Legal Crime Fiction

It started with a haunting image: a Ford Explorer, iridiscent in the moonlight and alone on a desolate stretch of beach. Its owner, Melissa Gibbons, has gone missing. Her husband says she flew the coop. But Los Angeles Deputy DA Rachel Knight is convinced otherwise: Melissa Gibbons has been murdered. So begins the confounding case that Rachel must present before a disbelieving jury. A dissatisfied heiress and her philandering husband - what really happened?

A Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley has left a community shaken to its core. Two students are identified as the killers. Both are dead, believed to have committed a mutual suicide. In the aftermath of the shooting, LA Special Trials prosecutor Rachel Knight teams up with her best girlfriend, LAPD detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey interview students at the high school, they realize that the facts don't add up. Could it be that the students suspected of being the shooters are actually victims?

Someone has been watching D.A. Rachel Knight - someone who's Rachel's equal in brains, but with more malicious intentions. It began when a near-impossible case fell into Rachel's lap, the suspectless homicide of a homeless man. In the face of courthouse backbiting and a gauzy web of clues, Rachel is determined to deliver justice. She's got back-up: tough-as-nails Detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey stir things up, they're shocked to uncover a connection with the vicious murder of an LAPD cop a year earlier.

It begins at the airport, where Jack is waiting to meet his old high school buddy, Keith Ingraham, a high-powered banker based in Hong Kong, coming to Miami for his young daughter's surgery. But their long-awaited reunion is abruptly derailed when the police arrest Keith's wife, Isabelle, in the terminal, accusing her of conspiring to kill the man who raped her in college. Jack quickly agrees to represent Isa but soon discovers that to see justice done, he must separate truth from lies.

A deadly fall on a rugged stretch of California coast. A burglary gone wrong in Virginia. These incidents seem unrelated, but the victims were living undercover, their true identities closely held secrets. They are members of a classified team, the last line of defense against foreign threats. Now someone is assassinating them one by one, taking out family members and innocent bystanders to make the deaths seem like accidents.

Texas attorney and former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland has many secrets. Among them is Vernon Smother's son, Lucas, a now-teenaged boy about whom few know the truth: Lucas is really Billy Bob's illegitimate son. When Lucas is arrested for murder, Billy Bob must confront the past and serve as the boy's criminal attorney. As a result, he incurs enemies that are far more dangerous than any he faced as a Texas Ranger.

One dark secret. One act of revenge. When Emma Joseph met her husband, David, he was a man shattered by grief. His first wife had been killed outright when her car veered off the road. Just as tragically, their six-year-old daughter mysteriously vanished from the scene of the accident. Now, six years later, Emma believes the painful years are behind them. She and David have built a new life together and have a beautiful baby son, Ollie.

Winner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic and Michael Nava has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of our best” writers. Here, Rios delves deeply into his Latino identity as he defends a young man charged with assassinating a prominent Los Angeles Latino politician. The San Francisco Chronicle hailed the novel and its author: “A beautifully conceived but gritty novel.... Nava writes the kind of small, clean, powerful novels that build in emotional power almost invisibly, leaving us breathless at the end.”

San Francisco judge Ramsey Hunt, longtime friend to FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich, begins the murder trial of Clive and Cindy Cahill, only to have federal prosecutor Mickey O’Rourke, known for his relentless, aggressive style, suddenly turn tentative and distracted. Hunt suspects that something is very wrong - and then O’Rourke goes missing and Judge Hunt gets shot in the back. Savich and Sherlock receive news of the attack as a mysterious note is delivered to Savich at the Hoover Building.

New York Times best seller Stuart Woods returns with a fast-paced thriller, starring Ed Eagle, the take-no-prisoners attorney from Santa Fe Rules and Short Straw.

In the Company of Liars is that rare animal - a truly original thriller, strikingly fresh and unpredictable. Told chronologically in reverse, from its enigmatic end to its brilliant beginning, it's centered around a woman on trial for murder - Allison Pagone, who is caught between competing forces, each represented by someone who may not care if the pressure kills her in the end.

A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey—conservative, white fundamentalist Christians—are charged with her murder.

A wealthy couple is brutally murdered in their kitchen. The only witness, their six-year-old daughter, goes missing. The child’s birth mother is charged with the crime. Small town lawyer Cass Leary takes the case that could rip her family apart. Her sister Vangie stands accused in the double homicide of an affluent Ann Arbor couple. All the physical evidence points to Vangie’s guilt, and Cass knows she’s been keeping secrets. But, is she truly capable of murder?

Lila Dalton has no memory of how she came to be in this courtroom; no memory of how she got to the courthouse at all, or why she’s facing a jury who seems to be waiting for her. The man on trial is accused of mass murder, and she’s his lawyer, but she can’t remember any details of the case. She can’t remember anything… Stranded on an island in the Atlantic Ocean where the most serious crimes are tried, Lila has to prove her client’s innocence if she wants to go home. But how can she solve this case when she’s not sure she can trust anything around her, including her own memory?

Alex Cooper awakens one morning to news of her own brutal murder. Soon, Manhattan's top sex-crimes prosecutor discovers that the actual victim is film star Isabella Lascar, who had sought refuge at Alex's private retreat. Now it is up to Alex to find the killer before another victim surfaces.

Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid is back at work after an attempt on her life and a promotion into the Major Crimes Unit. When the husband of a Portland city judge reports his wife missing, Samantha is assigned the case. She assumes her only job is to make the district attorney look good until the judge turns up. When the police discover evidence of foul play, Samantha finds herself unearthing secrets that were meant to stay hidden.

When Michael Garrick, a young White House lawyer, begins dating the irresistible First Daughter, Nora, he's instantly spellbound, just like everyone else in her world. A world where power is an aphrodisiac, your father is the President, your close friends wear earpieces and carry guns, and everyone watches your every move...

Best-selling author James Grippando is back with another innovative and action-packed thriller featuring the ever-popular Jack Swyteck. Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck guards his own family secrets as closely as anyone, and while his father's two terms as Florida's governor made some family rifts public, things are finally better between the two men. Whenever Harry Swyteck asks for Jack's help, he gets it, and suddenly he needs it more than ever before.

It's the holiday season, but there's little reason for cheer at one of New York's most elite colleges. A respected professor is dead, strangled and dumped in an elevator shaft. Lola Dakota's lifeless fingers clutch a few strands of hair, and a piece of paper in her pocket reads "The Deadhouse". Opportunistic murder seems unlikely as assistant DA Alexandra Cooper uncovers a distressing pattern of betrayal and terror. There's proof that Lola's husband wanted her dead. And why did Lola have a photograph of Charlotte Voight pinned to her office bulletin board?

Cass Leary thought she was done defending shady mobsters. But when the boss calls in a favor, she realizes her debt has yet to be paid. And if she wants to keep her family safe, she must find a way to let a known hit man walk free.... As the ones she loves question her decision, Cass must mount an incredible defense to acquit her ruthless client. With the pressure on, the ace attorney discovers that while Ghost Man is a cold-blooded killer, he's got an even bigger secret to protect. Can Cass secure the right verdict without becoming the next victim?