The best legal thriller book reviews. While legal thrillers don’t always include courtroom drama, they always feature attorneys involved in either solving crimes, defending criminals or engaging in criminal activities of their own design.
The Bottom Line: A timely, compulsively readable political and legal thriller that wryly connects the terrors of the dark web with the fragile state of democracy. Honored in the Best Thriller Book Awards as the Best Conspiracy Thriller of 2021. In a world where activists like Julian Assange have become famous for extravagant government exposes, Ron Barak’s new political thriller imagines what is at stake …
The Bottom Line: A sexy legal thriller that deftly blends an international terror plot with romantic obsession. Honored as the Best Legal Thriller of 2021. Despite having no experience in criminal defense, civil attorney Monica Spade is ordered to represent an accused murderer. The accused, a demure Romanian woman named Stela, purportedly stabbed her boyfriend 13 times before being admitted to the hospital as a possible …
Standby Counsel, the The Year’s Best Legal Thriller, by Alexi Venice READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A highly original LGBTQ+ crime thriller with eye-popping doses of murder, mystery and romance. In Alexi Venice’s third Monica Spade Novel, the battle-tested attorney agrees to represent a surgeon police want to question regarding the brutal murder of two of her patients. Monica learns that the surgeon, Dr. Nicole Kershaw, also has been threatened numerous times. As Kershaw describes it, some of …
Graffiti Red Murder, a highly original LGBTQ+ crime thriller by Alexi Venice READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A superb, action-packed legal thriller with a heart of gold. Defense attorney Henry Krakow has made a career out of representing small time clients living on the fringe. Most don’t pay, and when they do, it’s often via questionable means. His wife Olivia is a moneyed high-powered public relations executive who is no longer enchanted with Henry and his seeming lack of …
The Money, a Superb Legal Thriller by David Klein READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A heart-pounding, adrenaline-spiking medical thriller that takes the series into new territory. Highly recommended. Looking for a way to launder offshore money salvaged from a drug cartel shipwreck, ex-detective and lawyer Vance Courage, and his partner Lauren Gold invest $5 million into HIPP Corp. The company is a medical records firm teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, but the situation is about …
Sick Money, a Heart-Pounding Medical Thriller by Karen S. Gordon READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A groundbreaking, nail-biting and wondrous legal thriller. In Dorian Box’s The Hiding Girl, 12-year-old Emily Calby survived a home invasion and became an unlikely vigilante. The Girl in Cell 49B finds Emily on her 16th birthday. She’s on a bus in the Ozarks where she has been living for the past three years with her mentor, ex-gang member Lucas Jackson. Her birthday …
The Girl in Cell 49B, a Wondrous Legal Thriller by Dorian Box READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A refreshing legal thriller packed with courtroom drama, scrappy litigation and a whodunnit that will surprise even the most perceptive readers. Limited Damages begins as nurse Gabriella Rivera looks after an injured prisoner at a state-run facility. When the prisoner asks for a moment of privacy, she obliges, only to return and find him dying with a syringe in his lap. The hospital …
Limited Damages, a Refreshing Legal Thriller by John W. Dennehy READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: A stunning debut legal thriller that deftly combines white-knuckled courtroom action with hard-hitting personal drama. Attorney Maeve Shaw has a beautiful family and a thriving law career. But when she’s forced to represent a mother accused of killing her opioid-addicted daughter, her entire life teeters on the edge of disaster. Maeve has never practiced criminal law. That doesn’t matter to her boss, …
Darkness Drops Again, a Stunning Legal Thriller by Melissa E. Manning READ MORE >
The Bottom line: Fast-paced, evocative and urgent from the get-go, Express Intent is the best Gold & Courage series book yet. Inexplicable mysteries are afoot in West Texas. Just after midnight, a breach at a military research and development lab leaves a security guard dead, his finger amputated to get past the biometric security pad. The power has been cut, and a multi-million dollar prototype …
Express Intent, a Mesmerizing Legal Thriller by Karen S. Gordon READ MORE >
The Bottom Line: This nervy, disturbing, gut-punch of a vigilante novel is unlike anything you’ve ever read. It’s also one of the year’s best thrillers. With few exceptions, the legal thriller genre exists to elevate fictional heroes of the justice system – attorneys, judges and others who go beyond the call of duty to ensure fairness in an otherwise unfair world. In his novel The …
The American Strangler, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers READ MORE >
