Rating: 
Summary: Quick and Suspenseful
Review: I flew through this book after having read a few slow and dull novels. This was very entertaining and fast paced and even though I felt I knew "whodunnit" from the beginning (I did), there were lots of twists and turns that created doubts. On the down side, a few portions (such as the St. Jerome interlude) seemed too drawn out and at times I was annoyed at Quinn's naivte about being set up, etc. But all in all I found this a good tale and will probably read other books by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Likeable character, easy reading
Review: I have always liked Margolin's style of writing and found this book enjoyable. The main character was very likeable and the book was easy to read. I finished it in 2 days and gave it to a friend. not Margolin's best work but not his worst either.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I have been an avid fan of Margolin's work. I enjoyed each of his previous novels, but I found this one to be a bit contrived. I almost wish he would have let the poor judge take his lumps, instead of the sappy ending we were forced to read. I anxiously wait for his next work, because I'm sure it will be an improvement over this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Ho Hum Court TV Drama
Review: I read "The Undertaker's Widow" in 2 days and figured out the mystery, i.e. who was responsible for the murders of Hoyt and the intruder, in the first 100 pages. Please!!! This is a ho hum the way "The Firm" was (and it didn't help to have Tom Cruise star in the motion picture same name, still booorrrrriiiiiinnnnnnngggggg!!! Too much time spent in court. I normally put any book down before I buy it or read it that features some attorney and his client or his own legal problems. (I'm from Portland and that didn't even keep me awake from this snoozer.) Who are these people who just couldn't put it down??????
Rating:
Summary: First Margolin and Probably My Last
Review: I read this book because it is set in Portland, OR, where I am living. It felt like a book that was intended to be sold for movie rights -- lots of excitement and gratuitous sex and violence, and in 90 minutes maybe one might not see the flaws.And the flaws were many: the judges stupidity and then lack of ethics as he turned detective (at the end I wondered why he didn't sentence himself to 2 years in prison!); the Political Correctness of the author which gives away the ending; a cartoonish cast of characters; an ending that had me hunting for the book recycling bin.
Rating: 
Summary: !!~Awesome Read~!! A really good suspense mystery story.
Review: I really liked this book this was my first Philip Margolin book but i have added him to my mental list of a must read author. This was a rather fast book i read it in about 3 days but i was up quite a few of those nights!! But this is a really intriquing book which makes you think a lot and if you like Grisham or Mary Higgins Clark this is a awesome read!!
Rating:
Summary: Great use of many characters
Review: I thought this was one of Philip Margolins' best books. I've read them all. He used his many characters masterfully, putting them in and out of interesting situation. This kept me on my toes and wanting more. I highly recommend this good read.
Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: I was disappointed because I very much enjoyed another Margollin book, "The Burning Man". This plot was very contrived and pretty silly when you thought about the amount of work that had to go into the criminal mastermind's plot to kill her husband and get away with it. Fret not! She is caught in the end.
Don't waste your time
Rating:
Summary: Weird linguistic move, often repeated ...
Review: I've read all of Margolin's books, enjoyed them, and still found points of annoyance. Widow's Undertaker contains a move, often repeated, where characters learn information which is explicitly not shared with the reader. While a mystery is writing when information is shared in an irregular manner, somehow Margolin's move struck me as sophomoric. There's an example, which is the paragraph that spans pp. 49-50. For Portlanders and for ravenous mystery readers, this is a book to read.
Rating:
Summary: TILL DEATH DO THEY PART
Review: In reading several of Margolin's novels, I find one consistency: his characters/heroes really do dumb/stupid things, and then expect the world to either forgive them or help them out. In "The Undertaker's Widow," Judge Richard Quinn is said hero. He has what he thinks is the perfect marriage with a career-driven wife, Laura, who doesn't find his sexual demands as worthwhile as he does. This obviously leads to Quinn's involvement with a mysterious young woman on a trip to an island called St. Jerome's. If Quinn is as moral as the book makes him out to be, his rendezvous with Amanda only shows the shallow side of this hero.
Other than that, he does some more stupid things and winds up in the middle or a really nasty murder case.
The titular widow of this book is one Ellen Crease, who is running for the senate, and kills a man who comes into her mansion to kill her wealthy husband. He does kill him, and from there on, we have a chaotic investigation, with several possible suspects, and Judge Quinn smack dab in the middle of it.
Laura's turnaround near the end of the book, while not totallyl credible, at least is pleasant for our hero. The identity of the murderer in this one is, I admit, a surprise, but it's hasty resolution and it's "cute" little epilogue involving the lady's housekeeper is rather trite.
Not a great read, and certainly not one of Margolin's best, but it's not a waste of time.
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