Legal Thriller Crime Fiction

Ry Slaight was a rebellious cadet who almost destroyed West Point when he exposed and solved the murder of a gay cadet in 1969. Now, nearly three decades later, Slaight's been promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy. When a female cadet dies during parade, an autopsy establishes that she had sex with multiple partners the night before. Was she the victim of a gang rape? Was there a cadet orgy? Don't ask. Don't tell.

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.

Winner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic and Michael Nava has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of our best” writers. Here, Rios delves deeply into his Latino identity as he defends a young man charged with assassinating a prominent Los Angeles Latino politician. The San Francisco Chronicle hailed the novel and its author: “A beautifully conceived but gritty novel.... Nava writes the kind of small, clean, powerful novels that build in emotional power almost invisibly, leaving us breathless at the end.”

Two murders. Two trials. And two kids who were not exactly guilty. The odd part is that the defendant in the first case is the lawyer in the second, which occurs in the same courtroom against the same prosecutor 15 years later. When young defense attorney David Stillman takes an alcohol-fueled hiatus from his law practice, he meets Michaela, an exotic older woman who gradually pulls the story of David's haunted and past out of him as a romance develops. The relation by David of the childhood saga of he and his violent group of teenage friends proves cathartic.

When it comes to establishing reasonable doubt in the minds of a New York jury, defense attorney Michael Roehmer is the best in the business - and no one knows this better than rape victim Lisa Altman. She sat helplessly in the courtroom as Roehmer, smoothly and without mercy, shot gaping holes in her testimony. As a result, the man who brutally assaulted her walked free. Right and wrong, guilt and innocence, mean nothing to Roehmer. For him, winning is everything. Now Altman is sitting at a different table: Her rapist has been savagely murdered and she’s accused of the heinous crime.

Though some think they saw a ghost, it was a real, live woman in the (mostly exposed) flesh flitting through Sierra Vista Park. Eleanor Corbin has a taste for trouble - and a talent for getting out of it using the most outrageous means to cover her tracks. Now her scandalized half-sister, Olga, fears Eleanor may be using lascivious antics to camouflage more larcenous acts.

A simple domestic abuse case turns deadly when the alleged abuser is killed and Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into a complex case of murder and identity theft that has her running from the mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to discover the truth about Melanie and her ex-boyfriend.

Lester is a lawyer for a prestigious law firm in New York that represents some of New York City’s most wealthy citizens, including Hiram W. Holladay, a Wall Street tycoon. When Mr. Holladay is found dead at his desk from a knife wound to the neck, all evidence points to his daughter, Miss Frances Holladay, as the perpetrator. Courtroom drama, a kidnapping, and a fraught pursuit overseas follow this shocking crime in an ingenious detective story sure to delight mystery fans.

Paul Batista, one of the country's foremost defense lawyers, has written the ultimate legal thriller with murder in its heart. When Tom Perini, a legendary Heisman Trophy winner turned criminal lawyer, is found brutally murdered in Central Park, his widow, Julie, not only must unravel the mysteries of her husband's secret double life, but survive long enough to discover the truth. A thriller and courtroom drama of corruption and greed so authentic it reads like tomorrow's headlines.

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.

On a warm September morning, an unconscious man is found in a cage at the entrance to the offices of one of the biggest German newspapers. Closer inspection shows he is a manager of the company, and he’s been tortured. Three days later, another manager appears in similar circumstances. Chastity Riley and her new colleague Ivo Stepanovic are tasked with uncovering the truth behind the attacks, an investigation that goes far beyond the revenge they first suspect...to the dubious past shared by both victims.

Alex has been an executioner for most of his adult life. He has experienced the final moments before life is drained from hardened criminals, though he has never yet executed a woman. Following the case of Sara Grainger, Alex is shocked to find that regardless of a seeming lack of evidence, the mother and father of the victim are able to buy a result. Alice, a nurse in the hospital, knows that Sara is innocent. To all intent and purposes, the accident was a quirk of fate. However, will the execution take place? Will there be a reprieve? Will justice be served?

Emma’s husband is in prison. Emma’s husband claims he is innocent. Emma’s husband is a liar. And he’s not done with her yet.

Andy Gibbons had been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. After 10 years inside, he had abandoned all hope, and resigned himself to the fact that he would remain there for the rest of his life. Judgment Call is a full-length audiobook, a crime suspense-thriller about a corrupt organization with a sinister agenda that exploits every weakness and every dark corner of the fallible justice system. This fast-paced suspense-thriller is the first audiobook in J C Ryan's Exonerated Series.

In rural McCown County, Missouri, a young pregnant woman is found beaten to death in a trailer park. The only witness to the murder is Ivy, her six-year-old daughter, who points to her mom's boyfriend - father of the unborn child. County prosecutor Madeleine Thompson promises the community justice, and in the Ozarks that can mean only one thing: a death sentence. When Madeleine's first choice for cocounsel declines to try a death penalty case, she is forced to turn to assistant prosecutor Elsie Arnold.

Daniel Youngblood is a world-weary oil and gas investment banker who’s ready to hit the beach, when he’s hired by a Saudi Prince for an OPEC deal where he can net himself $25 million as a swan song. At the same time, he meets and falls in love with Lydia, an exotic European fashion photographer, who he later discovers is really a CIA trained spy with a shocking history with the Saudi Prince. She convinces Daniel to enlist in what becomes a race for the lovers to stop a Muslim terrorist internet plot to bring down the Saudi royal family and cripple the world’s oil capacity, all before they wind up dead.

Johnny Rames awakens in a field on the outskirts of a music festival in Maine, covered in someone else's blood and unable to remember the events of the night before. As his lawyer, Len Gibson, strives to defend him against the charge of murder, Johnny discovers not only the truth of what happened that night but also the shocking secrets of his family history. Blue Lobster is an interwoven tale of three generations.

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.

Criminal barrister Charles Holborne may have just escaped the hangman by proving he was framed for murder, but his life is now in ruins. His wife is dead, his high-flying career has morphed into criminal notoriety, and bankruptcy threatens. When the biggest brief of Charles' career unexpectedly lands on his desk, it looks as if he has been thrown a lifeline. But far from keeping him afloat, it drags him ever deeper into the shadowy underworld of 1960s London. Now, not only is his practice at stake, but his very life.

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?