I still watch "Star Trek." I mean the real "Star Trek," not the subsequent pretenders with their Janeways and Picards (I mean, Jean-Luc couldn't even beat his older, wimpy brother at mud wrestling, for heaven's sake). No, I mean "Star Trek" (make that "STAR TREK"), with Kirk and Spock and foxy-'til-the-day-she-dies Lieutenant Uhura. My second favorite episode was "Amok Time," when Spock went into the Vulcan version of heat, and went back to Vulcan to claim his betrothed, only to find that she had chosen another. Spock's intended was a real piece of work --- among other things, she put him into a fight to the death with Captain Kirk. This fact was ultimately not lost on Spock, who turned to his rival near the end of the episode and said, "Having is not always as good as wanting. It is illogical, but nonetheless true." These are words that, at various times in my life, I should have remembered before carrying out some act of foolishness. I did remember them, though, while reading THE ASSOCIATE, the latest offering from Phillip Margolin.

Daniel Ames grew up hard and poor at the end of some of the roughest streets in town. After running away from "home" (that being wherever his mother happened to be living at any given moment) and living on the streets by the age of 17, some instinct made him join the Army. The disciplined life gave him a stability he had never known, while recognizing his there-to-fore unacknowledged intelligence. Ames, after his tour of duty was completed, worked his way without a net through college, then law school. No one was more surprised than he when he was hired as an associate with Reed, Briggs --- Portland, Oregon's most prestigious law firm. Ames cannot escape the feeling, however, that his hold on success is tenuous, that one day it will slip and all fall away from him. And, one day, at the beginning of THE ASSOCIATE, it does.

Ames, taking on more than he should to help an ultimately ungrateful colleague, is scapegoated when the case they're working on goes south, apparently due to Ames's carelessness. Ames begins to closely investigate the facts of the case --- and Reed, Briggs' involvement in it --- in order to clear his name and win back his job. He soon discovers, however, that the principals in the litigation have secrets that stretch across the country and over a decade. As Ames uncovers a twisted tale of deceit and murder, he is unable to distinguish who he can trust from who he can't; and he has serious doubts, not only about everything he has worked so hard to acquire, but also his place in the scheme of things. He, like Spock, comes to the hard truth that having is not always as good as wanting.

Margolin, as he has from the beginning of his career, continues to impress and surprise with his unpredictability. I will confess, I read suspense novels by the caseload and usually figure out the endings to most of them. I thought I had this one sussed; I was wrong right up to practically the last page. Even if you figure out THE ASSOCIATE from the get-go, you'll still have fun seeing how Margolin gets there.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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