Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin, New in Bookstores in January 2014

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published during January 2014 by Harper, is Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin.

For a list of more new hardcover mysteries published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for January 2014. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of January 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

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Worthy Brown's Daughter
Phillip Margolin

One of a handful of lawyers in the new state of Oregon, recently widowed Matthew Penny agrees to help Worthy Brown, a newly freed slave, rescue his fifteen year old daughter, Roxanne, from their former master, a powerful Portland lawyer. Worthy's lawsuit sets in motion events that lead to Worthy's arrest for murder and create an agonizing moral dilemma that could send either Worthy or Matthew to the hangman.+++At the same time, hanging judge Jed Tyler, a powerful politician with a barren personal life, becomes infatuated with a beautiful gold-digger who is scheming to murder Benjamin Gillette, Oregon's wealthiest businessman. When Gillette appears to die from natural causes, Sharon Hill produces a forged contract of marriage and Tyler must decide if he will sacrifice his reputation to defend that of the woman who inspired his irrational obsession.+++At Worthy's trial, Matthew saves Worthy by producing a stunning courtroom surprise and his attempt to stop the deadly fortune hunter ends in a violent climax.