Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Woman With A Gun-Phillip Margolin

Woman With A Gun
Phillip Margolin
Harper, Dec 2 2014, $26.95
ISBN: 9780062266521

In 2015, MOMA hosts an exhibit of Pulitzer Prize winning Kathy Moran’s photographs.  Attending the event, wannabe writer Stacey Kim, is mesmerized by an iconic photo “Woman With A Gun”; that of a woman in a white wedding dress on a beach staring out at the ocean while holding a nineteenth century six-shooter.  Obsessed to know more about this astonishing picture Stacey heads to the hometown of the photographer in Palisades Heights, Oregon where Kathy also took that incredible picture.

In 2005, millionaire Raymond Cahill marries Megan.  A few hours later he is dead and she suffered a concussion.  Afterward Megan insists she remembers nothing after exchanging their vows.  Five years prior to the Cahill homicide, ADA Jack Booth lost a sure-shot case to his unrequited love lawyer Kathy Moran that that haunts him fifteen years later.  With plans to write a novel based on the incident Stacey arrives to investigate; Jack helps her even as more murders occur.

The three prime subplots converge into an interesting murder mystery though the 2015 homicides distract from the exciting present day inquiry into the gripping decade old cold case and adds unnecessary cast.  Still readers will want to know what happened in 2005.


Harriet Klausner

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