Selected by Phillip Margolin

When he was a criminal lawyer in Oregon, Phillip Margolin defended at least 30 homicide cases and even argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. He left the practice in 1996 to write full time and today is the best-selling author of more than 20 novels, including the acclaimed Amanda Jaffe series.

“When I reviewed the book for the Oregonian, I started by saying that it was a shame that Scott Turow had been pigeonholed as a writer of legal thrillers because that meant that Personal Injuries would never be considered for a serious literary prize like the Pulitzer. I think this character study of a crooked lawyer who is forced to wear a wire for the FBI is a gem. Robbie Feaver is a character one reviewer called Faulknerian and another called a character of almost Shakespearean contradictions. Brilliantly written and complex, Turow succeeds in capturing his audience without a single murder or car chase.”