Legal Crime Fiction

Originally published by Pocket Books as Court of Honor, this classic by Wood - the basis for the 1995 film Broken Trust starring Tom Selleck - is is the story of a sitting judge who finds himself in a dangerous position when he participates in a sting operation investigating fellow judges on the take.

Joe Parker is Manchester's most ingenious criminal defence lawyer. Sam Parker is Manchester's most tenacious homicide detective. Both bear the burden of the unsolved murder of their sister fifteen years earlier. And both have a stake in a new series of murders that has shaken their city to its core. Ronnie Bagley is locked up and facing trial for the murder of his girlfriend and baby and there's only one lawyer he wants to defend him: Joe Parker.

Stan's bankruptcy client, Maureen Thompson, is accused of her husband's murder. Her alleged motive is the proceeds of a large insurance policy on her husband's life that would cure her financial woes. Stan assigns the case to his partner, Paula Waters, who at first is excited about getting a new high-profile murder case but her excitement is soon dampened when she learns this isn't the first of Maureen Thompson's husbands to be hacked to death with an ice pick!

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.

Courting Death finds Melanie Wilkerson (from Cotton, book two of the Clarkeston Chronicles) and Arthur Hughes working uncomfortably together in the chambers of a famous federal judge. While Melanie neglects her duties as a law clerk to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman in the courthouse five years earlier, Arthur wades through the horrific habeas corpus appeals of two prisoners: an infamous serial killer and a pathetic child murderer.

Ry Slaight was a rebellious cadet who almost destroyed West Point when he exposed and solved the murder of a gay cadet in 1969. Now, nearly three decades later, Slaight's been promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy. When a female cadet dies during parade, an autopsy establishes that she had sex with multiple partners the night before. Was she the victim of a gang rape? Was there a cadet orgy? Don't ask. Don't tell.

Cooper Dixon should have it made, with a beautiful wife, Kelly, two great kids, and a thriving business, the Tower Agency. But for Cooper, things aren’t turning out how he expected. He and Kelly are caught in a never-ending cycle of arguments - Cooper can’t remember the last time they had sex. And Cooper’s troubled business partner, Gates Ballenger, is scheming to sell the Tower Agency out from under him. When a gang of criminals is hired by a mysterious client to kidnap Kelly and set up Cooper to take the fall, Cooper’s life goes completely off the rails.

Cal Claxton is determined to reinvent himself as a small-town lawyer in the aftermath of his wife's suicide. Once a hard-charging Los Angeles prosecutor, he nowlives in solitude in an old farmhouse overlooking Oregon's wine country. When a scruffy, tattooed kid shows up asking for help in solving a cold case - that of his mother's murder - Cal wants to say no. Times are tough, and he's no private eye, anyway. But the kid, who calls himself Picasso, has ridden a bicycle in the rain all the way from Portland, and something about his determination touches Cal.

He's a serial killer. A murderer of young women, all killed in brutal attacks. But despite Hamish Wolfe's conviction, he's always stuck to his story - he's innocent, and he's been wrongly imprisoned. And now he wants someone to investigate and, more importantly, to write his story. Maggie Rose is a notorious defense attorney and writer whose specialty is getting convictions overturned. At first Maggie is reluctant to even acknowledge Hamish's requests to meet, ignoring his letters. But this is a very charismatic and persuasive man, good looking and intelligent.

Trial lawyer Eddie Terrell's professional life is prospering. His personal life is a dumpster fire. Usually racing to the prize fight, Eddie comes to the realization that he needs to beat a hasty retreat from the enticing flames and recalibrate on his own impulsive and subjective terms. Wishing to expand his professional interests by accomplishing something on the darker side, Eddie decides to head an investment scheme with a promising payoff. Of course, there are risks that must be navigated, risks that might require dangerously effective actions.

Common Pleas: A Tale of Whoa! is a legal thriller dripping in humor set in rural North Carolina in the mid-1980s. If John Grisham, Harper Lee, and Larry the Cable Guy were penned for a weekend in a cabin with nothing but a typewriter and an ample supply of bourbon, wine, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, something like this might result. Listen as the Good, the Bad, and the Butt Ugly collide in this riotous journey to a rural North Carolina courtroom ending in a verdict of local justice.

A 15-year-old schoolboy is accused of the brutal murder of one of his teachers. His lawyers - the guarded veteran, Judith, and the energetic young solicitor, Constance - begin a desperate pursuit of the truth, revealing uncomfortable secrets about the teacher and the school. But Judith has her own secrets which she risks exposing when it is announced that a new lie-detecting device, nicknamed Pinocchio, will be used during the trial. And is the accused, a troubled boy who loves challenges, trying to help them or not?

Innocent people are dying. Mark Solier is a devoutly religious man, and he is arrested for killing them with just his mind. Mary Morgan is a young, ambitious, soon-to-be lawyer who makes a case for him to be tried for murder. An equally ambitious secret group, born at Yale and solidified through the Skull and Bones, conclude the facts to be true.

Everyone needs to be heard: If there’s one thing Sam Williams has learned, it’s that. Which is why he finds himself defending Richard Fothergill against accusations that date back decades. But Sam’s real problems are closer to home. His nemesis, Trawden, is finally dead, but so are those he once called friends. The people he used to count on, the ones who aren’t in the ground, aren’t what they once were, either.

Renowned human rights lawyer Elizabeth Maurier lies dead, her body mutilated, her killer unknown. For DI Olivia Martins and her team, it’s a mystery. For the victim’s daughter Lizzy, a poet and academic with a shaky grasp on reality, it’s a tragedy. But for Sam Williams, the man Elizabeth fired a decade ago and hasn’t spoken to since, it’s a whole new world of pain.

One freezing December night, the body of young, vulnerable Lizzie Barnsley is found on the side of an isolated canal. When blood from her stiletto heel matches that on a wound on the head of Peter Box, police swiftly declare him the prime suspect in her murder. Criminal lawyer Dan Grant is called in to provide Peter Box’s legal defense, along with investigator Jayne Brett. They need answers from Box - but he’s not talking.

An authentic Stradivarius violin turns up in Romania. A Stradivarius is rare enough, but this one is even more special. It is thought to hold the code disclosing the location of a treasure hidden in the 15th century. The violin is steeped in haunting mystique: It is believed to have been hidden by Vlad Dracula, whose historic tyranny led to the fabrication of the myth of vampirism. Russian, Chinese, and Romanian gangs centered in Boston want the code and all of them are hot on the trail.

University is supposed to be the best time of your life. But Imo’s first week is quickly going from bad to worse. A stalker is watching her flat, following her every move, and Imo suspects that her new roommates are hiding dark secrets. When one of them suddenly disappears, the trauma of Imo’s recent past comes hurtling back to haunt her. And she begins to realise just how little she knows about the people she lives with....

Vivian is a cosmopolitan Taiwanese-American tourist who often escapes her busy life in London through adventure and travel. Johnny is a 15-year-old Irish teenager living a neglected life on the margins of society. He has grown up in a family where crime is customary, violence is a necessity, and everything - and anyone - can be yours for the taking. As Vivian looks to find her calling professionally, she delights in exploring foreign countries, rolling hillsides, and new cultures. But all of that changes when...Vivian's path collides with Johnny.

Once the brightest star in the legal firmament, Sam Williams has hit rock bottom, with barely a client to his name and a short-term cash problem that's looking longer by the minute. So when he's summoned to Manchester to help a friend crack a case involving the murder of two unarmed police officers and a suspect who won't say a word, he jumps at the chance to resurrect his career.