Below is the complete list of Phillip Margolin books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Amanda Jaffe Books
Publication Order of Dana Cutler Books
Publication Order of Robin Lockwood Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Madison Kincaid Books
with Ami Margolin Rome
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
About Phillip Margolin
Phillip Margolin is an American novelist and former criminal defense attorney best known for legal thrillers built around murder trials, courtroom strategy, political intrigue, and elaborate reversals. His long legal career gave him firsthand experience with the criminal justice system, including capital cases and arguments before the United States Supreme Court. Beginning with Heartstone in 1978, he has written both standalone thrillers and recurring series, most notably those featuring attorney Amanda Jaffe and lawyer Robin Lockwood.
Margolin was born in New York City on April 20, 1944. He earned his undergraduate degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and graduated from New York University School of Law in 1970. Before establishing himself as an attorney, he served with the Peace Corps in Liberia, an experience far removed from the Oregon courtrooms that would later provide much of the background for his fiction.
After law school, Margolin moved to Oregon and developed a substantial career as a criminal defense lawyer. His practice included a wide variety of criminal cases, ranging from relatively minor offenses to murder prosecutions. He handled numerous homicide cases and represented defendants facing the death penalty, giving him an intimate understanding of criminal investigations, trial preparation, evidence, jury psychology, and the pressures placed on attorneys defending people accused of serious crimes.
That professional background became one of the defining strengths of his fiction. Margolin’s courtroom scenes are informed by the practical realities of legal work rather than simply by dramatic convention. His attorneys have to consider admissible evidence, constitutional protections, witness credibility, investigative mistakes, prosecutorial tactics, and the possibility that what appears convincing outside a courtroom may be difficult to prove within one.
His first novel, Heartstone, was published in 1978 and nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Margolin continued writing while practicing law, eventually becoming one of the prominent American writers working at the intersection of legal procedure and psychological suspense.
A major breakthrough came with Gone, But Not Forgotten, published in 1993. The novel concerns a disturbing series of crimes with connections between Oregon and New York and helped establish Margolin with a much larger thriller readership. Other standalone works, including After Dark, The Burning Man, The Undertaker’s Widow, Wild Justice, and Ties That Bind, further developed his reputation for complicated plots in which apparently separate crimes or legal problems gradually reveal hidden connections.
Some of those novels eventually formed the foundation for his Amanda Jaffe series. Amanda is a Portland defense attorney whose cases place her in contact with violent criminals, difficult ethical questions, and dangerous investigations. Her father, Frank Jaffe, is also an attorney and an important recurring figure. The series gives Margolin room to examine both the courtroom responsibilities of a defense lawyer and the personal consequences of becoming involved with exceptionally dangerous clients and cases.
Margolin later introduced Robin Lockwood in The Third Victim. Robin is a former MMA fighter who becomes a criminal defense attorney, bringing a noticeably different personality and background to his legal-thriller framework. Working in Oregon, she encounters cases involving murder, deception, questionable evidence, and defendants whose guilt or innocence is rarely as straightforward as it initially appears.
The Robin Lockwood novels became an important later phase of Margolin’s career. Rather than relying solely on courtroom confrontations, the books combine legal maneuvering with investigative suspense. Robin frequently has to determine what actually happened before she can decide how best to represent a client, and the distinction between discovering the truth and proving it legally becomes a recurring source of tension.
Margolin has also written fiction outside his principal adult legal thrillers. His bibliography includes shorter works and books for younger readers, while several of his novels have been adapted for television. Across his work, however, criminal law remains the subject most closely associated with his name.
His novels are particularly known for their reversals. A case that initially appears simple may contain another crime beneath it, witnesses may have concealed motives, and assumptions about victims and suspects can change as new evidence emerges. Margolin uses his knowledge of legal procedure as the framework for these twists rather than treating the courtroom merely as scenery.
After decades as both a lawyer and novelist, Phillip Margolin has built a body of work in which professional authenticity and puzzle-driven suspense reinforce one another. His experience defending real defendants gives his fictional cases credibility, while his willingness to complicate seemingly obvious answers keeps the stories from becoming procedural exercises. Whether writing about Amanda Jaffe, Robin Lockwood, or characters appearing in standalone novels, Margolin repeatedly returns to a central problem of criminal law: knowing what probably happened is not the same thing as being able to prove it.