- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins Canada (Feb 17 2005)
- ISBN-10: 0060735023
- ASIN: B000BHA3KY
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Like the lake of its title, Margolin's latest suspense novel (a hybrid with traces of legal thriller and whodunit and a big debt to The Manchurian Candidate) is smooth on the surface with tumultuous secrets lurking beneath. In Portland, Ore., lawyer and single mom Ami Vergano is pleased to take in handsome handyman Dan Morelli as a tenant, since he provides a positive male role model for her 10-year-old son, Ryan. Meanwhile, across the country in Washington, tightly wound tabloid reporter Vanessa Kohler spins elaborate paranoid fantasies (or are they?) involving personal danger and government conspiracy. These two women—and their respective plot threads—come together when Dan's volatility turns a Little League game into a crime scene, and Vanessa steps forward to support him, at considerable risk. But this is only the beginning of a labyrinthine plot built on twists and surprises. Hint: Vanessa's father is an influential general and political power broker. Margolin isn't the most original writer, but what he lacks in style he makes up for in clarity. Plotting is his strong suit. The artful arrangement of the story's episodes keeps the suspense high, and the author fills in the puzzle shrewdly, with small pieces from all over the chronology. The surprises keep coming, even after the story settles mostly into a courtroom drama, with Ami defending Dan on a high-stakes charge.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
It's a mystery why Margolin, the criminal-defense lawyer turned novelist, isn't at least as big as, say, John Grisham. Overall he's a more polished writer, and his stories have an intellectual depth that Grisham's more formulaic potboilers frequently lack. This time the central character, Vanessa Kohler, is a reporter working for Exposed, a tabloid newspaper. She has a troubled psychological history, stemming from her relationship with her father, a high-level military man who's now running for president. Vanessa has written more than a few stories (and one unpublished book) about an alleged government conspiracy masterminded by her father. When Vanessa discovers that a presumed-dead man is very much alive, she sees her opportunity to take down her father and prove that she is not just a conspiracy nut. As usual, Margolin touches on some heavy issues: mental instability, perception versus reality, paranoia. But this is a crime novel, not a treatise, and it delivers the goods, with plenty of action, suspense, and danger. Readers familiar with Margolin's work, especially such fine early novels as Gone but Not Forgotten (1993), will know what to expect here. Newcomers will immediately want to round up all his previous books. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars (56 customer reviews)
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
JUST BECAUSE THERE IS NO PROOF DOESN'T MEAN IT DIDN'T HAPPEN, Jan 7 2008
By Red Rock Bookworm - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lost Lake (Hardcover)
When packing for a long road trip I always like to take authors like Philip Margolin along for the ride. His books on CD keep you alert and engaged and Lost Lake is no exception.While there is a crime committed in Lost Lake (several in fact) there is no mystery to solve because you already know who-dunnit. The underlying question is why was the crime committed, and are the stories being told by the chief protagonists (Carl Rice and Vanessa Kohler) the real deal or just the delusions of a couple of paranoiac personalities.
It's up to their lawyer Ami Vergano to try to separate fact from fiction and determine the truth behind the story that began 20 years earlier with the brutal torture murder of a Congressman.
Deborah Hazlett is a talented reader and she deftly breathes life into Margolin's characters and keeps the story moving along at a lively pace. You find yourself pulling for Carl and Vanessa while still wondering if perhaps they really are crazy and you've been sucked into their deluded world.
If you enjoy a story that delves into the arenas of political and military cover-ups and is laced with tension and a touch of uncertainty you'll relish your journey to LOST LAKE.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Military-Politico Thriller Gives a Good Ride!, Mar 26 2005
By Michael D. Trimble - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lost Lake (Hardcover)
Like a James Bond movie that begins with a huge stunt before the opening credits even scroll by, this book jumps right into the action with a vicious murder of a U.S. Congressman. The gruesome event actually happens nearly 20 years before the rest of the book takes place, but is central to the predicament the story's characters now find themselves.The main players are: General Wingate the retired hard-charging Army General now running for President and someone who will do anything to keep secret the illegal murderous unit he ran while on active duty. His daughter Vanessa who witnessed the murder of the congressman and hates her father because she believes he was responsible for the death of her mother and much more. Carl Rice, was once Vanessa's high school boyfriend and is now a former army captain who served in General Wingate's secret unit, and Ami Vergano the young single mom and small time lawyer who will get swept up in the action and forced into defending Carl after he becomes involved in a scuffle that turns deadly at Little League game where Ami's son was playing. Little known to Ami though, is who Carl actually is, that Carl has murdered time and time again for General Wingate and has been on the run and in hiding from Wingate for the past twenty years. The incident at the ball field and the subsequent press coverage start in motion a series of events which make this book the thriller that it is.
What makes a good thriller? Well it has a have a great plot, creative subterfuge, devious betrayal, larger-than-life characters and almost always, murderous violence. This book by Margolin has all that and is a captivatingly good story. I recommend it as an easy, exciting read.
If you really enjoy thrillers, one of the all time best is, Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down, Mar 21 2005
By booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Lost Lake (Hardcover)
During Vietnam, a powerful general ran a secret, elite unit of spies and assassins to carry out his private agendas--which included the murder of a United States senator. At least, that's what his daughter, Vanessa Kohler, has maintained for many years. But no one believes Vanessa, who has a history of serious mental illness. She's written off as paranoid, a crank--and the fact she works as a tabloid reporter doesn't elevate her reputation any.Now Vanessa catches a glimpse of a man on the TV news, a man she thought long dead. He is one of her father's assassins. And if he is still alive, he is the one person who could prove the Unit existed. But the man, Carl Rice, now living under an assumed name, has his own problems--namely that he's been charged with attempted murder for intervening in a Little League game when a parent physically threatened the coach. He stuck a ballpoint pen in the guy's throat.
Caught in the middle of all this is single-mom lawyer Ami Vergano, who is Carl's landlord. The man has been nothing but gentle and friendly until this incident. So when Vanessa comes to her with her wild claims, demanding that Ami represent Carl, she tries to get out of it. But the more she hears, the more intrigued she becomes. There is a thread of truth to what Vanessa's story. And Ami, though she is not a criminal attorney, gets sucked in to the drama, all the while trying to protect herself and her young son.
This is a first-rate thriller reminiscent of the movie Conspiracy Theory. Sometimes paranoids have enemies, and sometimes they're not imagining things. It's easy to sympathize with Vanessa even as she makes one poor choice after another in her quest to prove her father, now a presidential candidate, is a cold-blooded murderer. Even Carl, a trained killer, is made sympathetic. I really could not put this book down.
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