Legal Crime Fiction

Thaddeus Murfee is 25, single, a lawyer of 18 months, and completely unprepared for the murder case that walks in. While Ermeline was passed out, her date carved his name in her breasts. Heavy, thick letters: V-I-C-T-O-R. The guilty party is found murdered. Or was he guilty? Ermeline is arrested because she had motive and opportunity. She hires Thaddeus, who makes his debut defending his first murder case in this courtroom drama.

Elsa Bradshaw is 18. Despite a tough start - never knowing her father, and barely seeing her mother who’d rather be chasing men - she’s grown up with her grandmother’s values and a desire to build a better life. But will falling for local bad boy Clayton change all that? Pamela Maylett seems to have everything - as wife of local lap-dancing-club owner Jordan, she’s got money, influence and plenty of life’s little luxuries. But is her beautiful home also her prison? She knows her husband is surrounded by women at work - after all, she was dancing when she met him.

When Charlie Blair left Chicago behind—and her old life as Lauren Claybourne—for a gig in the Santa Cruz DA's office, things were supposed to be easier. Or at least nothing that a couple of Xanax and a tumbler of vodka couldn't handle. The plan had been working, until the murder of a local bail bondsman Shelly Hansen. Enter: hotshot prosecutor Erika Lorman, she of the stellar record and unfailing touch with juries, a veritable legend in her own right.

Thaddeus Murfee is pursued by the Mob now that he has helped put a godfather behind bars. He decides to file suit on behalf of certain survivors of the Mob’s latest murder. He is pursued relentlessly and runs west, where he seeks refuge while he pursues his case against a godfather and attempts to take away his toys in hopes that will end their struggle in this legal thriller.

William Benson knows what it's like to be accused of something you didn't do - the fear, the vulnerability and the nightmare of watching your life unravel. Now he speaks on behalf of those who have no voice, defending anyone who claims to be innocent. This time, it's Karmen Naylor, estranged daughter of a south London crime boss, fighting a murder charge and desperate to be believed. But Benson becomes trapped into a grudge match between two rival clans, endangering himself and those he loves.

As husband and wife, Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez couldn't make it work. But as partners in one of San Francisco's most tenacious law firms, Daley and Fernandez make one hell of a team. Judgment Day finds the ex-spouses tackling their most difficult case yet. Called in at the last minute to try to stop the execution of Nathan Fineman, a former mob lawyer convicted of murdering three people in the back room of Chinatown's notorious Golden Dragon Restaurant, Mike and Rosie must race the clock.

Attorney Dani Rollins is bullish in the courtroom - pushing judges and prosecutors to their limits in defense of the innocent. So when she meets Teddy Thorne, a mentally challenged teen accused of selling drugs, Dani knows she’s got this in the bag. She can easily settle the case with a couple of court appearances. But when prosecutors move for an adult felony conviction, Dani suspects Teddy’s being used as a pawn in a sinister game. As the case moves forward, Dani is certain the judge and district attorney’s office have motivations beyond the crime.

A man shoots his young wife to death. He drives to a freeway overpass, gets out, shoots himself, and drops 100 feet to the freeway below, crushing a Toyota Camry. Inside is an elementary school teacher named Jacqueline Dwyer, who dies at the scene. Ty Buchanan is a hotshot lawyer. Jacqueline Dwyer was the woman he was going to marry. Ty goes into a tailspin. And it gets worse when a mysterious man finds him at the funeral and says Jacqueline's death may not have been an accident after all.

Sam Turiff is a loan shark preying on the most vulnerable people in Newcastle. Detective Eric Ward’s investigation runs into a brick wall trying to bring down the callous criminal. No one will give evidence against him. They are frightened what he’ll do to them. Then Kate Geraghty is kidnapped. She is the granddaughter of local tycoon Liam Geraghty, and there’s a link to the loan shark. But who carried out the kidnapping and why? The case soon turns into a murder investigation, and Ward finds himself up against a Northern crime empire.

Mrs. Bentley has been arrested for murder. The evidence is overwhelming: arsenic she extracted from fly papers was in her husband's medicine, his food and his lemonade, and her crimes are being plastered across the newspapers. Even her lawyers believe she is guilty. But Roger Sheringham, the brilliant but outspoken young novelist, is convinced that there is too much evidence against Mrs. Bentley and sets out to prove her innocence.

Mike Daley and ex-wife Rosie Fernandez face new challenges and stare down old demons as they return to work at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office where they had started their careers and their relationship 20 years earlier. Mike and Rosie are now the co-heads of the Felony Division, where they spend more time running the office and supervising younger attorneys than trying cases. That changes quickly when Mike is visited by Melinda Nguyen, whose son, Thomas, is about to go on trial for murder.

In the eighth installment of Scott Pratt's best-selling Joe Dillard Series, Dillard is hired to represent the man driving the pickup. As Dillard delves into the case, he comes to believe his client is not guilty. But who is? Who has been kidnapping and killing judges all over the state of Tennessee? The search for that answer leads Dillard and his friend, Sheriff Leon Bates, down a path so dark and so dangerous to a villain so evil, it will change both Joe and Leon forever—if they manage to survive.

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.

Having abandoned corporate law, David Adams is now the voice of justice for the city of Austin’s vulnerable outcasts. His new client is Parker Barnes, a trembling twelve-year-old runaway and foster-care poster boy arrested for petty theft. Dealt a rough hand in life, he reminds David of his own childhood. This should be a simple, if heartbreakingly familiar, case. Until the FBI muscles in. Parker is also a suspect in the murder of a federal witness. No matter how desperate Parker’s denial, David fears there’s so much more to the kid’s hard-luck story than he’s letting on.

An ambitious Stanford graduate, David Adams has begun a fast-track career at Austin’s most prestigious law firm. It’s a personal victory for the rising superstar - a satisfying reversal from his impoverished and despairing childhood. Now he has the life he’s always wanted: An extravagant salary, a high-rise condo, a luxury SUV, and no limit to how far he can go in the eyes of the top partners.

In Florida, defense attorney Daniel Pike is stunned when his legal files are ransacked and his lover, Maria Morales, disappears. In Oklahoma, semi-retired attorney Ben Kincaid is horrified when his connection to this apparent abduction endangers the people he loves most. Desperate for help, Pike seizes Kincaid and hauls him on a cross-country road trip to discover what happened to Maria…and why a killer is so interested in a California murder case.

Carlos Cruz, San Francisco’s hottest young chef, rose from modest beginnings to getting a James Beard Award for his upscale Mission District eatery El Conquistador. In addition to creating cutting-edge cuisine, the mercurial Cruz has been accused of sexual harassment multiple times. Smart, ambitious, and tenacious, Mercedes “Mercy” Tejada was granted "dreamer" status while studying to become a nurse. The waitress job wasn’t ideal, but the tips paid the bills.

There is no job description and the job isn't advertised anywhere, not even on the Job Board at Georgetown Law. But Thaddeus Murfee just graduated from law school and has $200 left from his student loan. He is so broke he has to borrow his roommate's suit for his first job interview. While he is so desperate to earn rent and food money, he fails to nail down exactly what it is he'll be doing.

Fabrizio Collini is recently retired. He’s a quiet, unassuming man with no indications that he’s capable of hurting anyone. And yet he brutally murders a prominent industrialist in one of Berlin’s most exclusive hotels. Collini ends up in the charge of Caspar Leinen, a rookie defense lawyer eager to launch his career with a not-guilty verdict. As Leinen searches for clues he discovers a personal connection to the victim and unearths a terrible truth at the heart of Germany’s legal system that stretches back to World War II.

A newly minted member of Henley & Hargrove, Pasadena's oldest and snobbiest law firm, Jack MacTaggart is assigned to handle an insurance claim on behalf of socialite Sydney Everett. Hush Puppy, Sydney's champion show horse, has died unexpectedly, and attending veterinarian George Wells confides to Jack that the great horse's death was anything but natural. Jack's investigation leads him into the high-stakes world of professional show jumping and down a path to romance, intrigue, and an old blackmail scheme that further implicates his client.