The past shapes who we become. So when something dark happens to us, in our town, or in our family, we carry it into our futures. For the protagonists of these five novels, a history of injustice compels them to dedicate their lives to righting wrongs. Whether a loved one went missing, a crime remains unsolved, an innocent is accused, or a buried family secret is revealed, these old tragedies have lasting repercussions.
It’s never too late to right the wrongs of the past. It’s time to get justice, once and for all.
Snap Judgment by Marcia Clark
Defense attorney Samantha Brinkman is on another case, and this time, it resurfaces a dark threat from her past that could compromise everything. The daughter of a prominent civil litigator is found brutally murdered, and her ex-boyfriend is the natural suspect. But when the ex-boyfriend dies in what is framed as a suicide, fingers turn to a new person of interest: the civil litigator. Could he have taken the boyfriend’s life, as revenge for his daughter’s murder?
With Sam Brinkman on the case, she’s determined to prove him innocent. Digging into the family’s dark past proves difficult when family secrets, betrayals and countless motives for murder come to light. This time, Sam will have to play by her own rules and hope that her own secrets and personal life don’t get too tangled up with the case.
The Shearings by F. Iwan
Charlotte, a Washington D.C. Attorney frequently takes on new cases. But her latest hits too close to home with connections to her past, and the unsolved kidnapping and death from years ago that still haunts her. Soon, Charlotte is thrust into a world of trafficking and corruption, with decades-old deceit and secrets coming to the surface.
As her past and present collide, Charlotte must determine who she can ally herself with, and who is an unseen enemy. With complicated relationships in her childhood and a mystery buried at the heart of her own community and family, this formidable attorney is facing a challenge she could never have anticipated.
In the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Charlotte must look towards the darkness of her past in order to bring justice to innocent victims. Does she have what it takes to defeat the demons of her past, seek redemption with truth and love, and overcome the most vile parts of humanity? Can Charlotte find the closure she needs in order to move forward?
Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash
The Satanic Panic reaches its height in the summer of 1990. Lacey Bond’s hippie parents, caretakers at Rainbow Kids Care, have been arrested. The accusations against them span from Satanic rituals to sexual abuse — and everyone keeps insisting that 13-year-old Lacey is one of the victims. But she doesn’t remember a thing. Instead, Lacey is handed off to various lawyers and therapists. Soon, she takes matters into her own hands and plots her escape. Her life goes careening off into dangerous territory, and what was once a hard-hitting court drama and murder mystery transforms into a fugitive love story.
Twenty years into the future, Lacey and her girlfriend are trying to leave the past in the past, still haunted by the things they have endured. Now a law clerk, adult Lacey is working on a grueling case, grasping for a way to have control over a system that did nothing but harm her. So after a tiny misstep spirals into an uncontrolled legal disaster, the hysteria threatens to begin all over again.
(Read the interview with the author here.)
When Cicadas Cry by Caroline Cleveland
Like many small towns, this South Carolina town has a buried past. A white woman is bludgeoned by an altar cross. When her body is found in the church, a Black man is covered in blood, kneeling over the body. This scene brings a town already fraught with racial tension into the spotlight as the high-profile murder case takes the stage.
An hour down the road from the Walterboro church, two women were murdered on the beach, and no killer was found. With no trail or clues to follow, the case remains unsolved after 34 years. Are these two cases somehow connected?
When Zach Stander, a lawyer with a buried past, takes on the church murder case, in defense of the Black man he believes could be innocent, the lawyer has a tough road ahead of him. Detective Addie Stone, Zavh’s girlfriend, begins to look into the cold case beach murder. Soon, Addie is led to more secrets hidden in the small town, that could be the key to linking the cases and finding the killer. But is someone willing to kill again, before she can uncover the truth? Or will Addie and Zach finally find justice for the victims — and the innocent?
The Silent Watcher by Victor Methos
When Piper Danes was young, she was in a vulnerable position, and a guardian ad litem (GAL) helped her in a time of need. Now as an adult, attorney Piper has walked away from her law firm to work as a GAL.
Her new case puts her face to face with Sophie Grace, a 15-year-old who survived the murder of her entire family. With Piper and Judge Hope Dawson, as well as Detective Lazarus Holloway on the case, the truth of the incident comes to the surface. Now, they’re on a search for a deadly stalker, a serial killer known as “the Creeper”. Could this individual be the perpetrator of the murder of Sophie’s family? And can the team protect Sophie and stop the killer, before he strikes again?