Review of "Gone, But Not Forgotten"
Paul Robinson
From: Paul Robinson <00050...@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject: Review of "Gone, But Not Forgotten"
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
Followup-To: alt.books.reviews
Summary: A psychological thriller
Keywords: Portland, Murder, New York, Vanishing, Disappearance
Approximate Release Date: October, 1993
"Gone, But Not Forgotten" - Book Review
by Paul Robinson <TDA...@MCIMAIL.COM>
Usenet News Group
Size: Approx. 760 Words
Nothing is quite as it seems in Phillip Margolin's book "Gone,
But Not Forgotten." (Doubleday, 448 pg., $22.00). Several
intertwined characters are introduced to us in the beginning of
the book including Betsy Tannenbaum, a woman attorney who
successfully defended two murder suspects; Martin Darius, a
construction company owner who brutalizes his mistress for
threatening to tell his wife; and Raymond Colby, a U.S. Senator
whose secret past may come back to haunt him in a manner
reminiscent of the Zoe Baird Incident.
The book opens with Betsy having gotten a not guilty verdict of a
woman who killed her husband because he was battering her. As a
result of her notoriety, not only does a woman reporter want to
do a feature story on her as a successful female attorney, but
Darius contacts Betsy and mysteriously asks her to be his lawyer
if he is arrested for something which he claims he is innocent of
doing, and offers her a large retainer.
A man has gone to see Darius and demanded $250,000 to hide what
he knows about "Hunter's Point". We later discover what that
term means.
After these characters, we are shown the basis for the title:
The wives of several wealthy men have vanished without a trace,
leaving nothing but a black rose and an envelope with the words
"Gone, But Not Forgotten."
It's not the first, but the third such disappearance in the same
inexplicable manner, until Portland District Attorney Alan Page
is visited by a woman calling herself Nancy Gordon: a police
detective from Hunter's Point, New York, who goes to see Page
because she has found out about the vanishings. Through
flashbacks and comments, Nancy tells him that Martin Darius is
actually Peter Lake, an attorney from Hunter's Point whose wife
and child were murdered, while a black rose and an envelope
marked "Gone, But Not Forgotten" was found near the bodies; this
is the fifth incident in Hunter's Point: four other women have
disappeared without a trace except for the rose and envelope.
Nancy explains how she believed that Lake, alias Martin Darius,
was actually the man who committed the crimes, and believes that
he is "a monster" - a serial killer like Jeffrey Dahmer - who
also killed his wife and daughter to prevent the discovery of the
disappearances he caused. Another man was accused of the crimes
when a body is found in his basement, and is shot trying to
escape, which cause the police to close the case; Nancy believes
the man was framed by the real killer. Darius suddenly moves out
of the area and is not heard from again until someone mails a
letter to Nancy telling her that "Women in Portland, Oregon, are
'Gone, But Not Forgotten'."
Soon after visiting Page, Nancy also mysteriously disappears
leaving her bags and clothes, and an address written on a note
pad in her motel room. Visiting that address, they find it's a
lot owned by Darius, and buried under a hole in the fence are the
three missing Portland women and an unidentified man whose
figures have been completely mutilated. Tire tracks near the
site match those of Darius' BMW.
Based on this, Darius is arrested for the four murders. Nancy is
still missing, as are the complete police case files for the
Hunter's Point vanishings; as such District Attorney Page is
unable to counter the argument that someone else could have done
the killings in Portland; Betsy is able to get Darius released on
bail.
Betsy and her investigator start to discover things about Darius
that make her doubt if he is innocent of these murders, until
another murder occurs (in a manner similar to the one that Nancy
believed was a frame-up) which leads Betsy to suspect that there
is a second person involved. With the disappearance of Nancy,
speculation occurs that she might be responsible for the crimes.
Betsy also discovers that even being innocent of a crime could
still mean you were responsible for it happening.
Along the way, Darius' past comes back to haunt him as Betsy
discovers Senator Colby's dark secret; the incident brings to us
a horrifying example of "getting away with murder," which could
destroy Colby's political future as well as her client's, and
Darius' past also catches up to Betsy and to Darius in a way that
would shatter her life and could kill her client before he even
gets to trial.
On a scale of 1 to 5, "Gone But Not Forgotten" gets a 4.
Well Recommended.
(C) Copyright Tansin A. Darcos & Company, 1993. Commercial Rights
Reserved. Reproduction with credit is permitted.
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Paul Robinson - TDA...@MCIMAIL.COM