The Undertaker's Widow : A Novel

A cold-blooded murder. A beautiful suspect. An honest judge forced to do the unthinkable.New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is a master of legal suspense. In this explosive novel, a simple case of self-defense becomes a nightmare in which justice itself is held hostage.Judge Richard Quinn is young, idealistic, and honest to a fault. That's why he's handed the most sensational homicide case in Oregon history. Locked in a race for the U.S. Senate, Ellen Crease gunned down the intruder who murdered her wealthy husband. In a single, brutal instant she became a widow, a victim, and a hero. Yet disturbing questions remain. What secrets did the man who started his fortune running mortuaries keep that might have cost him his life? What about the son frozen out of his will? Or his wife's political enemies? And what about Ellen Crease herself?Soon it becomes clear that a deadly plot of murder, blackmail, passion, and double cross is unfolding around Judge Richard Quinn. And unless he breaks the rules, justice will not only be blind, it will be the final victim.

A cold-blooded murder.  A beautiful suspect.  An honest judge forced to do the unthinkable.

New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is a master of legal suspense.  In this explosive novel, a simple case of self-defense becomes a nightmare in which justice itself is held hostage.

Judge Richard Quinn is young, idealistic, and honest to a fault.  That's why he's handed the most sensational homicide case in Oregon history.  Locked in a race for the U.S.  Senate, Ellen Crease gunned down the intruder who murdered her wealthy husband.  In a single, brutal instant she became a widow, a victim, and a hero.  

Yet disturbing questions remain.  What secrets did the man who started his fortune running mortuaries keep that might have cost him his life? What about the son frozen out of his will? Or his wife's political enemies? And what about Ellen Crease herself?

Soon it becomes clear that a deadly plot of murder, blackmail, passion, and double cross is unfolding around Judge Richard Quinn.  And unless he breaks the rules, justice will not only be blind, it will be the final victim.

The Unabridged edition includes 6 cassettes. Narrated by Jason Culp. .

Richard Quinn - a judge so ethical that he is willing to risk his own life to see that justice prevails in his courtroom. But as Quinn discovers when he presides over the trial of tough-talking state senator Ellen Crease, there is not always a clear path to justice. A former police officer, Crease is a flamboyant public figure who stands accused of conspiring to murder her husband, a wealthy tycoon who got his start in the funeral parlor business. Things, however, are not as they seem, and Quinn soon begins to suspect that Crease may well have been set up. As he zeros in on the deadly secret at the heart of this trial, Judge Richard Quinn finds that his efforts to do the right thing lead him ever deeper into an insidious maze of murder and deceit. A Portland judge takes a Caribbean holiday without his wife, which turns out to be a mistake. He meets another woman, has an affair, and when she is murdered keeps quiet for fear he will be the suspect. Just what a blackmailer wanted A beleaguered judge presiding over the trial of a tough-talking state congresswoman suspects that the defendant was framed.