Legal Thriller Crime Fiction

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.

In a fictional Michigan town, a man is pulled over by the local police. The driver wonders, “What did I do wrong?” The officer asks for ID; the driver casually mentions he legally carries a gun. The officer panics. Confusion reigns, shots ring out, an innocent man lays bleeding to death, and the incident is captured on video. The shooting becomes the national headline: The dead man is black - the shooter is white.

When a soldier is found stabbed through the heart at a US Army base, there is no doubt that his wife, Luz, is to blame. But was it an act of self-defense? An attempt to save her infant daughter? Or the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man? Ambitious public defender Abby is determined to win at all costs. As a new mother herself, she wants to keep Luz out of prison and with her daughter. But when the surprises stack up and shocking new evidence emerges, Abby realizes the task proves far more difficult than she suspected and will require a terrible sacrifice.

Fifty-nine days. That's how long Rennell Price has to live after spending 15 years on death row for the horrifying sexual assault and murder of a girl whose body was found floating in San Francisco Bay. But attorney Terri Paget has dedicated her life to fighting for people like Rennell Price. This time, Terri has a client she believes may actually be innocent, which means that an unpunished killer may still be free.

At last recovered from a near-fatal gunshot wound, Lieutenant Abe Glitsky is back at work. But instead of returning to his old job as chief of homicide detail, he's assigned a desk job in the payroll department, where he has no business investigating murders -until his father's closest friend is shot dead in a downtown pawn shop.

After an impressive performance in front of a full house, local college basketball stand-out Davonte Blair celebrates the victory with a few friends. But when a fierce argument over drugs ensues, the evening takes a violent turn — and one member of the group goes missing. When police discover the body of the basketball team manager, the town turns into a tinderbox of emotions. The media is calling it a hate crime. The college president is desperate to avoid a scandal. And the police department is under intense pressure to solve the horrific case.

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.

Legendary defense attorney Raquel Rematti represents a presidential candidate - and former first lady of an ISIS-assassinated president - Senator Angelina Baldesteri in the most watched and explosive trial of the 21st century. The senator, a Democrat, sees it as a vendetta show trial orchestrated by the current Republican US president, his Republican attorney general, and an ambitious Republican United States attorney in Manhattan.

The man is found on the icy streets of Boston, vomit in his beard, alcohol in his system, and ice in his veins. The police assume he is just another in the dozens of derelicts whom the urban winter claims each year, but Brady Coyne knows better. Attorney to New England's upper crust, he was the dead man's lawyer, and he knows that Stuart Carver was no bum: He was a senator's nephew.

Someone rips off Jake Lassiter's favorite client, then kills an old pal... Lassiter tracks the killer from Miami to Bimini to Maui... And faces off with a famous female surfer and her lethal boyfriend.

Charles Holborne has cemented his reputation as a respected murder trial lawyer, who is near unbeatable in the courtroom. But he is still on the radar of the notorious Kray Twins and before long he finds himself drawn into one of their darker scandals.

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.

Troy Duncan has just two worries on his mind: how he is going to give his two young children and fiancé a Christmas they deserve and whether his job at a struggling restaurant will last through the winter. As he leaves work early on another slow night, he runs into something that changes his life forever. Cleveland Police Officer Marc Baldwin has been on the job for more than two decades, risking his life every day to keep the city streets safe for others. One cold night in December, he gets a routine call to break up drug activity, but what happens there is anything but routine.

Meet Claire Heller Chapman. A criminal defense attorney who's made a name for herself by taking on—and winning—the toughest cases, Claire still manages to have a relatively calm life as a Harvard Law School professor, devoted wife, and proud mother to six-year-old Annie. Until one night, when the family is out having dinner, a team of government agents bursts onto the scene…heading straight for Claire's husband.

They call him the Blood Bath Killer - a man who has now killed two Boston women by sneaking into their homes, filling the bathtub with their blood, and making off with their bodies. And everything suggests that he's poised to strike again. Out to stop him are two good cops - Detective Angel Alves and his hard-driven boss, Sergeant Wayne Mooney - and waiting in the wings to provide justice is a team of young prosecutors led by Assistant District Attorney Conrad Darget. His team, a Homicide Response Team featuring attorneys handpicked by the DA to represent the office at all murder scenes, is managed by the dedicated Liz Moore....

In the follow-up to best-selling Blood Defense, Samantha is hired as the legal advocate for Cassie Sonnenberg after a brutal stabbing left her father and brother dead, and her mother barely clinging to life. It's a tabloid-ready case that has the nation in an uproar - and Sam facing her biggest challenge yet. Why did Cassie survive? Is she hiding something?

Take a no-holds-barred proxy war for a rich Texas oil company, with Jerry Conway, its young president, fighting for survival. Add a beautiful woman in a mudpack and not much else who gives up a freshly fired .38 to Conway before she shows him the door. Top it off with the body of another young woman with a bullet in her chest fired by the same gun, and you have the recipe for the perfect murder - and the perfect frame-up.

Detective Manny Alvarez knows the body of a murdered Florida student is only the beginning - his investigation soon reveals a terrifying trend in nightclub abductions. Hotshot Assistant State Attorney Daria DeBianchi works the case, too, hoping it will be the one that makes her career. It will - but for all the wrong reasons. Their only lead, notorious serial killer William Bantling, claims they are looking for more than one murderer. However, in exchange for the truth, he wants off death row.

Kip has been working with millionaire Max Ringle in a shady scheme to help rich, spoiled kids gain admission to elite universities. Ringle, the mastermind of the fraud, cops a plea and shifts the blame to Kip. Dr. Melissa Gold, Lassiter's fiancée, tries to keep the ailing lawyer strong enough for a grueling trial, even as his symptoms of brain damage grow worse. As a fiery showdown with Ringle brings the courtroom to a fever pitch, Lassiter risks everything - including his own life - to fight for his nephew's freedom.

Matthew Daley is a Manhattan corporate lawyer at the top of his game. As the first defense attorney on call to get pharmaceutical companies out of trouble, Matt is rising in the judicial system exactly as he planned. Until his sister dies of a heroin overdose. Now, torn between conscience and career, the newly minted law partner faces a critical choice: Defend the very companies that manufactured the addictive drugs, or give up his fiancée and his hard-won dream job to fight for justice in his sister’s name.