Legal Thriller Crime Fiction

Courting Death finds Melanie Wilkerson (from Cotton, book two of the Clarkeston Chronicles) and Arthur Hughes working uncomfortably together in the chambers of a famous federal judge. While Melanie neglects her duties as a law clerk to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman in the courthouse five years earlier, Arthur wades through the horrific habeas corpus appeals of two prisoners: an infamous serial killer and a pathetic child murderer.

I’m a Coroner. I spend my life laying things to rest . . . When lawyer, Jenny Cooper, is appointed Severn Vale District Coroner, she’s hoping for a quiet life and space to recover from a traumatic divorce, but the office she inherits from the recently deceased Harry Marshall contains neglected files hiding dark secrets and a trail of buried evidence. Could the tragic death in custody of a young boy be linked to the apparent suicide of a teenage prostitute and the fate of Marshall himself? Jenny’s curiosity is aroused.

Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'the Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. Malcolm Fox works for The Complaints. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself....but there's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. Problem is, no one can prove it.

Prosecutor Elsie Arnold loves her small-town home in the Ozark hills, but she's been waiting for a murder to come along and make her career. So when a body is found under a bridge, throat cut, Elsie jumps at the chance to work on the case, even if it's alongside the brash new chief assistant, Chuck Harris - and her latest flame, Detective Bob Ashlock.

Cooper Dixon should have it made, with a beautiful wife, Kelly, two great kids, and a thriving business, the Tower Agency. But for Cooper, things aren’t turning out how he expected. He and Kelly are caught in a never-ending cycle of arguments - Cooper can’t remember the last time they had sex. And Cooper’s troubled business partner, Gates Ballenger, is scheming to sell the Tower Agency out from under him. When a gang of criminals is hired by a mysterious client to kidnap Kelly and set up Cooper to take the fall, Cooper’s life goes completely off the rails.

Attorney Sabre O. Brown is called upon to defend an abused 14 year-old boy of murder after a body is discovered in a shallow grave with the word GOOF scrawled across his forehead. Years later when more bodies are unearthed baring the same GOOF signature, two more abused juveniles are accused of the gruesome slayings.

A newly minted member of Henley & Hargrove, Pasadena's oldest and snobbiest law firm, Jack MacTaggart is assigned to handle an insurance claim on behalf of socialite Sydney Everett. Hush Puppy, Sydney's champion show horse, has died unexpectedly, and attending veterinarian George Wells confides to Jack that the great horse's death was anything but natural. Jack's investigation leads him into the high-stakes world of professional show jumping and down a path to romance, intrigue, and an old blackmail scheme that further implicates his client.

DI Brook thought the nightmare was over - but the Reaper has left behind a horrifying legacy…. When an accidental drowning is found to be murder, Brook’s past relationship with the victim makes him the prime suspect. A fact made worse when he receives a chilling message urging him to continue the work of the serial killer The Reaper, the deranged vigilante who had previously terrorised the UK.

Chris Hutchinson is a man on the run. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Hutch escapes from a British maximum security prison and starts a new life in Hong Kong. Then a ghost from his past catches up with him, forcing him to help a former terrorist break out of a Bankok prison. Or face life behind bars once more. Meanwhile the Drug Enforcement Administration wants to nail the vicious drug warlord responsible fo rflooding the States with cheap heroin.

He's a serial killer. A murderer of young women, all killed in brutal attacks. But despite Hamish Wolfe's conviction, he's always stuck to his story - he's innocent, and he's been wrongly imprisoned. And now he wants someone to investigate and, more importantly, to write his story. Maggie Rose is a notorious defense attorney and writer whose specialty is getting convictions overturned. At first Maggie is reluctant to even acknowledge Hamish's requests to meet, ignoring his letters. But this is a very charismatic and persuasive man, good looking and intelligent.

After a life in various war zones, Dell and Dolly have settled in this town, fulfilling Dolly's lifelong dream. Though she has given up her nursing career and moved smoothly into civilian life, Dell had been a mercenary, so they both have to sacrifice their prior identities. When the star of the girls' softball team shoots and kills the most popular boy in school, Dolly asks Dell to uncover the motive behind this inexplicable crime. It doesn't take him long to uncover a horrifying rite of passage.

Poppy Rice is home in her D.C. apartment with very little furniture and a stack of boxes she still hasn't unpacked after five years. It's three AM and she's suffering from her usual insomnia, so she watches a tape of the CBS Evening News. Dan Rather is interviewing convicted ax-murderer Rona Leigh Glueck who, in 10 days, will be the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. Poppy pauses the tape on a close-up of Rona Leigh's delicate, child-like hands. So maybe it was a lightweight ax?

Cal Claxton is determined to reinvent himself as a small-town lawyer in the aftermath of his wife's suicide. Once a hard-charging Los Angeles prosecutor, he nowlives in solitude in an old farmhouse overlooking Oregon's wine country. When a scruffy, tattooed kid shows up asking for help in solving a cold case - that of his mother's murder - Cal wants to say no. Times are tough, and he's no private eye, anyway. But the kid, who calls himself Picasso, has ridden a bicycle in the rain all the way from Portland, and something about his determination touches Cal.

Charles Kendrick, a senior U.S. senator, is a suspect in the disappearance of a young female staff member. A multi-state manhunt is already underway, and the district attorney is pressuring Kendrick for an interview, which his lawyer, Marty, doesn't want to grant. At the same time, Marty and her law partner and lover, Harry Madigan, are preparing the defense of a man accused of murdering a priest. Both defendants are lying, but to whom? And can their actions be justified?

Attorney Matthew Hope had hired Otto Samalson to conduct a simple marital investigation—so how does Samalson end up dead on a deserted highway? Hope's search for an answer takes him into Florida's drug underworld on the trail of a hooker—one who has the style and looks necessary to transform herself into a high-class cocaine-stealing Cinderella. What Hope uncovers is a complicated web of circumstances and a terrifying twist on a hooker's fairy tale.

A long shadow looms above the wife of filmmaker Carlton Markham. Then a hand clamps over her mouth, and a blade sinks into her back. Blood splatters on the film reel case beside her, and a young life is cut short. Lawyer Matthew Hope gets a call from Markham, who's been arrested for his wife's murder, but he says he didn't do it. Witnesses fly forward to proclaim his guilt, but Markham's not giving up on his innocence that easily. And when Hope digs deeper into the victim's business—he finds she may not have been the perfect lady that she seemed.

After Jessica Leeds—wife of a prestigious, wealthy Florida landowner—is brutally raped, three Vietnamese immigrants are charged with the crime. After the trial results in their acquittal, Jessica's husband Stephen vows vengeance. Then, the three immigrants are found savagely murdered. When all of the evidence ties Stephen Leeds to the grisly killings, Jessica turns to Florida lawyer Matthew Hope. He takes the case—and discovers a situation far more complex and explosive than he, or his client, imagined.

Gethin Grey is back in the game. His wife may have left him and he's struggling with life as a single father, but now he's got his biggest case in years. The brutal murder of a young woman called Kelly Rowland has been the talk of the South Wales valleys. Even the conviction of a neighbour, a builder called Morgan Hopkins, failed to stop the gossip. There were too many other suspects still around, among them a pair of coppers: brother and sister.

Conrad Wilson, an ex-detective, had less than a month to live. The date of his execution by lethal injection was scheduled for June 1. All legal avenues had been exhausted—the governor of New Hampshire refused to review his case. The only problem was Conrad Wilson was innocent, but no one cared. Or, rather, everyone that cared wanted him executed. His only chance to escape certain death was Judge Regan St. Clair and Jake Westley. Did they have enough time to stop the execution?

Five years ago, when Akash Hingorani won a trial in court for his friends Priti and Vansh Diwan, he lost his heart to the presiding judge, Shilpa Singh. But the passionate start to their relationship would meet a swift end. And then, nine months after the affair is over, Akash gets a call for help from Judge Shilpa Singh.