Legal Thriller – The Sword of the Law

Robin James has an excellent grasp on how to fuse together the worlds of thriller novels and the law, and the acclaim received by his Mara Brent Legal Thriller Series can only testify to as much. In the second book of the series, Price of Justice, Mara Brent is faced with an unusual scenario: violent convicts are suddenly going free in her small town and quaint town. More specifically, two vicious lunatics are suddenly released on bail, and Mara must race against the clock to stop their seemingly inevitably killing spree.

Robin James has put her own experience as an attorney to good use when she became an author, penning the Mara Brent Legal Thriller series, with the first entry published in 2020, titled Time of Justice. Introducing us to Mara, a prosecutor in a small town, the story follows her involvement in a reopened case, one which gives her the opportunity to put behind bars a real monster who once escaped justice. However, unexpected twists in the courtroom lead her to believe something far more sinister hides behind the scenes.

James Chandler might have waited a long while before taking up the pen, but it was certainly a worthwhile wait for the readers when he published his first novel in November of 2020, titled Misjudged. It's the first entry in the Sam Johnstone series, and introduces us to the titular war veteran as he takes up a new job as an attorney in a small Wyoming town. Not a moment too soon, a strange and complicated murder case finds its way into his lap.

Graham Moore has injected into to his novels his own experience as an award-winning screenwriter, giving them a more eventful atmosphere and a quicker pace. In his most recent novel, The Holdout, he introduces us to Maya Seale, a young juror who convinces her peers as to the innocence of a suspect in a murder case. Now, ten years later, after a true-crime series reassembles the jurors, one of them is found dead in Maya's hotel room, launching the ultimate search for truth as to what really happened the first time around.

Michael Connelly may have traveled a long road with Harry Bosch, but he found a way to breathe a new life into him, partnering him up with detective Renee Ballard. In the second book in their series, titled The Night Fire, the duo sets out to solve a case which haunted Harry's mentor for over twenty years until his death, the unsolved murder of a troubled young man.

Michael Connelly is rightfully known as a true modern master of murder mysteries and detective fiction, the Harry Bosch series being his most famous creation. In Dark Sacred Night, he brings together Bosch and detective Renee Ballard to create a new series which sees his characters working together. In their first outing, the try and put to rest an old unsolved case, the murder of a runaway in Hollywood, the 15-year-old Daisy Clayton.

Jane Harper is certainly determined to leave her mark on the crime novel scene with the second book in her Aaron Falk series, titled Force of Nature. In this story, we follow Aaron, a Federal Police Agent, as he investigates the disappearance of a hiker who went on a retreat with four of her colleagues. Complications arise when each of those colleagues presents a different account of the events which transpired, forcing Aaron to dive himself into the isolated forest harbouring the darkness of Man.

Michael Connelly is an author who has gifted us with the creation of a few memorable characters, such as Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, adding to the list the brand new Renee Ballard in The Late Show. What will undoubtedly become a series starts off with Ballard working the dreaded midnight shift for the LAPD, a bit of a black sheep in the department following a sexual harassment complaint against her supervisor. In one night two separate cases land on her lap: the agonizing bludgeoning of a prostitute and the shooting of a young woman in a nightclub. Never being one to back down, Renee keeps working the two cases on her own time and the deeper she digs, the more apparent it becomes that the two events may have been linked by a very surprising set of circumstances.

John Grisham has shown time and time again his proclivity for writing gripping legal thrillers, and he extends his streak as he takes us straight into the heart of a large conspiracy involving the coast mafia, an illegally-financed casino, and the most corrupt judge you could ever lay your eyes on. In the midst of that boiling pot swims Lacy Stoltz, the lone investigator for the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct who is faced with the impossible task of bringing down an empire built on lies, greed and blood.