Legal Mystery

When racial tension erupts in the sleepy community of Colleton County, North Carolina, Deborah is caught off guard. She is happily tending her own home fires: her simmering romance with Kidd Chapin, the house she's building on her family's land, and her campaign for reelection as district judge. But then the first black church is burned, and all of Deborah's alarms go off.

An influential shipping firm, Goldwaters, pays Eric Ward a large retainer to work for them, much to his surprise. Then one of the Goldwaters fleet, the Sierra Nova, is “arrested” and is unable to leave port. The reason? A crew member, Edwards, has been caught in possession of drugs and is accused of smuggling—but now he’s been removed from the ship, why can’t the voyage go ahead? Then Edwards is murdered on his way to the courtroom. Ward soon finds himself sinking into the dangerous world of international conspiracy and modern-day piracy.

Nate Shepherd can’t tell if his client is lying. The police say Nate’s client beat a young reporter to death during a break-in. They have the evidence to prove it, from the stolen goods right down to the bloody aluminum bat. A celebrated prosecutor takes over the case, aiming to convict Nate’s client of murdering the reporter while robbing his house. Nate’s client swears he didn’t kill the man. So, helped by a new associate and old friends, Nate dives into the overwhelming evidence in search of a defense. With each new lead, Nate’s suspicions grow that there might be more to this crime.

Brash, brilliant, handsome Nicholas Deketomis has built a highly successful career as a lawyer, protecting the rights of the innocent while winning multibillion-dollar lawsuits from the powers that be. "Deke" may have come from the wrong side of the tracks, but he's built a wonderful life for his close-knit family. His wife and two children live in a beautiful house in a seaside community along the Florida Panhandle. But their comfortable life is endangered.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has a skill, and a soft spot, for tackling unsolved crimes. Having lost her own sister to murder at a young age, Tracy has dedicated her career to bringing justice and closure to the families and friends of victims of crime. So when Jenny, a former police academy classmate and protégé, asks Tracy to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl forty years earlier, Tracy agrees.

Attorney Nate Shepherd doesn’t want to take on an attempted murder case. But when people he trusts ask him to get involved, Nate agrees to represent the hard-working farmer who’s been accused of trying to kill his brother’s fiancée. By the time Nate steps in, law enforcement has already gathered a mass of evidence to bury his client. With the help of a diligent associate, a dogged investigator, and a dangerous bail bondsman, Nate unearths a web of money and motives that only raises more questions.

A gripping, poignant, and masterful courtroom novel, The Best Defense is a major work from one of America's most popular writers.

When a preacher with a message of hope for the homeless is found brutally executed, reporter Cindy Thomas knows the story could be huge. Probing deeper into the victim's history, she discovers he may not have been as saintly as everyone thought...

In this bestselling debut, criminal defense lawyer Joe Dillard has become jaded over the years as he's tried to balance his career against his conscience. Savvy but cynical, Dillard wants to quit doing criminal defense, but he can't resist the chance to represent someone who might actually be innocent. His drug-addicted sister has just been released from prison and his mother is succumbing to Alzheimer's, but Dillard's commitment to the case never wavers despite the personal troubles and professional demands that threaten to destroy him.

Tessa Ensler loves her job. She’s worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds, and fights to defend those pleading not guilty. Tessa believes in the law, believes in the system. Her quick-witted cross-examinations and intelligence in the courtroom see her clocking up win after win—including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocence until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of a civilized society.

FBI Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar track Reacher's past in Tampa where they team up with Judge Willa Carson, investigative journalist Jessica Kimball, and attorney Jennifer Lane. When Retired Army Colonel Thomas Weston returns to MacDill Air Force Base for a public event after 16 years, he's an easy target for his enemies, including Jack Reacher.

Retired lawyer Andy Carpenter has run the Tara Foundation—the dog rescue organization named after his beloved golden retriever—for years. It's always been his calling, even as Andy's pulled into representing clients in court. His investigator, Marcus Clark, has been at Andy's side for a long time. Even though they've known each other for years, Marcus keeps his personal life a mystery. So it’s a shock when Marcus arrives at the Tara Foundation with two strangers in tow.

John Grisham returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, A Time to Kill. This wholly surprising collection of stories reminds us once again why Grisham is America's favorite storyteller.

The murder of a woman from one of the town's oldest families has Rosedale's upper crust howling for blood, and the prosecutor is counting on Ruby's inexperience to help him deliver a swift conviction. Ruby's client is a college football star who has returned home after a career-ending injury, and she is determined to build a defense that will stick. She finds help in unexpected quarters from Suzanne, a hard-charging attorney armed to the teeth, and Shorty, a diner cook who knows more than he lets on.

Arthur Beauchamp takes a break from the courtroom to write a memoir so he can set the record straight about a headline murder case he fought as a young lawyer in 1966. The trial would either mark him as a pathetic loser or thrust him into the top ranks of criminal counsel. The background: in 1966, a young housemaid was raped by her employer, a callous and vindictive millionaire. She shot him point blank, so it seemed an open-and-shut case of first-degree murder. Enter Arthur Beauchamp, a young lawyer haunted by having bungled his only previous murder case.

Daniel Miller murdered fourteen people before he vanished. His wife, Carrie, now faces trial as his accomplice. The FBI, the District Attorney, the media and everyone in America believe she knew and helped cover up her husband's crimes. Eddie Flynn won't take a case unless his client is innocent. Now, he has to prove to a jury, and the entire world, that Carrie Miller didn't know her husband's dark side. But so far, Eddie and his team are the only ones who believe that she had no part in the murders.

Set in the era of the Nixon and Reagan presidencies, this novel examines the American conscience while inviting us into the glittering world of the East Coast legal community. Stephen L. Carter's book follows black Ivy League law professor Talcott Garland as he investigates the death of his father, Judge Oliver Garland, the eponymous "Emperor."

Last seen in 1997's Flesh & Bones, Jake Lassiter is a hero unlike any other in the courtroom. Booklist called him "one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction." The former Miami Dolphin is still swimming with sharks in his latest, boldest novel of suspense yet. Amy Larkin is in town, looking for her sister Krista, who vanished without a trace almost two decades earlier. She seeks out Lassiter because he's the last person to have seen her alive.

Northern New Jersey has a new local hero on its cultural crime turf. He's Andy Carpenter, the Paterson defense attorney who can sling a quip as fast as he can outmaneuver a snarling prosecutor. Acclaimed author David Rosenfelt's first novel was nominated for an Edgar Award. Now, in this new novel, the intrepid lawyer is thrust into the spotlight where he risks becoming a media victim...of the most fatal kind.

Detective Lindsay Boxer's long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby is nowhere to be found. Lindsay discovers that not only is there no trace of the criminals - but that the victim may be keeping secrets as well.