Small Town Legal Suspense

When beloved mayor turned state senator Carlton Osborn is found dead on his boat, the prime suspect is the only other person on board: his pregnant teenage girlfriend, Amber Vega. Struggling to restore his self-confidence after a string of personal and professional losses, Spencer Dunn isn’t eager to defend a young woman who is almost certainly guilty yet refuses to follow his legal advice. But once Spencer starts digging, he realizes this case isn’t as simple as the police are making it out to be.

Leland Monroe lost everything… His big city job, his sterling reputation and, worst of all, his loving wife. Now he’s starting over, setting up shop in his quiet hometown of Basking Rock. And struggling to repair his relationship with his troubled son. But Basking Rock holds dark memories for Leland. And even darker secrets… When a case involving Leland’s high school sweetheart reveals a tangled web of corruption, Leland realizes it’s not just his client’s life that’s at stake. Powerful forces surface to threaten the precious few loved ones he has left.

When local teenager Jason Demers is accused of assaulting his girlfriend and pushing her off a balcony, all evidence points to his guilt. But something doesn't sit right with former forensic scientist and criminal defense attorney Spencer Dunn. It seems like an open and shut case. Multiple eyewitness accounts and a mountain of circumstantial evidence all point to Jason as the killer. But despite his reluctance, Spencer takes the case. Delving deeper into this tragic mystery, he uncovers a tangled web of lies that goes far beyond a simple assault.

A local business owner is shot and disappears under mysterious circumstances. Another man goes on a hit-and-run rampage. And a horrifying day care incident sends innocent children to the ER. At first glance, the events appear unrelated. But as he investigates, local attorney Spencer Dunn begins to think otherwise. When Spencer digs beneath Autumn Harbor’s idyllic surface, he uncovers a dark thread weaving the cases together—a thread that leads straight to Jack Butcher, the flashy civic leader whose shiny public persona masks a rotten core.

Running his own law firm is harder than Leland Munroe ever imagined, but he’s determined to make it work. Judy Reed, accused of killing her wealthy father, is just the kind of high-profile and high-paying client he needs to keep his firm afloat. Yet the deeper he digs, the more complex her case becomes. Nurse LaDonna Winters’s financial situation isn’t as ideal. Struggling to make ends meet, she can barely afford legal representation. But her case is compelling—accused of a crime at her hospital she insists she didn't commit, LaDonna is desperate to clear her name.

Defense attorney Leland Monroe lost it all: his big-city job, his reputation, and, worst of all, his loving wife. Now he’s back in his hometown to hit restart and repair the relationship with his troubled son. But the past is always present in a small town. Leland returns to find his high school sweetheart hasn’t had the easiest of lives - especially now that her son faces a death sentence for murdering his father.

#1 New York Times Bestseller! Read by Academy Award–winning actress Viola Davis. “Davis is a force of nature, and her performance is riveting.” — Kirkus Reviews Viola Davis and the world's #1 bestselling author James Patterson’s Judge Stone "delivers first-class courtroom drama...

Small town defense attorney Leland Munroe isn't afraid to tackle cases others run from. But when a federal judge plunges to his death from a locked courthouse stairwell just before testifying, Leland is pulled into a deadly investigation. Every clue he uncovers drags him deeper into a dark web of deceit.

When tech visionary Julian Yates is arrested for the brutal murder of his business rival, the evidence seems airtight—a damning video, financial motive, and a public feud gone too far. But defense lawyer Ryan Noble knows something’s off. The pieces don’t fit. It all seems too clean. As Noble digs deeper, he uncovers a web of deceit stretching from the heart of Georgia’s legal system to the dark corners of the internet. Behind the scenes, powerful interests are manipulating the truth—and Yates may be just another pawn in a far deadlier game. With corporate espionage, digital ...

When a gruesome murder rocks a peaceful Hamptons village, all the evidence points to one man. His only hope rests in a former prisoner—one-time jailhouse lawyer, now exonerated free man: defense attorney, Alfie Rainbird. Struggling with the mental scars of incarceration and following a string of reckless altercations with colleagues, Alfie Rainbird is forced to take a break while the board of his law firm decide whether to finally cut the volatile lawyer loose. When a body turns up in East Hampton and a young waiter is charged with murder, Rainbird is given a final chance, but it has a ...

When online influencer Simone Baker asks Leland Munroe to defend her on a criminal charge, the small town lawyer is ready to say no. He’s not a criminal lawyer—despite what the people of Basking Rock seem to think. Social media and manslaughter are both far from his area of expertise. But with no other clients coming through his door, Leland takes the job to make ends meet.

A sinister secret lies buried—one that swallows two young teens into an abyss of mystery. When two young teens at a county fair are drawn to desperate cries emanating from the House of Horrors, their world spins into chaos. They never enter, but suddenly, they're gone—vanished into thin air. Thus begins a baffling mystery into which rookie detective Teresa Simmonds and veteran Allan Yeats are thrown headfirst into a maze of secrets and lies. As they unravel the web of secrets and cover-ups, the question haunts them: What happened to Yasmine and Jerry, and why does no one want the truth ...

A music mogul dies at his own grand piano—hands shattered, piano wire biting his throat, blood slicking the keys. A quiet concert pianist is fed to the wolves—then Charlie Beretta walks in. Beretta doesn’t enter a courtroom—he changes its gravity. Once Colorado’s Strongest Man, now 405-pounds of presence and purpose in a defense attorney, a former fighter who knows the difference between truth and a setup. As Beretta steps into the fray, he strips back the gloss of Denver’s high society to expose a rotten underbelly of corruption, blackmail, affairs, and organized crime, where ...

A body in an alleyway. Blood on the accused. Witnesses to the crime. When a sleepy Georgian town is rocked by the brutal murder of the local prosecutor’s son, all the evidence points to one man: Marcus Brantley. His only hope rests in defense counsel, Ryan Noble, drawn back to the town he tried to forget by his mother’s cancer diagnosis. But Noble’s homecoming brings a case that could cost him everything. Unwelcome, outnumbered, and with the clock ticking, Noble must navigate a dangerous game of secrets and lies before time runs out—where hostility lurks behind every corner and he ...

When a young woman dies in a late-night restaurant fire, the owner, Bobby Carter, is charged with arson and murder. The evidence is stacked against him, but something doesn’t add up. And his only chance for justice rests on the shoulders of small-town lawyer Leland Munroe… Leland is convinced someone’s out to frame his client. But as the trial heats up, he realizes that he's facing more than just a legal battle.

After years of defending Montgomery’s guilty, lawyer Ryan Ashcroft takes on the one case that could destroy him. When the body of Earl O’Grady, a former police officer, is pulled from the Alabama River, the city wants someone to blame. Tyson Carter, a young laborer with a record, fits the bill. Ashcroft agrees to defend him, but as he digs into the evidence, he uncovers a trail of lies, missing files, and witnesses who vanish before they can speak. The deeper he goes, the clearer it becomes that Tyson’s case is tied to something far bigger, and far more dangerous, than one man’s ...

A boating accident has left one teenager dead and three others traumatized. Charleston attorney Leland Munroe is determined to prove his client wasn’t responsible, but prosecutor Patrick Ludlow will stop at nothing to keep his own son out of trouble. Even if it means sending an innocent person to jail….

2026 FULLY EXPANDED AND REVISED EDITION Some secrets refuse to stay buried... In this explosive new Baker & Tate mystery, Texas Ranger Ruth Baker faces her darkest case yet—one that strikes at the heart of her own family. When twenty-three children vanish from a school bus in Caldwell, Texas, the case becomes personal for Ruth Baker—her daughter Ava should have been on that bus. Partnered with fellow Ranger Aaron Tate, Ruth uncovers a haunting connection to the infamous "Red Barn Killings" from twenty years ago. But as they dig deeper, they discover that Caldwell's most powerful figures...

An addicting courtroom drama from the #1 bestselling author of Presumed Innocent. “No one does it better.” ―David Baldacci, #1 NYT bestselling author of Memory Man ★ “This is manna for legal-thriller fans." ―Booklist, starred review ★ “This easily ranks among Turow’s best...

In the Deep South, guilt isn’t proven. It’s inherited. When Montgomery defense attorney Ryan Ashcroft heads an hour down the highway to Marlow, Alabama, he believes he’s taking another pro bono case: a young landscaper accused of murdering the county’s hometown hero. But inside Marlow’s courthouse, justice isn’t blind. It’s bought. The sheriff runs the county like a family business. The judge is on the take. The prosecutor has already been paid. The deeper Ashcroft digs, the clearer it becomes that Jaylan Washington isn’t on trial for murder. He’s the cover-up. As storms ...