Legal Mystery Suspense

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.

Who killed Philip Rease? Peter Kent was known to be a sleepwalker and a bloodstained knife was found under his pillow. There were people who would like to see Peter Kent out of the way, but would they frame him for murder? And would that explain the reason for Rease's death? It was another case full of traps for Perry Mason.

After catching his shady son-in-law, Jack Hardisty, in the act of embezzling, wealthy banker Vincente Blane plans to hang him out to dry. Then murder turns Blane's restful mountain retreat into Hardisty's final resting place. When the evidence points to wronged wife Millicent, her father makes a point of calling in Perry Mason. And it's up to the legendary legal eagle to unravel the case's most baffling mystery: a buried clock at the murder scene.

Two years ago, Darren Street made a name for himself as the man who rooted out corruption in the district attorney's office. Now the hotheaded young lawyer is in the public eye yet again - this time, accused of murder. Jalen Jordan retained Street for what seemed to be a minor traffic violation, but when evidence turned up linking Jordan to the death of two boys, Street wanted out of the case.

Jackson Rivers has always bucked the rules—and bucking the rules of recovery is no exception. Now that he and Ellery are starting their own law firm, there’s no reason he can’t rush into trouble and take the same risks as always, right? Maybe not. Their first case is a doozy, involving porn stars, drug empires, and daddy issues, and their client, Henry Worrall, wants to be an active participant in his own defense.

Wealthy businessman Hartley Bassett has killed himself. There's a typewritten suicide note and three guns lying near his body. But for Perry Mason, that's evidence overkill. He knows there has been trouble in Bassett's life. His wife wants out, his stepson hates him, an embezzler can't pay him back - and there's the man with a glass eye who hired Perry Mason even before his glass eye went missing and was found in the hands of the deceased.

When a diplomatic delegation from Bhashyistan is blown sky-high on Bronson Avenue, the shares of a Calgary-based oil company promptly drop like a stone. In no time at all, Arthur Beauchamp is tangled up with wily civil servants, gung-ho cabinet members, recently released eco-terrorists, and possibly the most incompetent spy since Mata Hari.

Hours after 22-year-old Brett Allen finds her boyfriend brutally slain, she finds herself in police custody, the prime suspect. Her aunt, Caroline Masters, is summoned to act as her defense attorney. The result is a painful meeting with Brett, whom Caroline has not seen since infancy, and a confrontation with 3 people from whom she is deeply estranged: her first lover who is now the prosecutor, her half-sister, and most difficult of all, her domineering father. The story moves quickly now, opening into the police investigation and the courtroom. Yet the truths about herself and her family that Caroline ultimately uncovers are painful beyond the deepest doubts and shocking beyond the deepest fears that haunt her adult life - and make up the explosive core of the author's most powerful novel to date.

A cold-blooded kidnapper has been playing a twisted game with a terrified Minnesota town. Now a respected member of the community stands accused of a chilling act of evil. But when a second boy disappears, a frightened public demands to know: Have the police caught the wrong man? Is the nightmare continuing...or just beginning?

What if the deadliest train wreck in the nation's history was no accident? When a passenger train derails in North Philadelphia with fatal results, idealistic criminal defense attorney Vaughn Coburn takes on the most personal case of his young career. The surviving engineer is his cousin Eddy, and when Eddy asks Vaughn to defend him, he can't help but accept. Vaughn has a debt to repay, for he and his cousin share an old secret—one that changed both their lives forever.

A brutal murder, missing documents and an unscrupulous opposing counsel lead attorney Vernetta Henderson on a quest for justice - and ultimately, revenge. The hotshot L.A. lawyer takes on a corporation with a long history of discriminating against women. While Vernetta simply wants justice for her clients, the corporation's hired gun wants to win...and she doesn't care how. On the home front, Vernetta's infamous sidekick, Special, has finally found true love. But is the price more than she's willing to pay?

David Wolfe's life is approaching an exhilarating peak: he's a successful San Francisco lawyer, he's about to get married, and he's being primed for a run for Congress. But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif—the Palestinian woman with whom he had a secret affair in law school—he begins a completely unexpected journey. The next day, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber while visiting San Francisco; soon, Hana herself is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder. Now David faces an agonizing choice.

Melanie grew up with the constant upheaval of foster care. Now that she's survived into adulthood - with a loving husband, a steady job, and a baby boy named Alex - she thought that turmoil was behind her. Until one Tuesday evening when she discovers Alex has been removed by Social Services. And no one will say why. It's a terrifying scenario for any parent, but doubly so for Melanie, who knows the unintended horrors of what everyone coldly calls "the system".

When Dismas Hardy agrees to clean up the caseload of recently disappeared attorney Charlie Bowen, he thinks it will be easy. But one of the cases is far from small-time - the appeal to overturn the murder conviction of National Guard reservist Evan Scholler, who has been sentenced to life without parole for the murder of an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Two rapid-fire events in Iraq conspired to bring the men into fatal conflict.

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.

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.

Change never comes easy, but it comes just the same, and it's on its way to the Park, to Niniltna, in southeast Alaska. This time it concerns the possibility of drilling for oil in a wildlife preserve near there, near Aleutian P.I. Kate Shugak's home territory. Battle lines are drawn across their community, but at least it gives Kate something to do. Still just months after her lover's violent death, though she doesn't know quite how, she is trying to get back into her daily life.

The McCarrans and the Gallaghers, two military families, have been close for decades, ever since Anthony McCarran—now one of the army's most distinguished generals—became best friends with Jack Gallagher, a fellow West Pointer who was later killed in Vietnam. Now a new generation of soldiers faces combat, and Lt. Brian McCarran, the general's son, has returned from a harrowing tour in Iraq. Traumatized by wartime experiences he will not reveal, Brian depends on his lifelong friendship with Kate Gallagher, Jack's daughter, who is married to Brian's commanding officer in Iraq.

A criminal court judge is found hanging from a tree. A young employee of the district attorney's office goes missing. In the third book of the best-selling Joe Dillard series, Dillard finds himself in the middle of two volatile mysteries. The primary suspect in the judge's murder is Dillard's son's best friend, and Dillard's wife may have destroyed evidence. Meanwhile, the missing girl turns out to be a mystery far deeper than anyone imagined....

Lou Welcome, from Palmer's bestselling Oath of Office, is back in this heart stopping medical thriller. A desperate phone call embroils Lou in scandal and murder involving Dr. Gary McHugh, known around the Capital as the "society doc." Lou has been supervising McHugh, formerly a black-out drinker, through his work with the Physician Wellness Office. McHugh has been very cavalier about his recovery, barely attending AA and refusing a sponsor. But Lou sees progress, and the two men are becoming friends.