Legal Fiction Thrillers

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it. Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.

Barbara Holloway is a trial lawyer who tends to take on difficult cases, but this time it seems there's no defense at all. It appears that Vinny Jessup died when his car rolled over on a bad curve on Lookout Mountain. Then the sheriff finds the gunshot wound. With a large insurance policy as her motive, could his much younger wife have staged the death?

She's old-money Miami. He's barefoot Coconut Grove. The only thing they had in common was the law, until they faced each other in the steamiest murder trial of the century, a case that would make sparks fly, headlines scream, and opposites attract. Surrounded by crooks, con men, and a cast of colorful characters, Steve Solomon and Vickie Lord must solve the crime before they end up in ruin, in jail, or, worse, in bed.

Known to locals as the “Christmas Guy,” Nick Whittaker has delighted his neighbors with an elaborate holiday light show and his uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus. A bit of a loner, Nick has found his place and his calling as a mall Santa in the quaint Northern Michigan town of Helene. He’s the last person anyone would have suspected in the brutal beating of a local politician. But when the bloodied murder weapon turns up in his trash and surveillance video puts him at the crime scene, Nick finds himself on trial for his freedom.

Attorney Nate Shepherd doesn’t want to take on an attempted murder case. But when people he trusts ask him to get involved, Nate agrees to represent the hard-working farmer who’s been accused of trying to kill his brother’s fiancée. By the time Nate steps in, law enforcement has already gathered a mass of evidence to bury his client. With the help of a diligent associate, a dogged investigator, and a dangerous bail bondsman, Nate unearths a web of money and motives that only raises more questions.

Ingrid DiLaurio lives in Riversedge, New York, four express train stops from Manhattan. Don’t be fooled: with its tree-lined Main Street, and quaint ambiance, Riversedge is only impersonating a small town. While it’s a place small enough for everyone to know each other’s secrets, few do. The town revolves around the prestigious Riversedge Law Club, where deals are made and cases are resolved and where Ingrid DiLaurio—a former lawyer turned nationally recognized podcast host—has never once been made to feel welcome.

Lisa and Joe Stone, married for 20 years and sole partners in their small law firm in Henry County, Virginia, handle less-than-glamorous cases: domestic disputes, personal injury settlements, or a plethora of complaints from their cantankerous client Lettie VanSandt. When she dies in a freakish incident, the Stones think it's within the realm of possibility that she was cooking meth in her trailer. But details soon emerge that lead them to question how accidental Lettie's demise actually was.

Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defense attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilized - her life is just as unremarkable as she’d always hoped it would be. But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood that was far from average...a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn apart by a devastating act of violence.

A murder committed in front of a million online viewers. Everyone clicked. Watched. Commented. Shared. No one intervened. Desperate for fame and fortune, there’s never been a get-rich-quick scheme housewife Juliet Clay hasn’t chased. When she finally goes viral selling diet shakes, she figures all her dreams have come true. But when her husband ends up dead from poison, Juliet’s dreams become a nightmare and she’s the prime murder suspect. A sucker for lost causes, Defense Attorney Cass Leary takes the case to pay forward a favor she owes.

Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.

In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young Black man who was once a client of Russo’s.

For the members of SEAL Team Six, it was a rare mission ordered by the president, monitored in real time from the Situation Room. Houthi rebels in Yemen had captured an American journalist and a member of the Saudi royal family. Their executions were scheduled for Easter Sunday. The SEAL team were to break them out. But when the mission results in spectacular failure, the finger-pointing goes all the way to the top. Paige Chambers, a determined young lawyer, has a very personal reason for wanting to know the answer.

Mitch Arno always meant bad news for the coastal town of Folsum, Oregon. When they ran him out of town 17 years ago, he left behind a wife with two daughters and a family that never wanted to see him again. When he returns, he brings trouble in the form of a lot of suspicious money. As Barbara attempts to counsel Mitch's wife about the money, a second form of trouble arrives: Mitch's corpse.

Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.

Attorney Daniel Raine has recently gone out on his own and is now struggling to make rent. So when he's invited to a fundraiser gala at a downtown Seattle art gallery, he sees it as a chance to find some new clients among the city's wealthy elite. And it works in the most unexpected way—when a young artist is found dead in the women's restroom. The assigned detective declares it a suicide, and the young woman's parents promptly sue the gallery owner for driving their daughter to take her own life. Raine is hired to defend the lawsuit and embarks on a mission to exonerate his client.

Attorney Daniel Raine is hired by Adam Harper, the son of Seattle's biggest real estate developer. Adam wants to seize control of the family company by declaring his father mentally unfit. There's only one problem. It soon becomes clear that the old man is very much in possession of his mental faculties and Raine is going to lose the case. Ever the pragmatist, Raine decides to stick with it and rack up some billable hours. But he soon finds himself in the middle of a deadly dispute as various members of this powerful family fight to gain control of the business.

When Thaddeus Murfee finds himself in the crosshairs of old-time mobsters, he knows his days are numbered. In a desperate attempt to break free, he files a lawsuit, only to learn that suing the mob comes with deadly consequences. As violent thugs and silent assassins pursue him across the country, Thaddeus seeks refuge with an ancient sheepherder in the Arizona mountains. In this temporary sanctuary, he must race against time to uncover the truth before the mob's relentless pursuit catches up with him.

Ten years after graduating from Harvard, lawyer Jack Collins sets out to reinvent himself. The Ivy-leaguer leaves a small Connecticut law practice to join one of the nation’s most prestigious firms, trading a nondescript office for one in a gleaming New York City skyscraper. He surrounds himself with people far more glamorous than those he’s left behind. He basks in the pride of being with his famous new boss, his alluring new coworker, and his new client, Abigail Walker, wealthy widow of a US senator. Jack thinks he is on the path to glory. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Populated with colorful, richly drawn characters, Margaret Maron's latest novel captures the flavor of life in rural North Carolina. Arriving in Carteret County, Judge Deborah Knott finds herself in the thick of battles between sport and commercial fishermen and between old and new money. She discovers the body of Andy Bynum, a retired waterman respected by all. With no obvious suspects in the murder, Deborah must find the killer in a place where people shoot at loons, sea turtles, and their neighbors.

Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, William E. Townsend, Jr., son of a New Jersey state senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a 19-year-old transgender prostitute, is in custody, and given the evidence against her, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict. Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open, and doubtless deepen her estrangement from her family. Yet as a trans woman, she feels uniquely qualified to help Sharise.