Legal Thriller Crime Fiction

In the dead of night, Josie Bates is ripped from sleep by the sounds of an epic storm raging over Hermosa Beach and a man beating on her door begging her to help Billy Zuni who is drowning in the raging sea. She arrives at the shore just in time to see the teenager pulled from the water, battered and near death. Ready to kill Billy's selfish, neglectful mother, Josie rushes to the Zuni house only to find someone has beaten her to it. Two men lie dead downstairs and Billy's mother clings to life on the floor above.

Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense.

In the ninth installment of New York Times best-selling author Sheldon Siegel's iconic San Francisco series, ex-spouses Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez have come a long way from their days as small-time defense attorneys. No longer working in a converted martial arts studio on the earthy side of Mission Street. Rosie is now San Francisco's Public Defender, and Mike is the head of the Felony Division. Their daughter is in college. Their son is in middle school. For the first time in years, there is a semblance of order in their lives. It doesn't last long.

Fate throws a curveball at the San Francisco ex-husband-and-wife legal team of Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, when Mike picks up the phone and hears the voice of Leon Walker. This is not good news - Walker was the one who ruined their marriage. Years ago, he and his brother participated in a stickup that left a man dead. Through a series of (some said) questionable maneuvers, Mike got the charges dropped, but he and Rosie fought about it all the time, and it finally drove a wedge between them.

Tatum Knight is a former contract killer. And he's Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swytek's newest client. Tatum is the older brother of Jack's best friend, Theo. Theo himself spent time on death row until Jack found the evidence to prove him innocent. Jack isn't so sure about Tatum.

Dawn. The English Channel. A small boat arrives crammed with exhausted migrants, not all of whom will make land. Some of the shattered occupants have already paid for their journeys. Others have arrived with a debt still to be paid. One of the migrants isn't fleeing anything. He's not from Europe, or Africa, or the East. He's from Texas, and he's wearing a robe. When the traffickers take some of their passengers to pay for their journey, they also take the man in the robe. That was their first mistake.

A young exotic dancer claims she was sexually assaulted at a party thrown by a university football team. Three players are accused. In the ninth installment of the best-selling Joe Dillard series, Dillard finds himself defending one of the players accused of assaulting the young woman. The case receives national attention, quickly escalating into a platform for deep-seeded division and hatred. It also ensnares Dillard, along with his son, Jack, and Charleston Story into a web of lies and deceit spun by a mysterious figure with a hidden agenda.

The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and moving human drama set against a backdrop of relentless suspense, legal complexity and moral ambiguity. Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of The 13th Juror, returns here in his most challenging case.

It’s the most sensational case of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a 25-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. The subsequent trial taps straight into America’s most pressing preoccupations: race, class, sex, law enforcement, and the lurid sins of the rich and famous.

When it comes to swimming with the sharks, there is no bigger kahuna than Serge Storms. Bingeing on a marathon of legal movies set in Florida, Serge finds his vocation: the law. Never mind law school or that degree; Serge becomes a freelance fixer - wildcat paralegal and pilgrim to the hallowed places where legal classics of the big screen such as Body Heat, Cool Hand Luke, and Absence of Malice were filmed practically in his own backyard.

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.

Darren Street faces the most personal and ruthless vendetta of his life. After forfeiting years serving time for a false murder conviction, former criminal defense attorney Darren Street finally got his freedom back and is trying to build a regular life. But when an unthinkable tragedy shatters his hard-earned normalcy, Street is left reeling from the devastating blow.

A wealthy couple is brutally murdered in their kitchen. The only witness, their six-year-old daughter, goes missing. The child’s birth mother is charged with the crime. Small town lawyer Cass Leary takes the case that could rip her family apart. Her sister Vangie stands accused in the double homicide of an affluent Ann Arbor couple. All the physical evidence points to Vangie’s guilt, and Cass knows she’s been keeping secrets. But, is she truly capable of murder?

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole.

Killen Erwin slumps on the other side of the desk, silently waiting for his longtime friend to respond. It’s not a question of whether Thaddeus wants to help, but whether he can. Thad barely survived last week’s savage attack, and for the first time ever, he’s feeling unsure of his abilities in front of a jury. Now, Killen’s life has fallen apart: His wife is brazenly sleeping around, he’s facing charges for driving drunk and causing a death, and a special prosecutor is hellbent on destroying him.

Taylor Lockwood spends her days working as a paralegal in one of New York's preeminent Wall Street law firms and her nights playing jazz piano anyplace she can. But the rhythm of her life is disrupted when attorney Mitchell Reece requests her help in locating a stolen document that could cost him not only the multimillion-dollar case he's defending but his career as well.

Then: Sergeant Vince Paulo held his best friend's daughter, McKenna, bleeding in his arms as she uttered the name of her murderer and ex-boyfriend, Jamal. That was minutes before a blast made everything go black for Vince - forever. Now: Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck has been called in to save Jamal from the death penalty for terrorist activity. Despite urgent warnings from his fiancee, undercover FBI agent Andie Henning, to stay away from the case, Jack finds himself inextricably drawn to Jamal's past - even believing his alibi that he was abducted....

A woman stumbles onto a dark road in rural Oregon - tortured, battered, and bound. She tells a horrific story about being kidnapped, then tortured, until she finally managed to escape. She was the lucky one - two other women, with similar burns and bruises, were found dead. The surviving victim identifies the house where she was held captive, and the owner, Alex Mason - a prominent local attorney - is arrested.

Carlos Cruz, San Francisco’s hottest young chef, rose from modest beginnings to getting a James Beard Award for his upscale Mission District eatery El Conquistador. In addition to creating cutting-edge cuisine, the mercurial Cruz has been accused of sexual harassment multiple times. Smart, ambitious, and tenacious, Mercedes “Mercy” Tejada was granted "dreamer" status while studying to become a nurse. The waitress job wasn’t ideal, but the tips paid the bills.

Attorney Jack Newlin comes home one evening to find his wife dead on the floor. Convinced that he knows who killed her, and determined to hide the truth, Jack decides to make it look as though he committed the felony. Before calling the police, he stages the crime, so that the evidence incriminates him. And to hammer the final nail in his own coffin, he hires Mary Di Nunzio, a reluctant rookie and the most inexperienced lawyer he can find, at a hot Philadelphia firm.