I have been a fan of Phillip Margolin for a long time…and while I haven’t read every one of the books in either the Amanda Jaffe or the Dana Cutler series, I had read and enjoyed the first three Robin Lockwood books — so was happy to receive a copy of A Matter of Life and Death (#4 in the RL series) from St. Martin’s/Minotaur and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I also admit I was a bit apprehensive, as the most recent adventure for Robin Lockwood (A Reasonable Doubt, released earlier this year) had been a bit of a disappointment for me — only three stars, and I am a notoriously easy grader! But there’s no time like a pandemic lockdown to provide lots of opportunity for reading. ….

In this latest installment, Robin has agreed to take on the death penalty case defending Joe Lattimore, a young homeless man. In his desperation to provide for his family, Joe agreed to participate in an illegal fight — no holds barred, no real rules, lots of crazed fans in a barn outside of town…what could possibly go wrong? But Joe’s opponent dies, then the backers of the fight blackmail Joe into burglarizing a house. When he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman, then the police get an anonymous tip naming him as the murderer. And, to top it off, the victim’s husband is a Judge…and not one of Robin’s favorites. She suspects her client was framed, but it looks like an airtight case. 

I’m a fan of good legal thrillers and “plucky heroine” protagonists. This one fits both categories, and Margolin seems to have regained his form (or maybe it was just me — 2020 has been an incredibly strange year, and it’s possible that at the beginning of this pandemic, I was overly cranky and judged A Reasonable Doubt too harshly).

Good character development, with Robin’s increasing prominence as an attorney and her previous role as an MMA fighter providing interesting opportunities for her to become a more fully developed character. There are some nice twists as the strong plot moves along, and although I knew who some of the bad guys were along the way, I was still surprised (not unusual, I’m terribly dense when it comes to mysteries). Four stars, and I look forward to more of Robin Lockwood’s adventures.