Legal Thriller Crime Fiction

At high noon on a hot summer’s day, a beautiful young woman shoots the mayor dead. So begins a story of passion and betrayal in a quiet Tuscan village, leading to a sensational trial. The defence team, headed by the brilliant but unhappy Carlo Rienzi, uncovers a sinister conspiracy of silence that threatens to split the community. Can Carlo persuade the judge to grant clemency in what appears to be an open-and-shut case? Can the law intervene in the brutal tradition of vendetta?

Janet Moodie has spent years as a death row appeals attorney. Overworked, underpaid and recently widowed, she's had her fill of hopeless cases and is determined that this will be her last. Her client is Marion 'Andy' Hardy, convicted 15 years ago along with his brother, Emory, of the kidnapping, rape and murder of two prostitutes, but Janet discovers a series of errors made by his previous lawyers. Andy may well be guilty of something, but what?

Lawyer Robert Tarza is surprised when his young, beautiful and wealthy French girlfriend, Tess, proposes marriage. It's not that he doesn't love her, but even after five years, there's a lot about her he doesn't know.

Kathryn Walters is faced with this dreadful decision when her daughter, Shelley, is found dead in her boyfriend's flat. Despite the best efforts of the Crown Prosecution barrister, Sarah Newby, it seems possible that the boyfriend, David Kidd, may be acquitted. Should her family tolerate this? Or seek their own form of justice through revenge?

Former Wall Street whiz and current convict Mickey Steinberg is nearing the end of his three-year sentence at Yankton - the cushy country club prison where he's enjoyed celebrity status - and he's ready to get out and get back on top. He doesn't have the resources he once did, but he's already hatched a new plan to sell a forgery of a stolen Van Gogh painting through the shady underground art market. He and his new partner, the smooth-talking Paul Reece, have a mark in mind: The sleazy con-man art dealer who swooped in on Mickey's beloved ex-wife after he was locked up. But with his old partner, Jack Grass, hell-bent on revenge and his pre-prison life closed to him, it won't be easy.

Aaron Littmann, the chairman of one of the country's most prestigious law firms, has just been contacted by a high-profile defense attorney whose client is Nikolai Garkov, a Russian businessman arraigned on terrorism charges for pulling the financial strings behind recent treasonous acts. The attorney informs Aaron that Garkov is looking to switch representation and will pay $100,000 just to take the meeting.

James Drinker is a bit of an oddball. A funny-looking, geeky loner, he walks into Jason Kolarich’s office one day with a preemptive concern: two women have recently been murdered, seemingly by the same killer, and Drinker thinks he will be the police’s main suspect. One woman was his ex-girlfriend, he says, and the other was a friend. He’s the only link between the victims and he has no alibi for the night of either murder - surely the police will realize it soon. Believing he’s the target of a frame-up, Drinker hires Kolarich for his defense. Something about James Drinker seems off from the start, but Kolarich doesn’t give it too much thought. Until another murder occurs....

Originally published by Pocket Books as Court of Honor, this classic by Wood - the basis for the 1995 film Broken Trust starring Tom Selleck - is is the story of a sitting judge who finds himself in a dangerous position when he participates in a sting operation investigating fellow judges on the take.

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.

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.

Corporate lawyer Elizabeth Carlyle is under a lot of pressure. Her prestigious New York law firm is working on the most high-stakes case in company history defending a prominent bank. When Elizabeth gets the news that one of her junior associates has lost his phone - and the secret documents that were on it - she needs help. Badly. Enter ex-CIA officer Valencia Walker, a high-priced fixer who gets called in when governments, corporations, and plutocrats need their problems solved discretely. But things get complicated when the missing phone is retrieved....

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.

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.

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.

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.

A gripping and thought-provoking legal thriller that redefines the genre—by critically acclaimed writer and criminal defense attorney, Gabriel Urza, author of All That Followed. What if justice isn’t something the legal system is truly capable of? The Silver State follows Santi, a law school...