Book Review: Murder at Black Oaks | Phillip Margolin | Robin Lockwood #6

I’ve had the Robin Lockwood series by Phillip Margolin on my radar for a few years now and have been wanting to try out the series. I was particularly interested in Murder at Black Oaks because of the setting. I’ve been all about gothic-style stories and settings now that winter has fallen. There’s something about the oversized, slightly haunted mansions and estates that always feel like the perfect place to escape to on a cold winter night when I’m cozied up by the fire.

The premise of this book drew me straight in. It starts as a legal mystery and then turns to more of a locked-room style mystery, which I loved. I’d imagine that attorney-client privilege must be one of the most helpful and most devastating parts of being a prosecutor or defense attorney. In Phillip Margolin’s Murder at Black Oaks, the downside to this statute kicks off a compelling mystery that had me hooked from start to finish.

About the Book | Murder at Black Oaks

Thirty years ago

The book opens with retired District Attorney Frank Melville trying an airtight case accusing a young college student named Jose Alvarez of murdering his girlfriend, Margo Prescott. Jose is sentenced to death and begins his long sit on death row. Seven years later, Melville is defending Archie Stallings—the key witness in the Jose Alvarez case—against rape charges. After getting Stallings successfully acquitted of rape charges, Stallings confesses to Frank that he was the one who murdered Margo Prescott, not Jose Alvarez.

It is a nightmare scenario for Frank Melville. He has just realized that he was part of the system that sentenced an innocent man to death. He now has a confession from the real murderer, but he is unable to do anything because the confession is not on record, and he is bound by attorney-client privilege. Frank can’t do anything to right the wrongs enacted against Jose Alvarez seven years earlier…

Present day

The book flashes forward thirty years. Jose Alvarez has been on death row for a crime he didn’t commit for decades. Frank Melville is now retired. Defense Attorney Robin Lockwood receives a call asking her to meet with Frank at his home Black Oaks manor several hours outside of Portland in the mountains of Oregon. Black Oaks is styled after a manor in England that has a murderous history and a curse on it dating back to the early 1600s.

When Robin arrives at Black Oaks, Frank hires her to right the injustice suffered by Jose Alvarez many years before. His client Archie Stallings—who actually committed the murder and confessed to Frank—has now passed away. Frank details the sordid series of events to Robin and asks her to take on the case for him. Robin agrees and gets to work petitioning to overturn Jose’s conviction.

Jose is a free man, but he has lost everything. He is angry at Frank for knowing he was innocent and allowing him to sit in prison for decades. Still, he agrees to accompany Robin to a dinner at Black Oaks. Frank is paying for his living expenses, after all. But on the evening of the dinner (which also has a few other guests in attendance), Frank is found murdered in his elevator, stabbed by a knife that ties to the curse on Black Oaks. The elevator is locked in between floors and Frank was alone. Robin is faced with trying to solve a murder that she knows was committed by one of the members of the dinner party…

Review | Murder at Black Oaks

I want to pause here and just sit a moment with the horror of the scenario around Jose’s conviction and Frank learning the truth seven years later. All of these events unfold in the first few chapter of the book, setting the stage for the rest of the story. As a reader, I flashed through a range of emotions. I was horrified at what had happened to Jose, I was furious with Stallings and Frank Melville for their part in it, I was frustrated and defeated knowing that Frank was trapped without a way to act on what he now knows.

I couldn’t imagine being in Frank’s position. Even if he was willing to break confidentiality and risk losing his law license, Stallings would deny the confession. Frank would end up in the same position, unable to help. We learn that Frank has wrestled with this his entire life. He has kept to his obligation as an attorney and hasn’t shared the information with anyone. Stalling’s death opens a new possibility, but one that will still be a longshot to succeed.

Robin Lockwood is a smart and talented attorney, she sets up her shot and takes it. Through some skill and some luck getting a judge who is open to what she is arguing, Robin is able to get Frank’s testimony admitted to court and finally Jose is freed. Jose’s anger is understandable, as is his anxiety over being free for the first time in decades. Jose never finished college, his parents died while he was in prison, and he has no home and no job. Frank is offering to help him financially, but it doesn’t seem to ease the anger burning in Jose.

While the story of Jose’s conviction and release seems shocking, it’s a relatively small portion of the actual book. This book is really about Frank’s murder in a closed elevator inside of a remote manor that is cut off due to a storm. Robin immediately steps in to assist, knowing that someone in the manor must have committed the murder. Jose seems like an obvious suspect because he has come there to tell Frank to his face that he will never forgive him for what he has kept to himself all of these years. But still, the reader (and Robin) pretty quickly assume Jose is unlikely to be the murderer.

There are other suspects though. An aging action movie star is in attendance, thinking that Frank is interested in financing a film for him. In reality, Frank is planning to accuse him of murdering the star’s late wife, a Hollywood starlet who died tragically young. There is also one of the household staff who attends to all of Frank’s scheduling needs. We learn that she and Frank are engaged to marry, but she is planning to take his money after they wed. There is a group of household staff, and a man discovered in the area who has a grudge to settle. Frank’s attorney is also present, as is his daughter, and a catering staff.

The problem is that the murder seems impossible. Everyone was either accounted for physically, or would have been unable to commit the crime in the time period it happened. Furthermore, there is the puzzle of how Frank was murdered inside of a locked elevator when he was alone and the elevator got stuck between floors.

I enjoyed this book, though I will say the shift from the Jose Alvarez case to a locked mystery would be a bit shocking if you didn’t re-read what the book is about. Jose’s case and release from prison happens relatively quickly in the beginning of the book, and the story then focuses on Frank Melville’s murder. Jose’s story is important because it’s the catalyst for bringing Robin into Black Oaks. In addition, Jose’s anger is presented as justified, and his presence the night of Frank’s murder adds a complication because his motive is the most obvious one.

A great mystery and I absolutely loved the setting! I will say that the resolution to the mystery surprised me, not necessarily the who, but the why and how. I loved the throwback feel to early twentieth century mystery writers, and I really enjoyed Robin as a character, though this book doesn’t delve as much into her life as I suspect others will.

Thank you to Minotaur Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin is an attorney specializing in criminal defense and a writer who originally grew up in New York but has had the majority of his legal career and writing career in Oregon. Phillip was the first Oregon attorney to use the Battered Women’s Syndrome to defend a battered woman accused of murdering her spouse. In 1996 he published his first book, and has gone on to have a successful writing career.

About the Series | Robin Lockwood

New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin’s Robin Lockwood crime novels follows a young female attorney and amateur sleuth seeking justice in the courts of law. In the first legal courtroom thriller in this winning series, Robin Lockwood’s case of a sexual assault committed by a college-football superstar overwhelmingly looks like a slam-dunk, even backed by DNA evidence, until she’s faced with The Perfect Alibi.