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LOST LAKE, an ambitious work by Phillip Margolin, opens with a prologue set in 1985, a short account of the bloody discovery of a murdered Congressman. When the story proper begins, a modern-day Little League game explodes into violence. The identity of one of the participants threatens to expose a secret military unit that was headed by Morris Wingate, a former U.S. military general who is now a candidate for the presidency. Wingate's primary accuser is his daughter, Vanessa Kohler, a tabloid reporter with a history of mental illness and a long-simmering grudge against her father. Kohler's accusations lack substantive proof.
When film of the Little League melee is broadcast over nationwide television, however, Kohler spots Carl Rice, a man who she claims worked for her father in the military unit and who she was involved with as a teenager. But Rice also has a history of mental illness. Are Kohler and Rice merely delusional? Or have they each placed themselves in terrible danger as the presidential primary approaches?
My feelings about this novel are somewhat mixed. Margolin is incapable of writing badly, and if you apply the John Jacob Smith test to LOST LAKE --- "what would you think if this was a book by a new, unknown novelist named John Jacob Smith?" --- then it's not bad, not bad at all. And it isn't bad, not by any means. It's just that Margolin has done better before.
In my opinion the narrative is a bit choppy. Some of it is certainly necessary, given that the salient events in the book scan some 30 years, but on occasion I felt as if I'd been yanked off-track by the transitions. The story, however, is quite compelling, and even with such small warts as LOST LAKE might have, it is nonetheless a riveting read. I honestly wasn't sure until the end who was telling the truth and who stood to literally get away with murder.
While some of Margolin's longtime fans may be disappointed with this particular effort, it is still strong enough to keep even casual fans in the fold.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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