Fans of Phillip Margolin (Sleight of Hand) know they are always in for intense legal drama, and Worthy Brown's Daughter delivers--along with a thoroughly researched, vividly depicted 19th-century setting. Based on an actual event, the novel follows the attempts of lawyer and young widower Matthew Penny to help free 15-year-old African-American Roxanne Brown from servitude in 1860s Portland. Roxanne and her father, Worthy, were promised freedom by Caleb Barbour when they arrived in Oregon, and Barbour has now reneged. The Civil War-era setting comes fully alive in Margolin's hands, a rough-hewn place with drunken judges, corrupt lawyers and gold-digging whores. Penny is an admirable protagonist with just enough flaws not to annoy, but even the shadier characters are portrayed with empathy, making them more human, their motivations more understandable.
Margolin effectively presents the inherent evils of racism and slavery and how badly the deck was stacked against blacks when they sought legal justice. Worthy Brown is an admirable man who has raised an intelligent and self-sufficient daughter, the pair never losing hope in the face of daunting odds, and this makes the reader root for them. Courtroom dramas can often succumb to predictability and plot-by-numbers, but Margolin gives Worthy Brown's Daughter just the right mix of intriguing historical settings, great characters and legal action to make this the perfect read. --Donald Powell, freelance writer