An Insignificant Case: A Thriller
“Margolin has created a mystery of mysteries, and the only way to get to the end is to continue turning pages.”
“If Charlie Webb were a grade, he would have been a C, which was the average grade he received starting in elementary school and ending in law school.”
And so, author Phillip Margolin introduces the reader to his protagonist in his most recent novel, An Insignificant Case. As an attorney, Charlie takes on unimportant cases for unimportant people, and he barely keeps his head above water.
Two of his friends, Bob Malone and Gary Schwartz, are members of a motorcycle gang, the Barbarians, which often finds it necessary to ask Charlie for help.
As the story opens, Guido Sabatini, aka Lawrence Weiss, a local artist, sells one of his paintings to Gretchen Hall, the owner of a popular Italian restaurant, La Bella Roma. Guido is a verifiable nutcase, but he is an extremely good artist. He is also a mathematical wizard whose gambling tactics have gotten him into trouble with local casinos.
Two weeks later, when Guido discovers that his painting has not been hung in the dining room where diners can see, appreciate, and possibly buy his work, he demands that his picture be returned. Gretchen is out of town, and Guido must return to speak to her. This is not good enough, and Guido breaks into the restaurant after it is closed and takes his picture back. Unable to ignore his skills in math, Guido opens and takes a device from her safe to use as an enticement to make Gretchen display his artwork in her dining room. A camera in Gretchen’s office films Guido taking his picture and removing something from the safe.
Gretchen and her friend, Leon Golden, are at the Academy Awards event, where Leon is nominated for an award, but before they enter the auditorium, they are both arrested for the crime of sex trafficking young girls.
In the meantime, Guido attends a poker game, where he employs his mathematical skills to read his opponents' tells and the cards dealt. He leaves the game $3000 richer. When one of the poker players learns that he has been cheated, he plans to get his money back and make Guido pay in more ways than one. Upon arriving at Guido’s home, the man is killed.
Guido is arrested for the restaurant robbery, and when the dead body is discovered on his property, he is also charged with murder. He insists that the only attorney he will accept to handle his case is Charlie Webb.
Befuddled, conscious of the fact that Guido is not altogether there, that this case is beyond his abilities, and that the prosecutor Bridget Fournier will eat him alive, he pleads to Judge Noonan to remove him from this assignment. The judge does not, but he assigns one of Portland’s best criminal attorneys, Tom Roman, to assist him.
Knowing that Guido took something else from the safe but not knowing what it is, Charlie asks the prosecution to drop the charge of theft if Guido returns the item and the picture. Guido refuses.
The reader learns early on that the stolen item is a flash drive with incriminating evidence that could spell disaster for Leon, Gretchen, and a whole number of other well-known persons. Gretchen strikes a deal with the prosecutor and is released on bail.
At this point in the story, Margolin introduces several characters who also need to recover the drive as quickly as possible, and the race is on.
The scenes begin to change rapidly.
Gretchen receives a call from an unknown person who claims to have the flash drive and is willing to return the picture and the drive for a large sum of money. Gretchen calls her bodyguard, Yuri Makarov, and they go to the appointed place, where they are promptly assassinated.
The number of bodies is beginning to mount up, and it is not looking good for Guido. Fearing for his client’s life, Charlie hires the Barbarians, Bob and Gary, to keep an eye on and protect Guido as Charlie seeks to uncover the activities resulting in violent deaths.
As expected, while Guido paints and Bob and Gary keep a close eye on him, an attempt is made to kill Guido. Three masked perpetrators arrive but are surprised when a shower of bullets greets them. More bodies! And more important figures begin to crop up.
By this time, Charlie has determined that he needs more help, and he contacts Bridget Fournier, where he finds that the mysterious item Guido stole is most likely a flash drive with names of important people who don’t want to be named as well as a snuff film of a young woman being murdered.
Charlie approaches Guido with this information, but despite his efforts, he cannot get Guido to give up the flash drive.
Enter Elin Crane, a young, attractive woman studying to be a lawyer. She introduces herself to Charlie and asks if she can assist him with his case against Guido. She is a talented researcher who wants to learn about criminal cases and is willing to do whatever it takes to help him. Charlie is smitten and takes her on as an unpaid assistant.
As the story moves on, more murders and attempted murders roll into new scenes. By this time, Charlie has saved Bridget’s life, and a friendship is forming. Margolin provides so many clues—some valid, some not so much—that the reader is certain they can identify who else is involved but without any success.
An Insignificant Case is a maze of whodunits, who didn’t do it, who is to be trusted, and who is not, so the reader is required to read on in the hopes that the answers will miraculously appear. They don’t.
Margolin has created a mystery of mysteries, and the only way to get to the end is to continue turning pages. The answers are there, but it is up to the reader to forgive Margolin for dragging them along to the very last page. Margolin fans will hope for another installment of Charlie Webb, the “C” lawyer.