Dana Cutler is a former Washington, DC policewoman who now works as a private investigator. Dana is still recuperating from a year in a mental hospital which resulted from three days of torture by bikers who broke her cover. Brad Miller is a lawyer who moved with his fiancée from Portland to DC to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Felicia Moss. Cutler and Miller worked together to expose President Farrington's fondness for teenage girls in Executive Privilege.

At the start of Supreme Justice, the Justices are voting on whether to issue a writ of certiorari ("cert") in the case of Woodruff vs. Oregon. If granted, the case itself would be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Woodruff is Sarah Woodruff, a police officer in Oregon who lived on and off with John Finley and is now on Death Row for his murder. Finley was killed in October, 2006, after fleeing from a ship which allegedly had a large amount of hash in the hold but when the officer in charge of the case returns the next night to further investigate, the ship, the night watchman, and everyone else associated with the crime are gone.

Woodruff's lawyer was not allowed to enter specific evidence in the case as it interfered with national security. Oregon is the state of Oregon where the crime was committed and, specifically, Portland, where many of Margolin's books take place. Cert is the legal term for the action by the Supreme Court which would allow this evidence to be reviewed by the Justices themselves which could potentially exonerate Sarah Woodruff.

Dana Cutler, Brad Miller and FBI agent Keith Evans will work together to fight both political corruption and murder in a fast-paced legal thriller with a most interesting premise. Margolin explains the legal backstory, in this case a writ of certiorari, in a manner which anyone can understand. The negative is that the story sometimes gets a bit convoluted with so many characters to follow.

Phillip Margolin has been compared to Grisham. In my opinion, these novels are as good if not better than the recent Grisham novels. Supreme Justice focuses on a specific point of law rather than the workings of a big law firm and contains very realistic, likable characters. Next up for me, Wild Justice, the first book in the Amanda Jaffe series....  

--Jerry Solot