Phillip Margolin's After Dark is a very satisfying court room drama/murder mystery. As an avid reader within this genre, I thought I'd seen every kind of twist imaginable, but Margolin managed to find a new way to surprise me!

Basic Plot

Two murders.

A Supreme Court law clerk is found dead, her office ransacked.

A month later, the judge for whom she clerked is the victim of a car bomb.

Are the two murders related? No one really knows. All they know is that there's an awful lot of evidence in the judge's murder. And it all points to one person: the judge's estranged wife, Abigail. We, the readers, know that Abigail is being framed. But why? And by whom? That's where the mystery lies. And that's where the delightful twists and turns keep us on our toes!

What I Liked

The story was definitely interesting. I turned those pages very quickly in order to find out what was going to happen next, what clue would be revealed next.

Part of the interest was that there were definite "good guys" and definite "bad guys". These were drawn crystal clear so there could be no doubt about the role they played. But then there were those people "in between". People about whom the readers are kept purposely unsure. So we never really know who to root for. A perfect example is Abigail's defense attorney, Matthew Reynolds. On the one hand he's hugely successful. Dedicated to keeping criminals off of death row, he hasn't let a single one of his clients die. To those needing the best defense possible, Matthew's a hero. Yet we, the readers, are allowed into his private life. And we see that there's a side to him that is kept away from the public's eye. But we don't know if what we see represents a mere eccentricity, or something much more evil. The fact that we're never sure about this character (until the very end) made this book particularly exciting, especially as Abigail's life depends on him!

Although our second murder victim is killed early on, Judge Griffen is another example of someone who is kept mysterious. On the one hand, those who worked with him paint him as a respectable judge, and an upstanding citizen. They can't imagine that he's done anything wrong to bring about his murder. And they blame Abigail for all the problems in the Griffen marriage. Yet we hear of a totally different side of him from Abigail, and eventually, from others. Thus, again, until the very end, we really have no idea if he's a "good guy" or "bad guy".

I found this technique of keeping some of the characters purposely questionable to be very engaging. It definitely kept my interest.

What I Didn't Like

There were a few subplots that I found completely unnecessary. They added nothing to the story; they were merely a distraction. One in particular involved a teenaged boy convicted of rape and murder. The book delves into the defense strategy provided by Matthew Reynolds. I suppose it was added in order to solidify in our minds just how great a defense attorney Matthew is. But we already knew that; the extra subplot was useless.

Some of the explanations given in the book were just way too long and boring. A huge deal is made about the metal in the pipe used to make the bomb. Many, many paragraphs were dedicated to explaining how the pipe was made. In the end, the conclusion that was drawn about the metal could have been drawn in just a sentence or two, without all the background information.

Another long discussion had to do with photographs, and determining whether two photographs came from the same roll of film, or not. Again, the conclusion could have been drawn in simple terms in just a few sentences. I didn't need to read all of the details about how film is made, processed, etc.

The bottom line is that there was quite a bit of waste in the book. I'd prefer to keep the story tighter.

However, overall, this is a very entertaining book, with surprises that I never saw coming. Highly recommended for lovers of murder mysteries/courtroom dramas.


Other books by Phillip Margolin:

The Associate

Heartstone

The Undertaker's Widow

Ties That Bind

Wild Justice

Recommended: Yes