Legal Mystery

Kansas City attorney Josephina Jillian Jones, 3J to her friends, has dealt with people perpetrating online disinformation, white supremacists, and clients hiding assets, so when a couple who heads up a company that builds inner city housing for marginalized communities comes to her for legal help because their longtime banking partner has shut off their funding, the case appears at first blush to be tame by comparison. But when the bank president disappears and his greed-driven brother seems the likely culprit, things heat up.

New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss is tired of petty criminals, and a new job at a glitzy Los Angeles law firm seems the perfect career move. Putting 3,000 miles between her and her ex-boyfriend is just an added bonus. But on Sandy's first morning as a family attorney, she inadvertently kills her new career stone dead when she offends her boss during a meeting with the firm's top celebrity client, charismatic TV star Patrick McNabb. But that's not as dead as Patrick's soon-to-be ex-wife is that evening when she's discovered shot by an arrow, her husband standing over her.

An uncomfortable weekend awaits LA family lawyer Sandy Moss when she makes her way to her hometown in New Jersey for the wedding of her cousin Stephanie, sweetly nicknamed Skinny. Uncomfortable, because Sandy is not really looking forward to seeing her family, but at least her boyfriend, Hollywood movie star Patrick McNabb, is by her side.

While settling into her new home in Los Angeles together with her boyfriend and TV star Patrick McNabb, attorney Sandy Moss receives a phone call from the LA Men's Detention Center. It's a new client accused of murder: the near-stoic Lt. K. C. Trench! Being good at his job but not well-liked in his department, Trench is accused of killing a fellow LA police officer whom he openly despised and threatened. With the odds against her, Sandy takes on the case of her sometime nemesis/sometime ally. She is certain that Trench can't be the killer.

Marc Kadella is back and he has a new client. His antagonist on the Hennepin County bench, Judge Gordon Prentiss, has been accused of a murder. Despite his lack of respect for Marc, Prentiss wants him to represent him because he is innocent and knows Marc will fight hard for him. Marc's initial reaction is to let Prentiss have whatever he gets, but he becomes convinced that the judge is in fact innocent so he agrees to take the case.

A young, single mother, a widow, meets a nice young man and begins dating him. Just when she starts to believe she may have found a father for her two year old daughter, the boyfriend and her child disappear in the middle of the night. The police are brought in and when it becomes obvious to them that the boyfriend, who has not been seen by any of the girl's friends, family or coworkers, is a lie, they begin to suspect her.

A serial killer is on the loose in Minneapolis and the head of the investigation, Minneapolis police Lt. Jake Waschke, is feeling the pressure to find him. To make matters worse, the killer strikes again, this time across the river in St. Paul, and his victim is the daughter of a prominent politician. Just when the investigation seems to be going nowhere, the police catch a break when the killer strikes yet again.

It's tough enough defending innocent people, but attorney Peter Sharp's new client has a reputation for disliking any person of color, and is then arrested with a smoking gun, standing over the body of a dead black man he had recently been seen arguing with.

When Broker Assistant Kathy Jenkins overhears a suspicious conversation between her boss and an unknown person, she's thrust into a dangerous situation, leading to her wrongful termination. Hiring Scott Winslow, Kathy aims to expose the wrongdoing, while Lee Henry's unconventional investigation uncovers a network of seasoned brokers dealing in non-public information without a paper trail.

When Riley Schoenberg strides into family lawyer Sandy Moss’s office without knocking and coolly sits down, Sandy’s more irritated than amused. She has a client meeting to prepare for, and being interrupted by an eleven-year-old girl is not on her to-do list. But then Sandy hears Riley’s pitch, and it’s a killer one: Riley’s father’s been convicted of murdering her mother…and the oddly intimidating pre-teen will do anything to get him out of jail.

The Court appoints attorney Peter Sharp to defend a man accused of capital murder, but there are just a few things that might make this defense a little more difficult than others, because the client's crime was captured on security cameras, he freely confessed to the crime, he wants to plead guilty at his arraignment, and he refuses to talk to Peter Sharp, the attorney whose appointment he agreed to...but aside from those minor problems, it's just another criminal defense case where Sharp must avoid being humiliated in court by his ex-wife....

The last person family lawyer Sandy Moss expects to walk into her courtroom, right in the middle of a trial, is TV star Patrick McNabb: prime suspect in her first (and she hopes, last) murder case. Sandy knows what Patrick’s like. Friendly, overconfident, dazzlingly handsome...and a well-meaning menace. But his request seems harmless enough. His dear friend Cynthia is getting divorced, and he thinks Sandy’s perfect for the job. She accepts—because he’s Patrick and there is no denying him. But of course it’s not that simple.

Former New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss moved to a prestigious Los Angeles law firm to make a new start as a family lawyer. So it seems a little unfair that Seaton, Taylor have created a criminal law division specifically for her. Just because she's successfully defended two murder trials, it doesn't mean she likes them! But when abrasive Hollywood movie director Robert Reeves is accused of murdering a stuntman on set, Sandy finds she can't say no when he demands her help. Robert might be an egotistical liar, but something tells Sandy he's innocent—even if no one else can see it.

A woman Marc Kadella has known since junior high school has returned to the Twin Cities after a 20-year absence. Unknown to Marc, she has left a trail of dead husbands and destroyed families in her wake. Wealthy, successful families that she has left almost impoverished while using her charms on the older husbands to inherit everything upon their deaths. Her most recent conquest was the founder of a well-known, successful, St. Paul based grocery store chain, Sutherland's.

When two executives in the pharmaceutical industry step forward to complain the drug test results being published are not accurate, they don’t expect to be fired; and they don’t expect anyone to be stalked, beaten, or killed. They have no idea what they will be up against for revealing a secret that will cost their employer billions of dollars.

Attorney Scott Winslow and CIA agent-turned-investigator Lee Henry are back with another extraordinary case. Scott must prove that a powerful company CEO raped his subordinate, Sarah Willis, on a business trip. Investigator Lee Henry employs his CIA background, and unorthodox practices, to chase evidence and help Scott prosecute the case. While Scott goes all in on the case, Lee reaches behind opaque curtains to search for clues. But can they piece it all together and win the case?

Attorney Kali O'Brien returns to her hometown of Silver Creek, where her childhood friend Jannine is the prime suspect in the murder of her husband. Kali is convinced Jannine innocent until the evidence begins to mount. Secrets past and present confound Kali's investigation. This is the first in the Kali O'Brien series of legal mysteries.

A reoccurring murder, a 30-year-old disappearance, and past and present crimes colliding! Attorney Sabre Brown faces her most puzzling case yet when her young client, Maverick, insists he witnessed a brutal murder—despite the absence of a body and any evidence at the crime scene. While the police dismiss Maverick's claims, Sabre takes him seriously, until he reports seeing the same crime again.

There are many types of mysteries, but one specific group stands apart from all the others: those involving a locked room in which a dead body is found...a room that would have been impossible for any person to have entered, committed the murder, and left - because of locked doors, locked windows, or other security devices making the entry and exit impossible.

In An Element of Peril, the 10th Peter Sharp legal mystery, Peter faces a unique triple task: First, he must defend a domestic servant who has been charged with the chainsaw-killing of her boss; second, if he can get the servant acquitted, he must then defend the insurance company from being forced to pay a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on the boss's life by proving that she was not murdered and is still alive; and third, he must discover how the alleged corpse of the servant's boss disappeared.