Book Review Of the Burning Man By Phillip Margolin :: essays research papers

Book Review of "The Burning Man" by Phillip Margolin Peter Hale, the son of Richard Hale, a four-year associate at Hale, Greaves, Strobridg, Marquand, and Bartlett, has lived his life under the shadow of his father. Despite having a high five-figure salary and fire-engine-red Porsche, Peter was constantly trying to overcome the expectations of his high- class lawyer of a father, who was former president of the Oregon State Bar. Handling only small-time cases did not present Peter with the opportunity to outshine his father, who was also a second-team All-American football player and National Champion wrestler, but when his father had a heart attack and could no longer handle a million dollar case in which Peter had been helping him, Peter could not let the opportunity pass. As Richard Hale lied helpless in a hospital bed, he demanded Peter ask for a mistrial, but it seemed only to go in one ear of Peter's and out the other. Peter's boldness would be costly though, as he would lose the case and lose his father. Richard did not die, but when he heard of his son's error he could not forgive him and couldn't bare to see him anymore. Only a fatherly instinct would force Richard to find a meager job for his helpless son in a small town with an old friend who was looking for someone trying to regain status as Peter now was. Whitaker was not as exciting as Portland was to Peter, but he began to be accustomed to the town when he began his handling small criminal cases and ran into an old friend who graduated with him from highschool, Steve Mancini. Steve, like Peter's father, was a football star, but at the Division II level for the Whitaker State football team. Hale became close with Mancini and met many other residents of Whitaker through Steve. One being Steve's beautiful and intelligent fiance, Donna Harmon and her slightly retarded brother Gary. Just as things began to become settled for Peter in Whitaker, he ran into some problems with Gary Harmon. Peter had to save him once from the police in a peeping incident and then became Gary's lead attorney, under some influence from Steve Mancini, as Gary was charged with the murder of a local college girl. The night of the murder, Gary had been at a local bar, the Stallion, and had gotten into an argument with a girl whom he had asked to buy a drink for. Despite the assurance of a local drug-dealer friend of Gary's, Kevin Booth and his friend, Christopher Mammon, the college girl had rejected Gary heavily not