“Supreme Justice” by Phillip Margolin (Harper)

Intrigue & Corruption at the Supreme Court

Sarah Woodruff, on death row in Oregon for murdering her lover, John Finley, has appealed her case to the Supreme Court just when a prominent justice resigns, leaving a vacancy.

Then, for no apparent reason, another justice is mysteriously attacked. Dana Cutler – one of the heroes from Margolin’s bestselling Executive Privilege – is quietly called in to investigate. She looks for links between the Woodruff appeal and the ominous incidents in the justices' chambers, which eventually lead her to a shoot-out that took place years ago on a small freighter docked upriver in Shelby, Oregon, containing a dead crew and illegal drugs. The only survivor on board? John Finley.

With the help of Brad Miller and Keith Evans, Dana uncovers a plot by a rogue element in the American intelligence community involving the president's nominee to the Supreme Court, and soon the trio is thrown back into the grips of a deadly, executive danger.

This is the second novel in Margolin’s Washington Trilogy (the first was Executive Privilege), and it continues the series in very fine form. The novel reunites us with Brad Miller and Dana Cutler – the former is now a clerk at the Supreme Court, while Dana continues to work as a private investigator and also some-time reporter for Exposed, the supermarket tabloid our protagonists turned to in their previous novel. Supreme Justice has a couple of great twists and red herrings, as well as political and courtroom intrigue. This is a pretty solid, entertaining and gripping political/legal thriller.

“Executive Privilege” by Phillip Margolin (Hodder)

The first of the Washington Trilogy

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh’s dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.

In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests that someone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.

I’ve been on a political thriller kick recently, and have been scouring the shelves in all my local bookstores for more series and novels to try out. I came across Margolin by accident, but on the strength of this novel, I’m very happy that I did. This thriller is entertaining, twisty, and well written. I enjoyed reading it.