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Phillip Margolin
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For almost 25 years, Phillip Margolin worked as a criminal defense attorney in Portland, Oregon at both the trial and appellate levels. During his law career, he tried a great number of cases and even argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1974, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine published a short story he had written called "The Girl in the Yellow Bikini." This achievement gave Margolin the confidence he needed to begin writing books. The general public was introduced to Phillip Margolin --- the novelist --- when Heartstone was released in 1978.
Margolin has used his extensive knowledge of the law and his many years of experience in the courtroom to write a series of highly successful and popular legal thrillers, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers. His latest effort is Ties That Bind and, if his past successes are any indication, this novel will be the next great "edge-of-your-seat" thriller.
To celebrate the release of Ties That Bind, AuthorsOnTheWeb has chosen Phillip Margolin as our Author of the Month. Readers can learn more about Margolin's life and works through trivia questions, fast facts and biographical information, as well as links to his website, bibliography and book reviews.
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Fast Facts
- Phillip Margolin was the first attorney in Oregon to use the Battered Woman's Syndrome to defend an abused woman accused of murdering her spouse.
- The idea for Gone, But Not Forgotten came from a conversation Margolin had with a friend at a dinner party. He started to think about what he would do if Hitler asked him to be his attorney.
- Margolin's only recurring character to date is Amanda Jaffe, who has appeared in Wild Justice, The Associate and, now, Ties That Bind.
- Unlike our February Author of the Month, Nevada Barr, Phillip Margolin appears to follow a highly structured writing routine. It takes him a few years from the time he gets an idea for a novel to actually submitting a finished draft. He spends approximately six to eight months writing a first draft and four to six months of intense editing. In addition, he will not start writing until he has figured out the ending of the book.
- Among Margolin's favorite courtroom thrillers are Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow and Robert Traver's Anatomy of a Murder.
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Bio
Phillip Margolin grew up in New York City and Levittown, New York. In 1965, he graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. with a Bachelor's Degree in Government. For the next two years, Margolin was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia and went on to graduate from New York University School of Law in 1970.
He moved to Oregon where he clerked for Herbert M. Schwab, the Chief Judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals. After working in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, he opened his own private practice in Portland, specializing in criminal defense at both the trial and appellate levels. As a trial attorney, Margolin handled a wide range of criminal cases in state and federal court, from simple traffic tickets to complicated murder cases. In fact, he was the attorney of record in 30 homicide cases, including twelve that involved the death penalty. As an appellate attorney, he appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals --- and was the attorney of record in approximately 80 appeals.
After practicing law for 24 years, Margolin decided to become a full-time writer. He stopped practicing, not because he disliked being a lawyer, but because it became virtually impossible for him to be a practicing attorney and write novels at the same time. The idea for Margolin's first book actually came during his clerkship at the Oregon Court of Appeals. At the time, he learned about a very complex and fascinating murder case in Oregon, the Peyton-Allen murders. Margolin reasoned that few people outside of the state would be aware of the case and so he attempted to write a novel based on these murders. The result was Heartstone, which was published in 1978 and was eventually nominated for an Edgar Award for best original paperback mystery of 1978 by the Mystery Writers of America. In the novel, a budding romance between two lovers is shattered when the badly beaten body of the young man is found and the other half of the couple turns up missing. Margolin's second effort was 1981's The Last Innocent Man, which was made into an HBO movie in 1987. It focuses on a criminal defense attorney who resolves to change the ways in which he represents his clients.
Despite the accolades, these first two novels were not bestsellers when they were originally published, perhaps because Margolin didn't do any promotion for them. This changed though when Gone, But Not Forgotten was released in 1993. Margolin was able to strike somewhat of a balance between his law practice and writing career, as judges and district attorneys made it possible for him to go on his first book tour. Gone, But Not Forgotten tells the bizarre story of a series of murder cases, all with striking similarities. His ability to promote the book paid dividends --- it has been sold to more than 25 foreign publishers and was the main selection of the Literary Guild. In Margolin's fourth book, 1995's After Dark, a star prosecutor is charged with the murder of her husband and picks one of America's leading defense attorneys to represent her --- a lawyer who happens to be madly in love with her. After Dark was a Book of the Month Club selection. His fifth novel was The Burning Man, which was published the following year and was the recipient of two honors: the Main Selection of the Literary Guild and a Reader's Digest condensed book. In it, the son of a successful lawyer gets fired from his father's law firm, is disinherited from his will and ends up working as a public defender in a small Oregon town. There, he represents a retarded man who is facing the death penalty for the brutal murder of a college co-ed.
Margolin continued to treat his ardent fans to more gripping legal thrillers. 1998's The Undertaker's Widow centers on Judge Richard Quinn, a man who is so ethical that he's willing to risk his own life to see that justice prevails. But when he presides over the trial of a tough talking state congresswoman, he discovers there isn't always a clear path to justice. Like After Dark, The Undertaker's Widow was a Book of the Month Club selection. The same honor was bestowed on Margolin's seventh novel, Wild Justice, and was also a Main Selection of the Literary Guild. In the book, published in 2000, a brilliant surgeon who is on trial for a heinous crime disappears under bizarre circumstances. Four years later, a second set of murders has begun and the police will do everything they can to find him --- but is he really responsible for any of these killings? Margolin's eighth novel was published in 2001; titled The Associate, it is the story of a law associate accused of murdering his former boss. However, as he attempts to clear his name, he makes a discovery that puts his own life in danger. The latest legal thriller from Margolin is Ties That Bind and it focuses on the seemingly desperate claims of a man on trial for the murder of a U.S. senator.
In addition to his novels, Margolin has also written short stories and has had a number of nonfiction articles published in magazines and law journals. One of his short stories, "The Jailhouse," was selected for the 1999 anthology, The Best American Mystery Stories. His other short stories are "The Girl in the Yellow Bikini" and "Angie's Delight."
An avid chess player, Margolin has been the President and Chairman of the Board of Chess for Success since 1996. It is a nonprofit charity that uses chess to teach study skills to elementary and middle school children in Title I schools.
Margolin has been happily married to his wife, Doreen, since 1968. They have two children, Ami and Daniel, who Margolin calls "terrific."
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