Writers often live dull, maudlin lives filled with very little other than sitting before a computer screen. Phillip Margolin is the exception.

A rated chess player and collegiate wrestler, Margolin spent two years in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in the program’s infancy. After earning a degree from New York University School of Law, he began a wildly successful legal practice in which he argued before the Supreme Court, never allowed a client to be sentenced to death, won the freedom of two men wrongfully convicted of murder and revolutionized the way domestic violence cases were viewed in Oregon.

In the midst of his law career, Margolin published “Gone, But Not Forgotten,” a New York Times Bestseller that sold millions of copies, was published in over 30 countries, was audiobook of the year and became a television miniseries.

Over the last three decades, Margolin has become the beloved author of dozens of thrillers, remained a fixture on Bestseller Lists and is the second-best selling author in Oregon history.

Margolin’s path to success was paved with failure, though. He failed at just about everything from school, to sports, to flunking the bar, to losing every trial he argued his first week as a practicing lawyer, to writing his first book and finding that it was unpublishable.

“Phillip Margolin: A Life” captures the story of how Margolin turned those failures into jaw-dropping success. With the full cooperation of Margolin, his family, friends, and colleagues, this Authorized Literary Biography features hours of in-depth interviews, excerpts from Margolin’s Peace Corps letters, first-person accounts of his most important criminal cases, and the stories behind each of his bestselling books, giving vivid insight into each thriller.

This is a must-read for anyone who loves Margolin’s books.