“An unapologetic valentine to golden age whodunits that sports its clichés as proudly as badges.”https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/phillip-margolin/murder-at-black-oaks/

Oh what a terrific book!  I’ve read several of Margolin’s books but this is hands down the best of what I’ve read.  Now I’m going to have to go back and try to get a couple more of the Robin Lockwood series.  

Murder at Black Oaks
By Phillip Margolin 2022 / 
Read by Thérèse Plummer 5h 55m
Rating:  A+ / mystery 
(#6 of the Robin Lockwood series) 

A young man is unjustly condemned to life in prison for killing his girlfriend and that starts us off.

There is every kind of cliche here – even the board game “Clue” and the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie. There’s a locked room in a remote haunted house when a snow storm traps them all. The house is that of a rich old man who is having a party including his lovely, new and young fiancé, Robin and her detective, along with the man he falsely had imprisoned for 30 years. Just to add spice, there’s an escaped and insane serial killer – and there’s more. It’s such fun.

There are a lot of characters here many of whom are introduced rather suddenly in Part 4. The first dead body shows up in Part 5 or 6.  

Characters – 
Robin – lead
Frank Melville – old rich attorney who put Alvarez in jail 
Jose Alvarez – not guilty but spent 30 years in prison 
Nelly Melville – daughter
Justin Trent – Melville’s attorney 
Sheila Monroe –  Melville’s new fiancé 
Cory Rockwell – actor/director to create film – a suspect in wife’s death – had an alibi Samuels. – local detective. (looks a lot like Zelco – the 
Ken Breland, – investigator for Robin
Victor Zelcoe –  escaped fugitive murderer 
Claire Winters – stabbed to death – lived with Rockwell – 11 pm – 
Khan convicted of the murder of Winters 
Tony Clark – stunt man for Rockwell 
Rose Macintire – witness to the Winters death 
Mrs Raskin – housekeeper 
Luther – house man 
Janet  – caterer
Max – caterer,  combat trained, knives in kitchen