely will find himself in a court of law (as he's done in the past) - but not before he convinces Charlie to defend him. Unbeknownst to both of them, though, Gretchen is a suspected ringleader in a group of rather nasty folks who traffic young girls. And as luck would have it, the item Guido stole from that safe is a flash drive showing living proof that the police suspicions are right on the money.

That, needless to say, puts Guido - and everyone associated with him - in the crosshairs of those who are desperate to keep that video from ever being seen, even if murder is involved. So Charlie and his friends must be vigilant to the nines if they even hope to make it to Guido's trial, much less get him acquitted. More than that I can't reveal except to say it's quite an adventure. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me a pre-release copy to read and review.