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    Executive Privilege: with Capitol Murder teaser
    Executive Privilege: with Capitol Murder teaser
    Executive Privilege: with Capitol Murder teaser
    Audiobook11 hours

    Executive Privilege: with Capitol Murder teaser

    Written by Phillip Margolin

    Narrated by Jonathan Davis

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Includes a teaser excerpt from Capitol Murder, the third book in the Washington Trilogy!

    The first book in Phillip Margolin's New York Times bestselling Washington Trilogy, a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.

    When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh's dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.

    In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests thatsomeone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.

    Executive Privilege, with its nonstop action, unforgettable characters, and edge-of-your-seat suspense, proves once again that Phillip Margolin—whose work has been hailed as ""frighteningly plausible"" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and ""twisted and brilliant"" (Chicago Tribune)—belongs in the top echelon of thriller writers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 20, 2008
    ISBN9780061630699
    Executive Privilege: with Capitol Murder teaser
    Author

    Phillip Margolin

    Phillip Margolin has written nineteen novels, many of them New York Times bestsellers, including his latest novels Woman with a Gun, Worthy Brown’s Daughter, Sleight of Hand, and the Washington trilogy. Each displays a unique, compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior, which comes from his long background as a criminal defense attorney who has handled thirty murder cases. Winner of the Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

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    Reviews for Executive Privilege

    3.5/5

    198 ratings22 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It didn't grab my attention. First hundred pages were rather slow.
      I'm not really into books in which you jump from one character to another.
      However, the ending was good, except this strange Dana and Jake thing which was completely out of place.
    • 3/5
      Thankfully I was on vacation so what a delight to read a book by this author in a day! I am a definite Phillip Margolin fan and this title is dedicated to his wife, Doreen Margolin who passed away in 2007 prior to completion of this book. I was deeply sorry to read of his loss. All of the other titles of this author that I have read were published prior to 2007. This book is good but there's something missing that I can't quite identify.
    • 2/5
      Altogether ridiculously far-fetched. Don't bother; though, if you're stranded and it's the only book available, and you get started, you will want to find out what the hell happens to these wholly implausible people in a wholly implausible situation.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book because it was exciting and kept your interest. I did figure out who did it, but only right before the author revealed the killer. Lies and deceitand cover ups in the White House? Quite plausible!
    • 5/5
      Dana Cutler, an ex-cop and now a PI is hired to trail Charoltte Walsh. She takes pictures of an angry exchange between the teen and the President. An Oregon attorney is asked to look into the murder of another woman by a man on death row. The cases are linked, but how? A fast paced story.
    • 4/5
      When former detective and now private investigator, Dana Cutler, is hired by an attorney with political connections, it seems like a pretty simple job. She just has to follow college student, Charlotte Walsh and report on everything she does. Unfortunately the unexpected happens and Dana takes photos of Charlotte meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh’s dead body shows up and strangers are trying to kill Dana.

      Meanwhile on the other side of the country, junior attorney, Brad Miller, is working on the appeal of a convicted killer. Clarence Little, now on death row. Little admits to killing several young women but claims he's been framed for one of the murders. Another young girl who just happened to have been working for then governor Christopher Farrington before being murdered.

      This was an enjoyable and fast moving book. It's pretty predictable but I still enjoyed the story and the characters. I think it would make a great book for a plane ride due to the quick pace.
    • 3/5
      A good thriller that jumped right into the action and never took a break until the end. This is an easy read that you can pick up and for 20 minutes at a time or read in an afternoon. The story is engaging. The characters are a bit stereotypical, but still belivable.
    • 3/5
      Pretty decent (if far-fetched) plot, but the characters didn't seem very well fleshed out and a couple of them ran together for me. OK, but nothing to write home about.
    • 3/5
      Thankfully I was on vacation so what a delight to read a book by this author in a day! I am a definite Phillip Margolin fan and this title is dedicated to his wife, Doreen Margolin who passed away in 2007 prior to completion of this book. I was deeply sorry to read of his loss. All of the other titles of this author that I have read were published prior to 2007. This book is good but there's something missing that I can't quite identify.
    • 4/5
      This was a Free Friday offering from Barnes and Noble. I haven't been reading much fiction lately. I enjoyed the escape. I found it interesting how the author chased the story from both coasts. Not a very plausible story, but entertaining nonetheless.
    • 2/5
      Phillip Margolin’s “Executive Privilege” had potential, but overall was unoriginal and not exciting. Although there’s supposed to be a big twist at the end, it’s really not surprising.PI Dana Cutler photographs a pretty young thing getting into a spat with President Christopher Farrington at a CIA safe house late one night. A few hours later, the young girl has been brutally murdered and thugs are after Cutler and her pictures. The murder is attributed to a serial killer groaningly nicknamed the DC Ripper.Meanwhile, in Oregon, Brad Miller, a young lawyer, is asked to help a death row serial killer appeal his sentence for a crime he says he didn’t commit years earlier. The girl who got killed? She just so happened to be the governor’s nanny. The governor? Christopher Farrington.In the meantime, the FBI agent who’s in charge of the DC Ripper case is contacted by Cutler. Chasing ensues, more people die, etc., etc.Margolin weakens his story by deciding his readers need to hear conversations between the president and an old confidant who is told to “take care of these problems.” So we pretty much know who’s behind it all. We’re just waiting for everyone else to catch up. Until the big reveal at the end. And again, not so much.I often got the feeling like Margolin doesn’t think much of his readers as he specifies things most people would know. For example, it’s clearly stated by a character that the Secret Service protects the president.Since I listened to the book, I wanted to add that the narrator doesn't do a good job of distinguishing voices, especially male voices. This is quite a problem when two males are in a conversation. Also, there are long "dead air" spots I’ve not noticed in other audio books.
    • 3/5
      Well written, good characters and thrilling story line.
    • 3/5
      This was an okay book. Not the greatest, but okay. It's one of those books that I would say the author has this great idea, but they have difficulty conveying what they see in their head onto paper. There is very little depth to the characters, and they are all two dimensional. I don't read too many mystery novels, but this one was told from both sides--the suspect and the attorneys and FBI agents who are investigating the crimes.
    • 4/5
      Good read -- fast paced, lots of chases and plot twists. Interesting characters.
    • 3/5
      What begins as a mundane assignment to tail a young woman, turns into a flight for her life for PI Dana Cutler after she witnesses a rendezvous with the President, Chris Farrington. The young woman is found dead the next day, supposedly the latest victim of the DC Ripper. Meanwhile, an associate of a law firm in Portland, OR, becomes involved in the case of a serial killer who was convicted, but claims he was framed, of killing Farrington's babysitter while he was Governor of OR. A coincidence or is the President of the U.S. a serial killer?I personally prefer a thriller to have a little faster pace than this. It was not a book that kept me entralled, and in fact the ending was predictable if you pay attention to what is going on. This book was entertaining and I enjoyed it enough, but it was the type of book to read by the pool in between naps.
    • 2/5
      Let's put it this way: I wouldn't spend any money on a Margolin book, but this one was a freebie and I did read it through.Lots of action, lots of characters, plenty of good guys, and though the clue was there, I didn't catch on until the end. So it seems like this would have been a fun book.Perhaps it was just more seamy than I like....young women (still in their teens, in some cases) being murdered....perhaps it was too Bill Clintonish, or that it was just a cheap shot dredging up that sordid piece of history....but I think mostly it was the narrative. It is a cheap way out when the author writes from inside multiple characters' heads. I guess I prefer to stay inside my own head...so I like my books to read that way, too!
    • 4/5
      Good political thriller. While not necessarily believable (who cares) it was an enjoyable read. I truly enjoy Mr. Margolin's books (have read most if not all) and this did not disappoint.
    • 4/5
      great as an audio read--kept my attention while multi=tasking. It's the standard hard working lawyer in Oregon gets lucky, is handed a career building (or busting) case he doesn't want; on the other coast, a female PI (police drop out due to horrible experiences while undercover) discovers evidence that can be matched up with Oregon boy that may in fact lead to the President of US as a serial killer????? OK...at that point I had to suspend belief, but the story was well plotted enough to keep my interest til the somewhat surprising end. Good airport/beach/doctor's waiting room read.
    • 2/5
      Margolin sent me an autographed copy for talking over some details for the in-progress sequel, so it’s probably churlish to say that I’m not a big fan of airport thrillers. But I press on nonetheless! An Oregon associate pursuing a death row inmate’s habeas case and a DC PI independently discover information suggesting that someone close to the President—perhaps the President himself—is a serial killer. It moves fast, anyway. The characters reminded me of Duplo toys: largely human-shaped, and moving around in an environment recognizable as an abstraction of our own; mostly not stereotypes, but not exactly identifiable people either.But what I really noticed is how spoiled I’ve been by fanfic. And not just in the standard “fanfic is focused on stuff I like” way, though that too. But fanfic is the apotheosis of “give me just the good parts” not only at the level of plot/trope, but also certain aspects of writing. Margolin introduced his guy protagonist by having him look in the mirror. It’s cheesy and artificial and we have to let him get away with it because there are only so many ways a limited POV (standard in modern fiction) can describe the narrator. We don’t have to put up with it in fanfic, though, because regardless of source text fanfic gets to operate using audiovisual conventions: no description of main characters necessary. Skip the preliminaries, tell me something new.Margolin is relatively competent with infodumps, and usually manages to have them well-motivated by the text: two people are out on a first date and telling each other their histories, or one lawyer summarizes an area of the law for another who is unfamiliar with that area. This is a problem for lots of plot-based stories, and it helps to have characters who canonically deal in infodumps, which I suspect is another reason I find it easy to like cop-types. It was simplest for Mulder and Scully: for them, infodumps were foreplay. Lex lectures Clark or, if Clark is unavailable, himself, because he’s always performing for someone, if only the imagined audience (which in his case is us). Sam and Dean tend to summarize, driving information out of dialogue and into narration, where I think it often fits best. Character backstory often has to be chunked too; one of the reasons Margolin seemed clunky was that he started out with what felt like too much description of backstory, though to be fair he left a good deal to be worked out later. See also: spoiled by fanfic, where we don’t need much backstory and so seeing what history characters reveal, if anything, tells you more word-for-word about the characters and the author’s take on them than it does in standalone fiction.
    • 4/5
      Unlikely story but made believable. The characters appeared real and well done. Lots of murders, serial and otherwise. The real killer not revealed until end of story, and was a surprise. In retrospect should have seen it, but didn't.
    • 3/5
      it's an overdone theme and this was an ok version of it- good beach read
    • 4/5
      HELD MY INTEREST!