Phillip Margolin Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Phillip Margolin has written legal thrillers, political suspense, courtroom mysteries, historical fiction, and standalones since the late 1970s. His recurring characters include Portland defense attorney Amanda Jaffe, investigator Dana Cutler and attorney Brad Miller, and defense lawyer Robin Lockwood.

The easiest way to approach Margolin is by series rather than trying to force every novel into one fictional continuity. Amanda Jaffe has her own sequence, Dana Cutler and Brad Miller share a four-book political thriller series, and Robin Lockwood has seven novels. Most of Margolin’s other books are standalones.

His latest published fiction is False Witness from 2025. Conspiracy Theory is scheduled for November 2026, so it should remain in the upcoming section until publication.

Three Series and a Large Standalone Shelf

1. Amanda Jaffe: begin with Wild Justice for Portland legal suspense and one of Margolin’s longest recurring characters.
2. Dana Cutler and Brad Miller: start with Executive Privilege for political murder, Washington intrigue, and investigations reaching the White House.
3. Robin Lockwood: begin with The Third Victim for a younger Oregon defense lawyer facing cases where apparently overwhelming evidence is often misleading.
4. Standalones: choose Gone, But Not Forgotten, The Last Innocent Man, Lost Lake, or An Insignificant Case according to the kind of legal thriller you want.

Amanda Jaffe Books in Order

Amanda Jaffe is a Portland criminal-defense attorney whose cases combine courtroom strategy with investigations into murder, forensic evidence, organized crime, political power, and clients whose innocence is never guaranteed.

1. Wild Justice (2000): Amanda becomes involved in the defense of a surgeon accused of horrifying murders after human remains are discovered near his property, forcing her to test whether a seemingly perfect case is actually built on manipulated evidence.
2. Ties That Bind (2003): Amanda is pulled into a case involving murder, a missing child, dangerous family relationships, and an attorney whose professional responsibilities place her close to people willing to kill to protect their secrets.
3. Proof Positive (2006): Amanda and her father Frank investigate apparently airtight forensic evidence in two separate murder cases and discover that Oregon crime-lab expert Bernard Cashman may be manufacturing the proof used to send defendants to prison.
4. Fugitive (2009): Amanda defends con man Charlie Marsh after he returns from years in the African nation of Batanga to face a murder charge while agents of a dictator and another hidden killer both want him dead.
5. Violent Crimes (2016): Amanda becomes involved in the murder of an environmental activist and a case tied to corporate interests, family conflict, and the possibility that the accused person is being used to protect someone far more powerful.

Series note: The standard Amanda Jaffe sequence contains five principal novels from Wild Justice through Violent Crimes.

Why Wild Justice Is the Right Amanda Jaffe Starting Point

Wild Justice establishes Amanda in the kind of case Margolin repeatedly uses well: the prosecution appears to possess overwhelming evidence, but the story becomes more dangerous when the defense asks how that evidence was created.

A respected surgeon is linked to mutilated bodies and a setting associated with the crimes.

Amanda has to consider two possibilities that are equally uncomfortable. Either her client is a highly intelligent killer capable of manipulating everyone around him, or somebody else has built a case designed to look impossible to challenge.

The book also establishes the relationship between Amanda and her father Frank, whose legal experience remains important in later cases.

Proof Positive Turns Forensic Science into the Threat

Defense attorney Doug Weaver represents Jacob Cohen, a homeless and mentally ill man accused of murder and dismemberment.

The forensic evidence appears conclusive.

Doug consults Amanda, who is simultaneously working with Frank on the case of gangster Art Prochaska.

The two cases should have nothing in common, but both depend on evidence produced by Oregon State Crime Lab expert Bernard Cashman.

Amanda begins asking whether scientific proof can still be trusted when the person producing it controls what investigators, attorneys, judges, and jurors believe they are seeing.

Fugitive Expands Amanda’s Cases Beyond Oregon

Charlie Marsh once became a national hero after rescuing a prison warden during a riot.

His reputation collapsed when he became a suspect in the murder of a congressman.

Charlie fled to Batanga, where he spent years under the control of dictator Jean-Claude Baptiste.

After an affair with Baptiste’s favorite wife places him in immediate danger, Charlie returns to the United States and asks Amanda to defend him against the old murder charge.

Amanda now has to keep him out of prison while protecting him from foreign agents and determining who still has reasons to suppress the truth about the original crime.

Dana Cutler and Brad Miller Books in Order

Dana Cutler is a private investigator, while Brad Miller begins as a junior attorney. Their four-book sequence moves between Oregon and Washington and repeatedly places them against conspiracies involving presidents, judges, politicians, intelligence interests, and people willing to manipulate the legal system from the top.

1. Executive Privilege (2008): Dana follows college student Charlotte Walsh to a secret meeting with President Christopher Farrington shortly before Walsh is murdered, while Brad handles an appeal that may connect another old killing directly to Farrington.
2. Supreme Justice (2010): Brad and Dana become involved in a case reaching the Supreme Court, where murder, judicial power, and a politically explosive secret threaten people whose positions should make them nearly untouchable.
3. Capitol Murder (2012): A terrorist plot and murder investigation bring Brad and Dana back into national politics as they confront a threat capable of turning Washington institutions into targets.
4. Sleight of Hand (2013): Brad and Dana investigate an apparently impossible murder case where a wealthy husband, a magician, deception, and carefully staged evidence make the visible explanation difficult to trust.

Read all four in order. The main investigations differ, but Brad and Dana’s careers and relationships continue across the sequence.

Executive Privilege Begins with a Surveillance Job

Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with political connections to follow college student Charlotte Walsh.

The job appears ordinary until Dana sees Charlotte secretly meet President Christopher Farrington.

Charlotte is murdered the next morning.

At the same time, Brad Miller is helping with the appeal of death-row inmate Clarence Little, who claims he was framed for another murder connected to Farrington’s earlier political career.

The two lines of evidence begin pointing toward the same impossible conclusion: somebody with access to the White House may be responsible for murder.

Robin Lockwood Books in Order

Robin Lockwood is a former MMA fighter who becomes a criminal-defense attorney in Oregon. The series combines trial work with investigations into serial crime, false evidence, murder, old cases, wealthy defendants, and situations where Robin’s physical toughness matters almost as much as courtroom skill.

1. The Third Victim (2018): Robin joins the defense of prominent attorney Alex Mason after a badly injured woman identifies him as the man who abducted and tortured her, even though troubling inconsistencies suggest the apparently overwhelming case may not be what it seems.
2. The Perfect Alibi (2019): Robin handles cases involving DNA evidence and defendants who appear scientifically linked to crimes, forcing her to question whether supposedly infallible forensic proof can produce the wrong answer.
3. A Reasonable Doubt (2020): Magician Robert Chesterfield is connected with suspicious deaths and an old murder prosecution, and Robin has to decide whether his skill at illusion has allowed him to hide real crimes in plain sight.
4. A Matter of Life and Death (2021): Homeless former boxer Joe Lattimore accepts money to participate in an illegal fight and becomes the prime suspect when the wealthy woman who hired him is murdered.
5. The Darkest Place (2022): Robin faces a case that becomes deeply personal and dangerous, forcing her to defend herself legally and physically while uncovering how apparently separate crimes are connected.
6. Murder at Black Oaks (2022): Retired prosecutor Francis Hardy asks Robin to help free a man he believes he wrongfully convicted, but the gathering at Hardy’s isolated Black Oaks mansion becomes a new murder mystery.
7. Betrayal (2023): Robin represents a former college football star accused of murder and confronts a case where her own history with the defendant makes professional judgment unusually difficult.

Series status: Seven Robin Lockwood novels have been published, ending with Betrayal.

The Third Victim Gives Robin an Apparently Hopeless Defense

A woman escapes onto a rural Oregon road after being tortured and bound.

Two other women with similar injuries have already been found dead.

The survivor identifies the house where she was held and names attorney Alex Mason as her captor.

Police find physical evidence supporting her account, and statements from Mason’s wife make the allegations look even stronger.

Robin enters the case as part of Mason’s defense team and gradually sees that certainty is exactly what makes the case dangerous. If every piece of evidence points too perfectly in one direction, somebody may have designed it that way.

Murder at Black Oaks Mixes a Cold Case with a Locked Mansion

Francis Hardy once prosecuted Jose Alvarez for murder.

Years later, Hardy becomes convinced that Alvarez was innocent and asks Robin to help correct the conviction.

The investigation brings Robin to Black Oaks, Hardy’s isolated estate.

Then a new murder occurs while severe weather and isolation restrict movement around the property.

The novel therefore combines two mysteries: whether Hardy convicted the wrong person years earlier and who has now killed inside the household gathered at Black Oaks.

Margolin’s Major Standalone Novels

1. Heartstone (1978): Margolin’s debut centers on a criminal case involving murder, legal strategy, and a defendant whose guilt is less certain than the prosecution wants the court to believe.
2. The Last Innocent Man (1981): Defense attorney David Nash has built a reputation representing accused killers until a new client forces him to confront the possibility that defending the guilty may eventually carry consequences outside the courtroom.
3. Gone, But Not Forgotten (1993): A series of disappearances and killings in Oregon appears connected with crimes committed years earlier in another state, forcing investigators and attorneys to revisit a murderer who may never have truly stopped.
4. After Dark (1995): A judge’s murder and the disappearance of a defense attorney create a legal mystery where sexual relationships, judicial power, and hidden motives make almost every principal figure suspect.
5. The Undertaker’s Widow (1998): A judge presiding over a controversial murder case becomes involved in a broader conspiracy after the apparent victim’s widow and people around the case reveal competing secrets.
6. The Associate (2001/2002): A young attorney enters a dangerous legal and corporate environment where professional ambition exposes him to clients and colleagues willing to cross criminal lines.
7. Sleeping Beauty (2004): A true-crime writer investigating a serial killer becomes involved with a family whose history may provide the key to understanding who is killing young women.
8. Lost Lake (2005): Portland attorney Ami Vergano represents Dan Morelli after an explosion of violence at a Little League game, while tabloid reporter Vanessa Kohler claims Morelli can prove a secret conspiracy involving presidential candidate General Morris Wingate.
9. Worthy Brown’s Daughter (2014): Set in nineteenth-century Oregon, the novel follows lawyer Matthew Penny as he helps former slave Worthy Brown fight to recover the daughter being illegally held by the man who brought them west.
10. Woman with a Gun (2014): A writer becomes fascinated by a photograph of a bride standing on a beach with a revolver and begins investigating the real murder and unsolved history behind the image.
11. An Insignificant Case (2024): Struggling attorney Charlie Webb is assigned to represent eccentric artist Guido Sabatini, whose minor burglary has accidentally uncovered a flash drive containing evidence dangerous to powerful criminals.
12. Traitor (2025): A legal and political thriller centered on loyalty, betrayal, and the consequences faced by people accused of turning against institutions or individuals who once trusted them.
13. False Witness (2025): A courtroom thriller in which testimony, credibility, and hidden motives become central when a witness’s version of events threatens to determine another person’s fate.
14. Conspiracy Theory (expected November 2026): Margolin’s next announced thriller is scheduled for late 2026 and should remain outside the published count until its release.

An Insignificant Case Returns to the Underdog Lawyer

Charlie Webb considers himself an ordinary lawyer with an unimpressive practice.

His clients are usually court appointments or people connected with the less respectable parts of his youth.

Then he is assigned to represent eccentric artist Guido Sabatini after Sabatini breaks into a restaurant to steal back one of his own paintings.

The crime seems almost absurdly minor.

What Charlie does not initially know is that Sabatini also stole a flash drive from the restaurant owner’s safe. Its contents may expose powerful people and crimes involving the trafficking of minors.

A minor burglary therefore turns into homicide and places a supposedly insignificant lawyer in the most dangerous case of his life.

Margolin’s Historical Novel Stands Apart

Worthy Brown’s Daughter is unusual in the bibliography because it moves away from contemporary legal suspense.

The story is set in Oregon before the Civil War and centers on a broken agreement involving former slave Worthy Brown and his daughter Roxanne.

Worthy has fulfilled his side of an arrangement that should have brought freedom to both father and daughter.

When the man holding Roxanne refuses to release her, lawyer Matthew Penny agrees to help.

The resulting legal struggle explores Oregon’s racial history, slavery, frontier law, and the limits of justice in a territory that proclaimed opposition to slavery while also excluding Black residents.

Short Stories and Collaborative Work

1. The Girl in the Yellow Bikini (1974): Margolin’s first published fiction appeared in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, years before his debut novel.
2. Angie’s Delight (1998): A crime story published in the anthology Murder for Revenge.
3. The Jailhouse Lawyer (1998): A legal short story later selected for The Best American Mystery Stories.
4. The House on Pine Terrace (2009): A mystery story published in Thriller 2 and later included in The Best American Mystery Stories.
5. Anatomy of Innocence (2017, collaboration): Margolin contributed to a collection pairing crime writers with people who had been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated.

Phillip Margolin Reading Order Questions

What was Phillip Margolin’s first novel?

Heartstone, published in 1978, was his first novel.

What is the Amanda Jaffe order?

Read Wild Justice, Ties That Bind, Proof Positive, Fugitive, and Violent Crimes.

What is the Dana Cutler and Brad Miller order?

Read Executive Privilege, Supreme Justice, Capitol Murder, and Sleight of Hand.

How many Robin Lockwood novels are there?

Seven novels have been published from The Third Victim through Betrayal.

Do Phillip Margolin books need to be read in order?

The recurring series are best read in publication order. His standalone novels can be read independently.

What is Phillip Margolin’s latest published novel?

False Witness, published in 2025, is his latest published novel as of September 10, 2026.

What Phillip Margolin book is coming next?

Conspiracy Theory is scheduled for November 2026.

A Practical Way Through Margolin’s Long Career

Begin with Amanda Jaffe if you want classic Portland legal thrillers, then move to Dana Cutler and Brad Miller for a more political Washington-centered sequence.

Robin Lockwood is the best route into Margolin’s more recent recurring fiction. Her seven books are compact enough to read as one continuous legal series.

The standalones can then be selected by subject. Gone, But Not Forgotten is a serial-killer thriller, Lost Lake combines conspiracy with legal defense, Worthy Brown’s Daughter is historical fiction, and An Insignificant Case returns to the underdog-attorney format.