Book Talk: Margolin, ‘The Third Victim’

Phillip Margolin has been a best-selling author for 45 years, since the publication of “Heartstone” in 1978. Five years ago, he started a new series, and it is terrific. “The Third Victim” (2018, 324 pages in paperback format) introduces defense attorney Robin Lockwood.

Robin helped to pay her tuition through college and law school by successfully pursuing a “side” career as a mixed-martial-arts (MMA) fighter. As she walked toward the octagon fighting arena, her fans sang the old “Rockin’ Robin” song. She became ranked 9th in the nation in her weight class (5’8” and 130 pounds). She quit the ring after she’d been knocked out by a much larger fighter and experienced a few days of head trauma.

The Third Victim begins with Caleb White driving his pickup along a dark rural highway in Oregon when a woman stumbles into the road. She pleads, “Help me!” Caleb phones his cousin Harry, a detective with the Sheriff’s Department, as he drives the woman, Meredith Fenner, to the hospital. She’s been beaten, tortured, and starved, but she’ll survive.