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Heartstone
They were young, popular, the perfect couple—an all-American boy and a beautiful cheerleader. But the youthful passion that led them to Lookout Park thatterrible evening would prove fatal. For Richie Walters the end came swiftly, as death descended upon him in a savage orgy of horrific violence. Elaine Murray would live long enough to learn just how lucky her boyfriend had been . . . Two brutal slayings have rocked a stunned city. But the murders are merely the nightmare's beginning, flinging open a terrifying Pandora's box of sordid secrets and dark revelations more deadly than the bloodlust that lives in the rock-hard heart of a killer.
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published November 30, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
July 13, 2018
In the prologue, a man is dying and wants to confess his sins to the district attorney. The first chapter details two teenagers going on a date with the intention of going steady. At Lookout Point, the young man is brutally beaten and killed while the young woman is abducted. Her body is found months later. The story tracks the hunt for who killed them.
First published in 1978, this is Philip Margolin's first novel and his writing has only gotten better since then. I think I probably started reading his books around 1990 and this is my 3rd re-reading of this one. I didn't like the way Detective Roy Shindler handled the case but I enjoyed the story. Nice twist at the end that I didn't expect.
First published in 1978, this is Philip Margolin's first novel and his writing has only gotten better since then. I think I probably started reading his books around 1990 and this is my 3rd re-reading of this one. I didn't like the way Detective Roy Shindler handled the case but I enjoyed the story. Nice twist at the end that I didn't expect.
June 8, 2023
Heartstone is a well written crime story that I thoroughly enjoyed. This was my first book from this author. I was fully engaged in the story throughout the book and was kept guessing until the very end as to who the guilty party was. I thought the story itself was well constructed and had a nice flow to it. It was most unusual in that there wasn’t a primary protagonist. The focus on characters changed throughout the book. Perhaps a criticism might be that there were too many characters introduced within the book. The only thing I didn’t like was how women were portrayed and the frequent reference to breast size. Maybe this is in line with the thinking of the day (1970’s).
April 9, 2018
Manoman, I finally finished this book! Believe it or not it's taken me over three months, I just kept finding other things to read, and never got back around to it. However, that is in the past and the deed is done. I'm always down for a good mystery, and the way Margolin grabbed me in the very first paragraph was by essentially saying "look, the main characters in this tale don't make it. Would you like to find out why?" I'm glad that I agreed to do so.
The story is surprisingly deep and fleshed out for a simple whodunit that doesn't waste time looking back at the protagonist's past. Instead Margolin chose to look at each person involved with solving the case, from the DA to the police chief, and really delve into their motivations, some pure, some not as much. It was a very interesting take and while you still wanted the perpetrator of such a violent crime to be apprehended, you might have preferred the new recruit to take them in as opposed to the assistant District Attorney.
The twists and turns of the case kept going right down to the end, which was both a good thing because you had to stay on your toes, as well as a bad thing (because I guessed wrong about, oh, I don't know maybe 37 times) But I wish the ending was handled a little bit better. It just drops, as if you're sliding off a cliff and then there's the fall (actually, that was a horrible analogy my apologies) I just would have preferred a smoother close than the abrupt finish I was given.
Still, a very good book, and one that was even more enjoyable to me because a fine senior gentleman recommended it to me, said I would like it, and was spot on.
The story is surprisingly deep and fleshed out for a simple whodunit that doesn't waste time looking back at the protagonist's past. Instead Margolin chose to look at each person involved with solving the case, from the DA to the police chief, and really delve into their motivations, some pure, some not as much. It was a very interesting take and while you still wanted the perpetrator of such a violent crime to be apprehended, you might have preferred the new recruit to take them in as opposed to the assistant District Attorney.
The twists and turns of the case kept going right down to the end, which was both a good thing because you had to stay on your toes, as well as a bad thing (because I guessed wrong about, oh, I don't know maybe 37 times) But I wish the ending was handled a little bit better. It just drops, as if you're sliding off a cliff and then there's the fall (actually, that was a horrible analogy my apologies) I just would have preferred a smoother close than the abrupt finish I was given.
Still, a very good book, and one that was even more enjoyable to me because a fine senior gentleman recommended it to me, said I would like it, and was spot on.
October 13, 2018
Great book, loved it when I read it.
May 14, 2024
disk 7 of this book is stuck in my fucking car and i can’t get it out help me!
May 22, 2019
HEARTSTONE By Phillip Margolin
MY REVIEW TWO STARS**
I just finished Margolin's debut novel which was published three decades ago. The book was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar for best original paperback mystery of 1978.
THE PROLOGUE begins with an imminent deathbed confession to be delivered by a man named Willie Heartstone. The dying man wants to unburden his soul by telling the District Attorney "who killed Elaine Murray". The DA is Albert Caproni. He reflects on the Murray-Walters Case from so long ago, remembers his own role, and recalls that the outcome might have been different but for his own cowardice at the time.
PART TWO DEATH takes us back in time to the players who populated the town at the time of the killings, delves into the details of the infamous murder case in the winter of 1960. The book suffered from its "run-on" paragraphs with abrupt changes in POV. This was likely an editing problem but it was annoying and distracting.
The reader is introduced to a likeable and believable teenager (Elaine Murray). The narrative then shifts to the POV of two good-looking but no-good brothers, Billy and Bobby Coolidge. They are joined at the table in a hamburger joint by their friends Roger Hessey and Esther Freemont. Even before Billy pulls "The Old Equalizer" (his switchblade knife) and snaps it open under the table pretty much just for the hell of it, the reader knows that the brothers are pure trash, testosterone-driven teenage boys who are racists, despise the privileged kids in their school, and are perpetually spoiling for a fight.
There is an abrupt POV change to a nice kid named Richie Walters. He was smart, good in three sports, and was bound for an Ivy League School when he graduated. He was ready to ask Elaine Murray to go steady, and he was really nervous. The reader is provided sufficient background information on the two good kids, Elaine and Ritchie, to be repulsed and depressed by their brutal murders. Elaine suffers a fate worse than death which raises the level of horror for the reader.
We are briefly introduced to Ralph Pasante and Willie Heartstone, a couple of career criminals, certainly not teenagers, but rather adult sexual predators. The pair of misfits beat and rob a mark that they had spotted at the bar flashing a wallet with lots of cash.
By the time the actual assault occurs on (Lover's Lane), and the two innocent teenagers meet pure evil incarnate, I was already disgusted by the fact that the two kids were the only decent characters introduced in the book. Richie sustains something like twenty stab wounds and then post-mortem blunt trauma to the head, classic "overkill".
By PART III BLACK ARTS I realized that all of the men in this book were preoccupied with their overactive sex drives. We should exclude Caproni, but his failure to adhere to the ethics of his profession was despicable. We've got an investigating detective (Shindler) who is cold as ice, but obsessed with the Murray-Walters murders. He believes that the Coolidge boys were the vicious killers who brutally murdered Ritchie and did God-knows what with Elaine before she met her eventual death. Significantly, he believes that Esther is the missing piece in the puzzle. Years after he has been pulled off the case because of his psychotic behavior with witnesses, Shindler enlists the help of a psychiatrist to work with Esther to recover her lost memory of the event.
Between the well-meaning but idiotic Dr. Hollander and the manipulative sadistic Shindler you want to shoot yourself. Over a period of time Esther is hypnotized repeatedly, their goals ultimately achieved only with increased suggestibility from drugs and sexual exploitation and manipulation by Shindler. He had been sexually attracted to her from the get-go, but then found it convenient to use her dependence on him, seduce her, and then wield all of the influence that he needed to bring the case to the DA. Shindler was unfair, unethical, and like essentially all of the characters in the book, beyond contempt.
Meanwhile, after the passing of the years, Bobby Coolidge served in Vietnam, and returned home with memories of the war that haunted him. He enrolled in college, and met a beautiful, wealthy Canadian girl who was actually attracted to him. He is portrayed as a man of conscience who sees a way forward, and his struggle is poignant. He tells the rich girl who is infatuated with him “You know, this is the turning point in my life, Sarah. I won’t go back, ever again.” His brother Billy is in prison, and is obviously the sociopath that he appeared to be as a teenager.
By PART FOUR SHADOWS AND WHISPERS the power hungry DA Phillip Heider is thrilled to prosecute such a high profile case, and Shindler assured him that Esther would provide an independent recollection of the events. A struggling young attorney named Mark (with no criminal experience) is recruited by Sara, Bobby's love interest, to defend Bobby. He asks for $10,000 and she coughs up $3,000 from her own bank account. Then she meets with the man who loves her and is in deep sh--t with a murder charge bearing down on him. Sara is repulsed by his clinging and beaten down appearance. She doesn't want to ever see him again.
Meanwhile, the attorney Mark, is "love-sick" over his client's girlfriend Sara.
"He wanted to see Sarah. He thought about her constantly. He could picture her pale features and her long blond hair and wanted more and more to touch her."
Sara finally comes clean with Mark and tells him that $3,000 is all that she is going to invest in the pathetic defendent that she cannot imagine ever being attracted to in the first place. Mark can't help himself, and (how truly low can this book go?) plants a big passionate kiss on Sara's lips. She looks at him like he is some kind of varmint under her feet. I felt that he was a twisted unethical #@$%&* I told my partner that in all of the books that I have read on my kindle since 2014, that THIS book contains more profanity in my Kindle Notes than any other book, period.
PART FIVE INQUISITION But for the exception of the judge, everyone in the trial made me want to vomit. Margolin throws in misdeeds by the DA (Heider) and the cowardly Caproni, who wanted his job and advancement more than following his professional code of ethics. He did try to "throw a bone" to the defense, but let's just say that the prosecution of Bobby did not end well for the defendant. Concealing exculpatory evidence from the defense team did not help. Mark was so preoccupied with fantasizing about Bobby's girlfriend and how she would look naked that he wasn't even paying attention in a murder trial. I wasn't sure which character I hated the most, Shindler comes very close and garnered a note of "Despicable $%^&*--reading this story makes me feel dirty" in my Kindle Notes. The Defense Attorney should have been disbarred or shot.
By PART SIX HEARTSTONE we FINALLY arrive at the deathbed confession. I kept reading this cesspool of a book because I suspected SOME kind of a "gotcha moment" just couldn't figure out how it could play out. I started to stop reading it several times....I felt dirty like I needed a bath after reading it. The "twist" came... and I was indeed surprised. But it was not worth reading the book.
If this was the first Phillip Margolin novel I had read, I would never read anything he wrote again.
MY REVIEW TWO STARS**
I just finished Margolin's debut novel which was published three decades ago. The book was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for an Edgar for best original paperback mystery of 1978.
THE PROLOGUE begins with an imminent deathbed confession to be delivered by a man named Willie Heartstone. The dying man wants to unburden his soul by telling the District Attorney "who killed Elaine Murray". The DA is Albert Caproni. He reflects on the Murray-Walters Case from so long ago, remembers his own role, and recalls that the outcome might have been different but for his own cowardice at the time.
PART TWO DEATH takes us back in time to the players who populated the town at the time of the killings, delves into the details of the infamous murder case in the winter of 1960. The book suffered from its "run-on" paragraphs with abrupt changes in POV. This was likely an editing problem but it was annoying and distracting.
The reader is introduced to a likeable and believable teenager (Elaine Murray). The narrative then shifts to the POV of two good-looking but no-good brothers, Billy and Bobby Coolidge. They are joined at the table in a hamburger joint by their friends Roger Hessey and Esther Freemont. Even before Billy pulls "The Old Equalizer" (his switchblade knife) and snaps it open under the table pretty much just for the hell of it, the reader knows that the brothers are pure trash, testosterone-driven teenage boys who are racists, despise the privileged kids in their school, and are perpetually spoiling for a fight.
There is an abrupt POV change to a nice kid named Richie Walters. He was smart, good in three sports, and was bound for an Ivy League School when he graduated. He was ready to ask Elaine Murray to go steady, and he was really nervous. The reader is provided sufficient background information on the two good kids, Elaine and Ritchie, to be repulsed and depressed by their brutal murders. Elaine suffers a fate worse than death which raises the level of horror for the reader.
We are briefly introduced to Ralph Pasante and Willie Heartstone, a couple of career criminals, certainly not teenagers, but rather adult sexual predators. The pair of misfits beat and rob a mark that they had spotted at the bar flashing a wallet with lots of cash.
By the time the actual assault occurs on (Lover's Lane), and the two innocent teenagers meet pure evil incarnate, I was already disgusted by the fact that the two kids were the only decent characters introduced in the book. Richie sustains something like twenty stab wounds and then post-mortem blunt trauma to the head, classic "overkill".
By PART III BLACK ARTS I realized that all of the men in this book were preoccupied with their overactive sex drives. We should exclude Caproni, but his failure to adhere to the ethics of his profession was despicable. We've got an investigating detective (Shindler) who is cold as ice, but obsessed with the Murray-Walters murders. He believes that the Coolidge boys were the vicious killers who brutally murdered Ritchie and did God-knows what with Elaine before she met her eventual death. Significantly, he believes that Esther is the missing piece in the puzzle. Years after he has been pulled off the case because of his psychotic behavior with witnesses, Shindler enlists the help of a psychiatrist to work with Esther to recover her lost memory of the event.
Between the well-meaning but idiotic Dr. Hollander and the manipulative sadistic Shindler you want to shoot yourself. Over a period of time Esther is hypnotized repeatedly, their goals ultimately achieved only with increased suggestibility from drugs and sexual exploitation and manipulation by Shindler. He had been sexually attracted to her from the get-go, but then found it convenient to use her dependence on him, seduce her, and then wield all of the influence that he needed to bring the case to the DA. Shindler was unfair, unethical, and like essentially all of the characters in the book, beyond contempt.
Meanwhile, after the passing of the years, Bobby Coolidge served in Vietnam, and returned home with memories of the war that haunted him. He enrolled in college, and met a beautiful, wealthy Canadian girl who was actually attracted to him. He is portrayed as a man of conscience who sees a way forward, and his struggle is poignant. He tells the rich girl who is infatuated with him “You know, this is the turning point in my life, Sarah. I won’t go back, ever again.” His brother Billy is in prison, and is obviously the sociopath that he appeared to be as a teenager.
By PART FOUR SHADOWS AND WHISPERS the power hungry DA Phillip Heider is thrilled to prosecute such a high profile case, and Shindler assured him that Esther would provide an independent recollection of the events. A struggling young attorney named Mark (with no criminal experience) is recruited by Sara, Bobby's love interest, to defend Bobby. He asks for $10,000 and she coughs up $3,000 from her own bank account. Then she meets with the man who loves her and is in deep sh--t with a murder charge bearing down on him. Sara is repulsed by his clinging and beaten down appearance. She doesn't want to ever see him again.
Meanwhile, the attorney Mark, is "love-sick" over his client's girlfriend Sara.
"He wanted to see Sarah. He thought about her constantly. He could picture her pale features and her long blond hair and wanted more and more to touch her."
Sara finally comes clean with Mark and tells him that $3,000 is all that she is going to invest in the pathetic defendent that she cannot imagine ever being attracted to in the first place. Mark can't help himself, and (how truly low can this book go?) plants a big passionate kiss on Sara's lips. She looks at him like he is some kind of varmint under her feet. I felt that he was a twisted unethical #@$%&* I told my partner that in all of the books that I have read on my kindle since 2014, that THIS book contains more profanity in my Kindle Notes than any other book, period.
PART FIVE INQUISITION But for the exception of the judge, everyone in the trial made me want to vomit. Margolin throws in misdeeds by the DA (Heider) and the cowardly Caproni, who wanted his job and advancement more than following his professional code of ethics. He did try to "throw a bone" to the defense, but let's just say that the prosecution of Bobby did not end well for the defendant. Concealing exculpatory evidence from the defense team did not help. Mark was so preoccupied with fantasizing about Bobby's girlfriend and how she would look naked that he wasn't even paying attention in a murder trial. I wasn't sure which character I hated the most, Shindler comes very close and garnered a note of "Despicable $%^&*--reading this story makes me feel dirty" in my Kindle Notes. The Defense Attorney should have been disbarred or shot.
By PART SIX HEARTSTONE we FINALLY arrive at the deathbed confession. I kept reading this cesspool of a book because I suspected SOME kind of a "gotcha moment" just couldn't figure out how it could play out. I started to stop reading it several times....I felt dirty like I needed a bath after reading it. The "twist" came... and I was indeed surprised. But it was not worth reading the book.
If this was the first Phillip Margolin novel I had read, I would never read anything he wrote again.
May 17, 2010
I found this on an airplane on my last trip. The cover blurb didn't sound very interesting, but it said it was nominated for an Edgar award, so I decided to give it a try.
I was right the first time.
I actually kind of liked the DA character that was introduced first, but he turned out to play almost no role in the actual story. Instead, there were lots of transcripts of boring hypnosis sessions and an overzealous yet remarkably boring cop.
The conclusion was sort of surprising, but by that point I just didn't care.
I was right the first time.
I actually kind of liked the DA character that was introduced first, but he turned out to play almost no role in the actual story. Instead, there were lots of transcripts of boring hypnosis sessions and an overzealous yet remarkably boring cop.
The conclusion was sort of surprising, but by that point I just didn't care.
November 16, 2013
I'm not one to give up on a book easily or I would have quit after the first 3 chapters or so. It bounced all over the place. I kept telling myself he'd show me the relationship in the end and he finally did.
A high school couple were up at the local lovers lane. The fellow was murdered, head bashed in, and the girl was missing. The homicide detective was more determined to find the killer than the parents. Seven years later he finally makes and arrest.
A high school couple were up at the local lovers lane. The fellow was murdered, head bashed in, and the girl was missing. The homicide detective was more determined to find the killer than the parents. Seven years later he finally makes and arrest.
March 25, 2014
I read this book on the recommendation of a friend.
And I am very glad I did. The perfect 'page turner' mystery, the story uses well timed flashbacks to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a high school student and the detective who is on the case years later. Stayed up well past my bedtime reading this one.
And I am very glad I did. The perfect 'page turner' mystery, the story uses well timed flashbacks to solve the mystery of the disappearance of a high school student and the detective who is on the case years later. Stayed up well past my bedtime reading this one.
November 19, 2011
It took me a long time to get into this book. In the beginning so many characters were introduced that it was hard to keep them straight. Also there was no one main character. I like to have someone to get involved with and care about --- that never happened.
April 9, 2013
My husband recommended this book to me....by page 295 I was wondering just how many more characters could be introduced into this story.....it was long, slow-going and frustrating. The ending made it worth the read.
October 22, 2021
Another story that goes back in time, about a crime that goes back in the 60's... A story about rich kids versus kids that are not exactly kids that stay away from crime. The ending that goes into the trial, shocking. GREAT READ!!!
June 1, 2010
This is a cold case murder mystery the victims of which were two young lovers. It is a cold, grim, convoluted story that is not a particularly pleasant read.
February 8, 2014
If you haven't read any of Phillip Margolin's novels, I recommend them. He's a Portland Oregon based author, which adds interest for me, but it's not necessary to know the area to enjoy his work.
May 4, 2017
I love the twists and turns and I absolutely love the end. I told my husband the whole story while we were driving from El Paso to Dallas and he even loved it.
December 12, 2017
As good if not better than Grisham. Once started it was very difficult to put down.
June 10, 2021
Just found this author and will be reading more of his works.
November 3, 2020
Gonna use this book's review to address an issue/rant a bit.
Okay, so I've been reading some Crime novels that were nominated for - or actually won - the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original...and I have been focusing on the titles from the 1970s.
You need to know that if you are reading Crime & Mystery novels to get an overview of, let's say, a particular decade, I'm inclined to say: it's okay to skip the 1970s altogether. No, wait, I'll adjust that statement just a bit: you might want to skip anything from the 1970s written by an American male.
I say this after reading the following fairly recently:
The Queen Is Dead, by Glenn Kezer
Autopsy, by John R. Feegel
The Midas Coffin, by Simon Queen (known pseudonym)
For Murder I Charge More, by Frank McAuliffe
The Assassinator, by David Vowell
Tough Luck L.A., by Murray Sinclair
...and now, Heartstone, by Phillip Margolin.
Somewhat of a small sample size, but factor in my memories of reading Crime novels from the 1970s, when I was actually living through the 1970s - memories evoked by this bookwormy return to the era in 2020 (admittedly not the best year to for going into a reading project feeling light, cheery and open-minded), and I would say "There is a large problem here".
Racial stereotypes; ingrained racial attitudes. Plus...two of the novels above feature the murder of a transvestite - I did not know that when I picked the books to read - and you don't want to know how transvestites are depicted or discussed in the 1970s (see especially the Kezer book, which is in a disturbing class by itself, IMO), suffice it to say that in the 1970s, apparently any one "not normal" was a "freak", and it was okay for all the "normal" people to call them "freaks". Police attitudes are a thing to behold.
This brings us to the depiction of women, plus the way men in the books view and assess women - which lets me zero in on Heartstone, the first novel by Phillip Margolin, 1978, Edgar Award Nominee (remember, I'm just dealing with the Award-worthy books at this point!). This is essentially a good book gone wrong, by a promising writer who indeed went on to a successful, best-selling career. Hopefully with major changes to the writing and content concerning women and the men around them...hopefully by, um, at least the 90s?!
Pay attention to any other reviews of this book that tell you most of the men depicted are really fixated on any woman's breasts. It doesn't matter how professional the man is - hero, villain, somewhere in between - this is a constant theme. If you start out liking a male character in a Crime novel from the 1970s, get ready, because as soon as he's around a woman, your opinion of him is likely to fall down a notch.
Final thought on all this: now that my revisit and recollection of 1970s Crime reading has brought this to my attention, I'm inclined to feel that the real blame was with editors and publishers - not the authors, chiefly. I mean, all this stuff just seems injected into so many of the books; the readership wanting, the publishing industry providing? That's what I see, anyway. I'm going to assume that a Margolin, at least, was "trained" to put expected content into his novels, presumably like many other authors writing genre fiction aimed at the male readership. The hideous warts on display in these books - and Heartstone is the best of the recent bad batch; it runs a fairly compelling and tricky double-murder Mystery - seem to have been removed by 2020. Somewhere, they got "woke".
Heartstone is a good book, but it's also a bad book. It's a bad book because it is from 1978. The things that make it lousy at times are very familiar to me at this point, because they seem to show up in many, many books that were competing with Heartstone. There's a morbid fascination in reading these things. And there are worse things waiting than Heartstone - if you want a truly lousy novel from the 1970s that can't just blame a decade, I direct your attention to The Queen Is Dead by Glenn Kezer. As for Margolin, I will get to his stuff again, albeit with a big jump ahead. 2008 might be safe (?)
Okay, so I've been reading some Crime novels that were nominated for - or actually won - the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original...and I have been focusing on the titles from the 1970s.
You need to know that if you are reading Crime & Mystery novels to get an overview of, let's say, a particular decade, I'm inclined to say: it's okay to skip the 1970s altogether. No, wait, I'll adjust that statement just a bit: you might want to skip anything from the 1970s written by an American male.
I say this after reading the following fairly recently:
The Queen Is Dead, by Glenn Kezer
Autopsy, by John R. Feegel
The Midas Coffin, by Simon Queen (known pseudonym)
For Murder I Charge More, by Frank McAuliffe
The Assassinator, by David Vowell
Tough Luck L.A., by Murray Sinclair
...and now, Heartstone, by Phillip Margolin.
Somewhat of a small sample size, but factor in my memories of reading Crime novels from the 1970s, when I was actually living through the 1970s - memories evoked by this bookwormy return to the era in 2020 (admittedly not the best year to for going into a reading project feeling light, cheery and open-minded), and I would say "There is a large problem here".
Racial stereotypes; ingrained racial attitudes. Plus...two of the novels above feature the murder of a transvestite - I did not know that when I picked the books to read - and you don't want to know how transvestites are depicted or discussed in the 1970s (see especially the Kezer book, which is in a disturbing class by itself, IMO), suffice it to say that in the 1970s, apparently any one "not normal" was a "freak", and it was okay for all the "normal" people to call them "freaks". Police attitudes are a thing to behold.
This brings us to the depiction of women, plus the way men in the books view and assess women - which lets me zero in on Heartstone, the first novel by Phillip Margolin, 1978, Edgar Award Nominee (remember, I'm just dealing with the Award-worthy books at this point!). This is essentially a good book gone wrong, by a promising writer who indeed went on to a successful, best-selling career. Hopefully with major changes to the writing and content concerning women and the men around them...hopefully by, um, at least the 90s?!
Pay attention to any other reviews of this book that tell you most of the men depicted are really fixated on any woman's breasts. It doesn't matter how professional the man is - hero, villain, somewhere in between - this is a constant theme. If you start out liking a male character in a Crime novel from the 1970s, get ready, because as soon as he's around a woman, your opinion of him is likely to fall down a notch.
Final thought on all this: now that my revisit and recollection of 1970s Crime reading has brought this to my attention, I'm inclined to feel that the real blame was with editors and publishers - not the authors, chiefly. I mean, all this stuff just seems injected into so many of the books; the readership wanting, the publishing industry providing? That's what I see, anyway. I'm going to assume that a Margolin, at least, was "trained" to put expected content into his novels, presumably like many other authors writing genre fiction aimed at the male readership. The hideous warts on display in these books - and Heartstone is the best of the recent bad batch; it runs a fairly compelling and tricky double-murder Mystery - seem to have been removed by 2020. Somewhere, they got "woke".
Heartstone is a good book, but it's also a bad book. It's a bad book because it is from 1978. The things that make it lousy at times are very familiar to me at this point, because they seem to show up in many, many books that were competing with Heartstone. There's a morbid fascination in reading these things. And there are worse things waiting than Heartstone - if you want a truly lousy novel from the 1970s that can't just blame a decade, I direct your attention to The Queen Is Dead by Glenn Kezer. As for Margolin, I will get to his stuff again, albeit with a big jump ahead. 2008 might be safe (?)
October 19, 2025
finished 19th october 2025 good read four stars i really liked it no less no more kindle library loaner and i've read more than ten maybe close to fifteen from margolin phillip and have enjoyed them all this one maybe a point more than the others. and no politics. try to get away from fashionable ideology anymore today and you have to go to the fabled deserted isle and stumble across the mermaid or maybe crusoe or old rip there resting against a tree.
entertaining story about lawyers, detectives, the criminal element, witnesses, doctors and such and more than one twist. scenes to do with hypnosis and the possibilities there, memories, real imagined or fashionable. ethical and unethical lawyers, people hell-bent with purpose and that includes the long and persuasive arm of the law. good read. i have another margolin open and ready to go and i believe he has quite a list of stories worth investigating. you could do worse. i should look for the most recent, see if success has gone to his head, like it has for more than one writer...who have since cobbled together their twitter perch soapbox and are pontificating while eager "media" outlets are just as itching to spread the word and keep the faithful in line.
entertaining story about lawyers, detectives, the criminal element, witnesses, doctors and such and more than one twist. scenes to do with hypnosis and the possibilities there, memories, real imagined or fashionable. ethical and unethical lawyers, people hell-bent with purpose and that includes the long and persuasive arm of the law. good read. i have another margolin open and ready to go and i believe he has quite a list of stories worth investigating. you could do worse. i should look for the most recent, see if success has gone to his head, like it has for more than one writer...who have since cobbled together their twitter perch soapbox and are pontificating while eager "media" outlets are just as itching to spread the word and keep the faithful in line.
April 10, 2025
Maybe I am a little spoiled from reading quite a few thrillers over the years and also by really enjoying some of this author's previous books, but in this one I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the big surprise, the big reveal, the unexpected twist in the story and for me it just never happened. It ended exactly with what I had thought from quite early on would be the most probable resolution. Which means, I had expected it not to be - after all, that is what surprising twists are all about.
Also, I found the key story element of diving into hypnosis as a method to uncover hidden memories about gruesome things that happened to you in the past a bit dry - and it was a bit too predictable that the overly biased prosecutor clearly wanted to misuse the suggestive powers of hypnosis for his own benefit instead of actually aiming to uncover the real truth - regardless of whether that was the real truth or not in the end.
So, yes, it is a solid read, but I found it a bit underwhelming versus the high expecetations this author had set for me with some of his other work before.
Also, I found the key story element of diving into hypnosis as a method to uncover hidden memories about gruesome things that happened to you in the past a bit dry - and it was a bit too predictable that the overly biased prosecutor clearly wanted to misuse the suggestive powers of hypnosis for his own benefit instead of actually aiming to uncover the real truth - regardless of whether that was the real truth or not in the end.
So, yes, it is a solid read, but I found it a bit underwhelming versus the high expecetations this author had set for me with some of his other work before.
December 24, 2017
I thought this was a poorly written book. There wasn’t a decent or likable character in the book except for the young couple who were murdered and the current DA. Even the defense attorney was an unlikable person. I rarely stop reading a book once I’ve started it but this was one that I almost did. Only interesting part was finding out who committed the murders and it certainly could have taken a lot fewer pages. I have read a few other books by Philip Margolin and thought they were decent enough books. Not this one and based on this one I’ll never read another of his books. Too many other really great books and authors out there to waste my time on this kind of drivel.
Update - I just found out that this was his first book so could cut him some slack but that doesn’t means it was in any way a good book or a book worth reading. Don’t waste your time.
Update - I just found out that this was his first book so could cut him some slack but that doesn’t means it was in any way a good book or a book worth reading. Don’t waste your time.
January 18, 2025
The book begins in the present day when a district attorney receives a surprise visit from a stranger, asking him to visit a dying friend with information about the unsolved murders of two teenagers. The author takes the reader through the gruesome events and the people connected to these events until the D.A. finally meets with the man hoping for absolution.
Character development is at the heart of this book's intrigue. As the characters are introduced, it is not immediately clear how their stories are interrelated, but as the suspense builds, so does the connection between them. This is a fascinating, though graphic, murder mystery and legal thriller. Underlying themes are coming-of-age and the consequences of poverty and child neglect.
It is a gripping tale with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it for fans of mystery and legal drama.
Character development is at the heart of this book's intrigue. As the characters are introduced, it is not immediately clear how their stories are interrelated, but as the suspense builds, so does the connection between them. This is a fascinating, though graphic, murder mystery and legal thriller. Underlying themes are coming-of-age and the consequences of poverty and child neglect.
It is a gripping tale with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it for fans of mystery and legal drama.
October 17, 2019
After reading the book Heartstone I can say that this book isn’t all that great. *Spoilers* To start off at the beginning of the book we have the narrator describing Elaine Murray and her relationship with Riche, her lover which is described as very serious, me personally I don’t have a problem with the intro of the book. Then when the murder happens I happened because after their date Riche got into a street race with a random car and when he won he made the car crash so the killer is just the person who got into the crash but that means this whole story is just for a car crash which I think they could have been a bit more creative with the story line. In my overall opinion of this book is that it is ok and there could of been better parts to this book.
October 31, 2022
Heartstone is a fast-paced murder thriller that reads like a true crime story—In Cold Blood by Truman Capote comes to mind. It starts with the brutal slaying of a high school boy, Richie Walters, whose body is found in Lookout Point, a popular makeout spot in the town of Portsmouth. His girlfriend, Elaine Murray, is missing, but not for long. After Elaine's raped and tortured body turns up two months later, the story follows Detective Roy Shindler's obsession with finding the murderers. The book explores the lines detectives, witnesses, and even prosecutors will cross when involved in a sensationalized murder case where their futures hang in the outcome. A mesmerizing read to the shocking end.
March 27, 2020
It wasn’t terrible, but was it was quite dated, and I hated the ending. In Heartstone, You will not meet a female character without having her breasts described to you in full. Additionally, women in this novel are fairly weak minded preoccupied almost entirely with their relationships to male characters.
The structure of this book is also very unusual, and I’m not sure it worked for me. It brings with a promise of a death bed confession, then become about the story of two teenager murdered on lovers lane. After that it turns into a book about witness tampering and false memory (which is interesting, but takes a lot of time). Then it turns into a court room mystery and finally we get to the ending. This was interesting, but there was one story line too many for me.
The structure of this book is also very unusual, and I’m not sure it worked for me. It brings with a promise of a death bed confession, then become about the story of two teenager murdered on lovers lane. After that it turns into a book about witness tampering and false memory (which is interesting, but takes a lot of time). Then it turns into a court room mystery and finally we get to the ending. This was interesting, but there was one story line too many for me.
Read
April 15, 2021From Follett: They were young, popular, the perfect couple an all American boy and a beautiful cheerleader. But the youthful passion that led them to Lookout Park that terrible evening would prove fatal. For Richie Walters the end came swiftly, as death descended upon him in a savage orgy of horrific violence. Elaine Murray would live long enough to learn just how lucky her boyfriend had been . . .
Two brutal slayings have rocked a stunned city. But the murders are merely the nightmare's beginning, flinging open a terrifying Pandora's box of sordid secrets and dark revelations more deadly than the bloodlust that lives in the rock hard heart of a killer.
Two brutal slayings have rocked a stunned city. But the murders are merely the nightmare's beginning, flinging open a terrifying Pandora's box of sordid secrets and dark revelations more deadly than the bloodlust that lives in the rock hard heart of a killer.
July 25, 2022
Reminds me a lot of Robert Ludlum book series I used to read. There were so many characters if you put the book down for more than a day you will need to look back to refresh your memory as to who a character is and how they are important.
At times it was a little hard to follow the flow since the scene changed numerous times during a chapter and each section started numbering with chapter 1 again.
Overall it was a good read but not one of this author's best.
At times it was a little hard to follow the flow since the scene changed numerous times during a chapter and each section started numbering with chapter 1 again.
Overall it was a good read but not one of this author's best.
April 13, 2022
Too many characters, hopefully the railroading of an accused wouldn't happen today. Most of the characters were of weak moral character, predominantly out for their own good only, truth and justice be damned. I have read books published further along in Margolin's career and he does get better. If this was my first read, it would have been my last.
February 14, 2020
Confusing
I gave it 4 stars because he switched from one character to another in the next sentence. I have read other of Margolin's books and liked them. I liked this as well, but it was difficult to follow. I think at least a paragraph break would have helped.
I gave it 4 stars because he switched from one character to another in the next sentence. I have read other of Margolin's books and liked them. I liked this as well, but it was difficult to follow. I think at least a paragraph break would have helped.
April 6, 2023
A really early Margolin, 1978. His writing has gotten so much better!! Two young people are murdered and the killings go unsolved for years until they put a possible witness under hypnosis to release her supressed memories. Maybe that works and maybe not.
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