In her work for the Ventura County Probation Department, Carolyn Sullivan interviews the most dangerous, depraved criminals - and Raphael Moreno is at the top of the list. The hardened street thug has been convicted in a series of gruesome and baffling murders, including the decapitation of his own mother. For the first time, Carolyn is face-to-face with a criminal who truly frightens her. But things are about to get much hotter - and much deadlier for Carolyn. A phone call from her brother, Neil, propels her into a nightmare. A popular bachelor and successful artist, Neil has discovered the body of his girlfriend, Laurel, floating in his swimming pool. When her death is ruled a homicide, Neil becomes the prime suspect. But he has an alibi - he was in bed with Melody Asher, a seductive party girl and heiress. Their torrid affair is as steamy as it is addictive, a twisted game of manipulation and sexual blackmail. When Melody refuses to back up Neil's story, the sensitive brother Carolyn thought she knew suddenly seems like a complete stranger. And then the most shattering news surfaces: Blood found in Neil's expensive new car links him to Raphael Moreno and his unthinkable crimes. As the evidence against Neil mounts, Carolyn is forced to ask herself troubling questions. Is he an innocent victim, or could he be hiding a darker side, a sinister streak that connects him to the brutal murders of nine people? Could the brother she loves actually be a cold-hearted, ruthless killer? The key to everything seems to be Moreno, but getting inside his head is a treacherous game. As the danger grows and shocking secrets are revealed, a shaken Carolyn must find the courage to make the ultimate decision - whether to risk the lives of innocent people or save herself and those she loves most.
It starts with a double homicide. Because of the high profiles of the victims - a politically connected socialite and his glamorous fiancée - the mayor of San Francisco herself demands that a high-ranking detective be put on the case. And so Abe Glitsky is thrust into the controversial investigation. Dan Cuneo, the officer already working the case, is immediately wary of Glitsky and doesn't hide his distrust. Matters are made worse when Cuneo starts to focus on his primary suspect - who also happens to be an old girlfriend of Dismas Hardy. For Hardy and Glitsky, this is an awkward and uncomfortable coincidence. But for Cuneo, it's proof positive of collusion, and yet another instance of Glitsky cheating with his insider friends and cronies. Convinced that Hardy's client is the wrong suspect, Glitsky breaks ranks within the police department to continue his own investigation. As Hardy's murder trial builds to its stunning conclusion, Glitsky's search for the truth does more than fuel suspicion against the two men. It reveals a trail of deception that leads beyond San Francisco, where exposing desperate secrets can be the most deadly offense.
Lawyer Will Chambers is still reeling from the death of his wife, when he is forced to give up his partnership at a prestigious Washington D.C. law firm. Taking the case of Angus MacCameron, a reverend who has been named in a libel suit, Will sees a chance for redemption. The case seems simple enough, but after a little digging, he finds a vast conspiracy that could shake the very foundations of Christianity. Trial lawyer Craig Parshall's debut novel is a tense thriller about rediscovering faith and fighting for the truth.
Who can you trust when everyone you know is a lawyer?
Mary DiNunzio has been slaving away for the past eight years trying to make partner in her cutthroat Philadelphia law firm. She's too busy to worry about the crank phone calls she's been getting -- until they fall into a sinister pattern. The phone rings as soon as she gets to work then as soon as she gets home. Mary can't shake the sensation that someone is watching her, following her every move. The shadowboxing turns deadly when her worst fears are realized and she has to fight for something a lot more important than partnership -- her life.
To Philadelphia lawyer Grace Rossi, who's starting over after a divorce, a part-time job with a federal appeals court sounds perfect. But Grace doesn't count on being assigned to an explosive death penalty appeal. Nor does she expect ardor in the court in the form of an affair with her boss, Chief Judge Armen Gregorian. Then the truly unimaginable happens and Grace finds herself investigating a murder.
As Grace searches for the truth, she unearths a six-figure bank account kept by the judge with an alias; breaks into another judge's chambers; and follows a trail of bribery and judicial corruption that's stumped even the FBI. In no time at all, Grace under fire takes on a whole new meaning.
Performed by Kate Burton
Tatum Knight is a former contract killer. And he\'s Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swytek\'s newest client. Tatum is the older brother of Jack\'s best friend, Theo. Theo himself spent time on death row until Jack found the evidence to prove him innocent. Jack isn\'t so sure about Tatum.
A gorgeous young woman has been shot dead in her Mercedes on a Miami street. Sally Fenning was worth forty-eight million dollars when she died. Money had never made her happy, so she left it all to her enemies -- left it for them to fight over, that is. She named six heirs in her will, but no one gets a penny until all but one of the heirs is dead.
Jack alone knows that heir number six -- Tatum Knight -- is a professional killer. As the heirs begin to fall, Jack and his sidekick Theo are in a race against time to discover if Tatum is behind all the killing. Or is someone even more frightening, more dangerous the odds-on favorite to be the last to die?
When the accuser becomes the accused . . . As a dedicated district attorney, Lily Forrester presents the perfect image of a defender of justice. Only she knows the dark secret of what happened six years ago, when a desperate crisis drove her to step outside the law and exact a horrifying personal vengeance. Now her ex-husband, faced with serious criminal charges, threatens to expose her unless she compromises her most cherished beliefs to help him. A violent rapist she put behind bars is back on the streets and looking for her. Her beloved daughter seems to be the target of a dangerous madman. And Lily must call on her deepest strength to face her accusers and ensure that the values she holds most dear will triumph. In this taut new thriller, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg displays the brilliant legal expertise and dramatic flair that have made her books classics of suspense.
Jack Swyteck, a brilliant Miami defense attorney has spent years rebelling against his father, Harry, now Florida\'s governor. Their estrangement seems complete when Harry allows one of Jack\'s clients -- a man Jack believes is innocent -- to die in the electric chair.But when a psychopath bent on serving his own twisted version of justice places both Jack and Harry in extreme jeopardy, the two have nowhere to turn but to each other. Together they must find a way to overcome their cunning tormentor\'s manipulation . . . even as the stakes are being raised to far more perilous heights.
Late one night Victor Carl gets a panicked phone call from an old law school classmate. Guy Forrest claims he has just found the body of his fiance lying murdered in the house they shared. The victim is Hailey Prouix, for whose love Guy had abandoned his children, his job, his wife, his life. Hailey had mesmerized every man she ever met -- including, unbeknownst to Guy, Victor Carl. Convinced that Guy is Hailey's killer, Victor agrees to represent him, all the while secretly vowing to see justice done, whatever the cost.
Victor embarks on a quest that will take him from Philadelphia to Las Vegas to the valleys of West Virginia. He digs further into Hailey Prouix's past and discovers that nothing is as simple as it had seemed, especially the woman he thought he loved. As Guy's murder trial heads toward its shattering conclusion, Victor must find the brutal truth before the mechanism of retribution he himself has set into motion falls like a hatchet, smack on his client's head.
Read by Peter Francis James.
In a case steeped in blood and memory, It will take a stroke of brilliance to save Pigeon Tony. But if anyone can see justice done, it may be this gutsy young attorney. She'll risk everything for her client...including her life.
In The Vendetta Defense, Lisa Scottoline, New York Times bestselling author of Moment of Truth and Mistaken Identity, tells a wonderfully rich story of past sins, love and justice.
Lawyer Judy Carrier takes the case of an elderly pigeon racer, Tony Lucia, who has been arrested for the murder of his lifelong enemy Angelo Coluzzi. 'Pigeon Tony,' as he's known, confesses to Judy that he killed Coluzzi because of a vendetta begun more than fifty years ago.
Her client's guilt, however, is only the beginning of Judy's problems. The Coluzzi family wants revenge, and they are determined to finish off Pigeon Tony and Judybefore the case can go to trial.
While trying three defendants for robbery, Joanne Kuhlman discovers a far more serious crime may be unfolding. One of the defendants is developmentally disabled. His attorney and mother insist he was cruelly exploited by his crime partners. When the young man disappears, Joanne fears he may have been murdered in a ruthless act to silence him. Her sympathies for this defendant lead her to entangle herself with his attractive attorney and compromise her career so the truth may be revealed.
Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years, she's taken on some of Lake Tahoe's most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one-woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she's ready to sort out her complex relationship with her boyfriend, Monterey P.I. Paul van Wagoner. So she's heading to the Carmel Valley, the place where she began her career and where her estranged father lives. It's also a place of dramatic contradictions and hidden tensions, of new wealth and old families. And, within days of her arrival, Nina is already feeling the heat, as a case of arson exposes some of the darkest secrets of her hometown. Two suspicious fires have already raged through the valley this summer, igniting suspicions of arson. When a third blaze ends in a fatality, police zero in on a suspect: Wish, the son of Sandy Whitefeather, Nina's ex-assistant. The dead man is identified as Wish's childhood friend, a troubled local auto mechanic who hated the changes wealthy newcomers had brought to the valley. Nina and Paul are certain that there is more to this strange case than meets the eye. As they work together to clear Wish, new, more frightening questions are raised, and another fire is set. And out of the flames a terrifying picture emerges: a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer whose motives are dark and wrenching.
