Customer Reviews

Gone, But Not Forgotten: AND After Dark

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my second Margolin book and I found it very good -- it features creepy cunning serial killers with a good legal suspense. Lots of twists along the way; some of them a tad over-the-top. The police investigation is under-developed and the police comes across as rather incompetent. There are also a few loose ends like the missing case files. Three quarters of the way into the book, I started to suspect "who did it" and "why" but, even at that point, the author managed to throw in enough curve balls to keep the game interesting until the end (pardon the cliches!). Martin Darius is one scary and disgusting character. Kudos to the author for bringing him to life in such a vivid way. Mr. Margolin, you have a very twisted imagination! 4/5 = very good.

I read this book when I was about 15 because I had read all of the horror novels in the school library. Even at such a young age, the book made gruesome sense. I know that there was a lot about this book that I couldn't grasp, which is why I'm looking forward to reading it again.

I'd recomend this book for anyone who enjoys law, criminal justice, psychology, sociology, and/or horror books.

Similar to other readers, I had never heard of Margolin before. I was very pleased with this book. It kept me interested the whole way through. I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author.

You've probably already read a synopsis of the book, so I won't waste more of your time. This was the first book I'd read by him. I had never heard of Philip Margolin before I read the book, and now I can't understand why. This book was written so well, and I just couldn't put it down until I finished. It's not one of these books that drags on and seems to go nowhere until the last minute. This book catches your attention and keeps it. Later after I'd read it, I still found myself returning to the story and thinking about some of the characters.

Phillip Margolin has constructed a complex and exciting thriller with enough plot twists to keep the end in suspense until the last page. This is the first of his books that I have read, and I do not see why Margolin does not get the recognition accorded to Grisham or Ludlum, as he is clearly in that league.

In Gone, But Not Forgotten, two related crime stories, separated by 10 years and 3000 miles are unwoven simultaneously. In the New York and Oregon cases, the perpetrator is clearly a cunning genius, killing and kidnapping wives of prominent locals, but is it the same perpetrator in both cases? And if so, why was he able to move on to the second venue and repeat the crime spree?

Key characters are involved in both cases, but some have moved on and some are not able to let go. Why did the accused in the second case pick an unknown lawyer to represent him and who is that journalist that is bird-dogging the case? Even to the most casual observer, the ending to the first case would not be satisfactory to professional detectives and prosecutors, yet the case was definitively closed ten years ago.

In the end, it all comes clear and Margolin has added some unique legal twists. In what must be one of life's toughest choices, prosecutors and politicians are forced to decide quickly to what extent crimes can be forgiven in exchange for information that might help the living. We had a similiar case in Philadelphia fifteen years ago, where a DA was criticized for reducing charges against a child molester in exchange for information.

Gone, but Not Forgotten was the best mystery thriller that I have read in months (if not years). The author kept the plot twisting until the last page. Very good book - with just enough scare in it to make you jumpy.

Another fantastic book by P. Margolin. It's packed with twists and turns which keep you up all night reading. This is one book you have to buy!

The first question I asked myself is why did I wait so long to read Phillip Margolin. We've had this book in our home library for years, and I've finally gotten around to it! Wow...did I waste some time! This is an outstanding, well-written and terrifying book. Margolin has captured a lot of "personality" within most of the characters in this book: flawed, driven, ambitious, and of course with the killer, actual demonic qualities. The book is filled with many surprises, including some really nasty ones, too! I especially liked the characters of Alan Page and Betsy Tannenbaum---lawyers that seem to have a true sense of justice, fighting even their own demons. Betsy's failing marriage to Rick at first seems cliche, but as it evolves and it's final dramatic resolution, we can see how two people who love one another let jealousy destroy their lives. The character of Nancy Gordon is also a good one, and one has to wonder during the proceedings if she could perhaps somehow be involved in the killings. But at the heart of this book is Martin Darius and Peter Lake----these guys are truly villians in the worst sense of the word. No remorse, no compassion, evil to the core. A stunning book that certainly made me go in and put the rest of his books on my wish list; hopefully, my wife will have such a hard time deciding which ones to get me for Christmas, she'll get them all!
HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ! NO KIDDING!

I've read several books by Philip Margolin but this, by far, is THE BEST! An absolutely phenomenal book!

You start out with disappearances in New York then the same disappearances in Oregon years later. You follow the detective who fought to find the maniac responsible for the initial disappearances.

The plot, the intensity, the twists & turns will keep you rivited until the last page! An excellent book! You will not be disappointed!

This was my first book by Phillip Margolin as well as my first mystery in the lawyer-as-detective genre. I thought the story was immediately interesting. The author introduced a lot of characters quickly but usually did so in a nonconfusing way while still writing the kind of details that make a fictional character come to life. I felt I knew a lot about them within a few paragraphs. Everything was written in the third person, and the action jumped around a lot; that made things move fast and it was interesting to read the experiences of several lawyers and detectives, a killer, a private detective etc. Characters were complex but in general I liked the good peple and didn't like the bad ones, and I like that. The story also moved around in time and this was done well.

In the book, we learn that a serial killer had murdered in New York state ten years prior. The killer always left a black rose and a note -- "Gone, But Not Forgotten". (One disappointing aspect to the book is that this idiosyncracy is never explained.) A decade later, the same M.O. is being used in a series of crimes in Portland, Oregon. This story is about how the people in Portland are looking for the killer and how people from the earlier investigation become involved.

This was an intelligent read and enjoyable. I will definitely read other books by this author.