THE UNDERTAKER’S WIDOW by Phillip M. Margolin ($24.95, hardcover, 336 pages, Doubleday, ISBN: 0385480547, also available as an unabridged tape and audio CD)

A riveting new tale of betrayal, blackmail, and murder from the best-selling author of The Burning Man (HARDCOVER, PAPERBACK, UNABRIDGED AUDIOTAPE) and Gone, But Not Forgotten (PAPERBACK, ABRIDGED AUDIOTAPE).

Phillip Margolin’s masterful new legal thriller is full of suspense at its finest, with surprising twists and turns, erotic undertones that can quickly turn deadly, and, most of all, a keen sense of the inner workings of the American justice system. At the center of THE UNDERTAKER’S WIDOW is the beleaguered figure of Richard Quinn a judge so ethical that he is willing to risk his own life to see that justice prevails in his courtroom. But as Quinn discovers when he presides over the trial of tough-talking state congresswoman Ellen Crease, there is not always a clear path to justice.

A former police officer, Crease is a flamboyant public figure who stands accused of conspiring to murder her husband, a wealthy tycoon who got his start in the funeral parlor business. Things, however, are not as they seem, and Quinn soon begins to suspect that Crease may well have been set up. As he zeros in on the deadly secret at the heart of this trial, Judge Richard Quinn finds that his efforts to do the fight thing lead him ever deeper into an insidious maze of murder and deceit.