Review: Woman with a Gun by Phillip Margolin

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1St Edition edition (December 2, 2014)
• ISBN: 9780062266521
• Source: Publisher

Stacey Kim saw the photograph at an art museum in New York City.  She’s immediately fascinated by the image:  a black and white photo of a woman in a wedding dress, on the beach. Behind her back she holds a six-shooter.  Stacey, an aspiring novelist, becomes obsessed with learning more about the woman in the picture.   The woman, Megan Cahill, was a suspect in the killing of her husband on their wedding night in 2005. The case was never closed.

Stacey begins her own investigation of sorts into the murder. While some witnesses are willing to speak of what happened a decade previous, the woman with the most involvement, the photographer, is reluctant to speak.  In Stacey’s attempt to create a fictionalized account of what transpired, she finds out so much more.

Told in alternating time periods, the author takes readers back to the first meeting of two key characters in the case, proceeding to the scene of the murder, and finally wrapping it up in the present time.  Woman with a Gun is a truly unique and compelling take on a “whodunit” case.  I’m intentionally being vague in my summary, for it is best for the reader to discover the characters, and aspects of the historic murder, on their own. My highest praise of this novel is that I didn’t realize or discover the identity of the killer until the end, the twists and turns kept me guessing.

While I truly enjoyed this novel, it’s not without its faults. While a few of the major characters were well-fleshed out and developed, I feel more could have been done to expand upon some of the secondary characters.  I wanted to know more about them, their motivation, their history. Even if it added significantly to the page count,  I feel it would have been a worthy and ultimately beneficial improvement upon the reading experience.

All this said, Woman with a Gun is still a well-crafted, excellently executed read. Recommended.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to participate in this tour. Be sure to check out the complete tour listing!