Legal Suspense

A murder committed in front of a million online viewers. Everyone clicked. Watched. Commented. Shared. No one intervened. Desperate for fame and fortune, there’s never been a get-rich-quick scheme housewife Juliet Clay hasn’t chased. When she finally goes viral selling diet shakes, she figures all her dreams have come true. But when her husband ends up dead from poison, Juliet’s dreams become a nightmare and she’s the prime murder suspect. A sucker for lost causes, Defense Attorney Cass Leary takes the case to pay forward a favor she owes.

Judge Scott Sampson doesn’t brag about having a perfect life, but the evidence is clear: A prestigious job. A loving marriage. A pair of healthy children. Then a phone call begins every parent’s most chilling nightmare. Scott’s six-year-old twins, Sam and Emma, have been taken. The judge must rule exactly as instructed in a drug case he is about to hear. If he refuses, the consequences for the children will be dire.

Assistant District Attorney Lettie Portman charges a US senator with the murder of his wife. The wife was found dead, sitting in her Mercedes with a garden hose from the exhaust into her window. Suicide? Maybe, except the detectives learn the wife's fingerprints are nowhere on the hose. She appears to reach from the grave and point an accusing finger at her husband. And there's another twist: The senator's million-dollar lawyer is involved in a deadly conspiracy against Lettie.

Audrey Spencer has landed her dream job as a Deputy District Attorney and is settling into the career change when the daughter of District Attorney Gregory Pope is found stabbed to death in a nearby park.

Alex Vogel has always been a high achiever who lived her life by the book - star student and athlete in high school, prelaw whiz in college, Harvard Law School degree. Accepting a dream offer at the prestigious Manhattan law firm of Klasko & Fitch, she promises her sweet and supportive longtime boyfriend that the job won’t change her. Yet Alex is seduced by the firm’s money and energy....

A beautiful woman paid it with her body. A seedy lawyer used somebody else's money. It's the vig - the exorbitant interest mob loan sharks take on their money. Now, in the city by the Bay, everyone has to pay.

In San Francisco's seamy Tenderloin district, a teenage street hustler has been murdered in a shelter for boys. And the dedicated priest who runs the struggling home stands accused. But despite damning evidence that he's a killer—and worse—Father Thomas Martin stands by his innocence. And attorney Peter Donley stands with him.

Appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Eastern European crime, Josie Bates testifies passionately about the brutal Albanian blood feud that has sent Hannah into hiding with Billy Zuni and Archer on a quest to find them. While Senator Patriota, the man sure to be the next president of the United States, promises his patronage, Josie isn't convinced he was even listening - but someone was.

Teen pop star Brittany Crutcher is found dead in small-town Tennessee. For attorney Bocephus Haynes, it’s just another night in Pulaski. Bo swore off criminal work after his last case, but the beloved singer’s murder demands answers. The prime suspect is local high school football hero and the victim’s boyfriend, Odell Champagne. However, this fallen athlete is one of Bo’s son’s best friends. Bo knows this young man and does not believe him capable of the crime. When Odell is charged with murder, Bo reluctantly takes the case, sparking outrage throughout the town.

After a fallout with his business partner and a breakup with his girlfriend, lawyer Sam Johnstone thinks a long vacation might be just what the doctor ordered. Before he can quit town, Sam gets a call from Lucy Beretta, the wife of the missing local college president. With a shocking accusation against an acquaintance and a plea for protection, Lucy derails Sam's plans for a quiet escape. But when her alleged attacker turns up dead, Lucy is charged with his murder - and Sam is appointed to represent her.

Questa non sarà un’autopsia di routine. L’anatomopatologa Maura Isles ne è certa. Ad attenderla, all’ospedale, c’è lei: Madame X, coperta interamente da bende di lino impregnate di resina, che risalgono a duemila anni prima. I suoi organi interni sono stati asportati, solo il cuore è rimasto al suo posto, perché è lì che gli antichi egizi credevano risiedesse l’intelligenza. Madame X infatti è una mummia, ritrovata per caso negli scantinati di un museo. Quando la TAC arriva alle gambe, Maura scorge qualcosa di impossibile.

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....

McMurtrie’s old nemesis, Jack Willistone, is found dead on the banks of the Black Warrior River. Willistone had his share of enemies, but all evidence points to a forgotten, broken woman as the killer. At the urging of the suspect’s desperate fourteen-year-old daughter, McMurtrie agrees to take the case.

Despite what the old children's rhyme says, words can cause grievous harm. It’s a lesson ex-con Hollis Morgan, a casualty of her deceased ex-husband’s white-collar crimes, knows all too well. Now that she has received an official pardon, she’s free to pursue her dreams of moving up in the world from paralegal to attorney. While awaiting the results of the bar exam, she hopes to clear the name of a friend accused of libel by philanthropist Dorian Fields, a man whose charitable giving looks a lot like money-laundering.

Has Rumpole hung up his wig for good? Can it be? Yes, the beloved barrister is now retired (though far from retiring) and gently ripening to a rosy hue in the Florida sunshine. But a colleague's casual request for advice on a difficult case sends him winging back across the Atlantic, and before he's through, our hero will come up against a fanatical religious cult and a mysterious letter written in blood.

“You learn early that you don’t get to prove your case with Boy Scouts and nuns. Yes, convicted felons will say anything to get out of jail, but they also know a lot.” Plea bargains may grease the rails of justice, but for Jamie Brock, prosecuting criminals is not about cutting deals.

When a new client who's been accused of murder - and who bears an astonishing resemblance to Bennie Rosato - asks the crusading criminal defense attorney to take her case, Bennie finds herself entangled in a sticky web of murder, corruption, and violence that threatens to reveal the shocking truth about her own past. If you haven't listened to Lisa Scottoline before, Mistaken Identity will prove to you what her many fans already know: Nobody does it better!

A decorated war hero, Ty Chapman has built his dream life in the quiet lakeside community of Delphi, Michigan. He has a beautiful wife. A baby on the way. Everything to live for. He’s the last person anyone would suspect of beating a local handyman to death behind a seedy motel. But when two credible witnesses see him running from the crime scene, hands bloodied, the police believe they have him cold. There has to be a reason for the killing. But the prime suspect won’t talk. Not even to his lawyer.

When a brilliant billionaire is diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, he realizes that all his considerable wealth cannot prepare him to meet his Maker. But he has an idea that might: he will stage the ultimate reality show. With his true agenda hidden, he auditions followers from all the world's major religions, inviting them to the trial of their lives on a remote island, where they must defend their beliefs against spiritual challenges. Oliver Finney, a feisty old judge with his own secrets, is chosen to defend Christianity. As the program takes a strange twist, he realizes he is trapped in a game of deadly agendas that may cost him his life.

In Dark Lady, Richard North Patterson displays the mastery of setting, psychology, and story that makes him unique among writers of suspense, and one of today's most original and enthralling novelists.