Woman with a Gun: A Novel

I have read a couple of Phillip Margolin's books in the past, and I typically enjoy them. "Woman with a Gun" was pretty much what I was expecting, and thus I was not disappointed. It's a quick read, tightly paced, with a variety of modestly defined characters. Some of the plot twists I could anticipate, while others snuck up on me. This is the interesting story of a compelling photograph and the murder mystery at the center of it. The story is told in stages, largely from the time of the crime itself though that narrative is bookended by sections set ten years later when a novelist intrigued by the photograph comes to town to question those involved in the original story. I cannot go so far as to say that this is the best thing I have written by Phillip Margolin, but it did effectively hold my attention for several days.

Clocking in at under 300 pages, it's brisk enough to read on a long flight or during a weekend vacation at the beach. The most disappointing part of the book for me was the dialogue which felt forced, stilted, and occasionally almost juvenile. I had a very hard time picturing real people having some of the conversations depicted in this book. It is a kind of artificiality that is difficult to describe, but if you read a lot of mystery books (like me) it is something you notice. That lawyer would never say that. Why did she feel the need to describe this in that way. Margolin is a good writer, to be sure, but this fell just a bit short of five stars for me. Recommended if you like Margolin or if you are in need of a quick vacation mystery.