Legal stories book series in reading order

by Sara Woods

by James Grippando

by John Mortimer

by Kate Wilhelm

by William Bernhardt

by Caro Fraser

by D.W. Buffa

by David Rosenfelt

by Linda Fairstein

by Michael Connelly

by Phillip Margolin

by Paul Levine

by Lisa Scottoline

by Scott Pratt

by Steve Cavanagh

by Robert Dugoni

by James Lee Burke

by Michael A. Kahn

by H. Terrell Griffin

by Greg Iles

by John Grisham

by John Grisham

by Stuart Woods

by Ed McBain

by John Lescroart

by David Ellis

by William H.S. McIntyre

by Warren C. Easley

Sara Woods was the pen name of Lana Hutton Bowen-Judd (1922-1985), a British mystery writer who also published as Anne Burton, Mary Challis and Margaret Leek. Antony Maitland recurs across the catalogue, with lawyers and legal settings among the subjects. 55 books appeared between 1961 and 1987, from Bloody Instructions (1961) to Naked Villainy (1987). Jeremy Locke, Richard Trenton and Stephen Marryat head further series. Output peaked in the 1980s, at a median 192 pages.

Erle Stanley Gardner

152 books• 8 series

Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 to March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author of the Perry Mason legal detective stories. The catalogue opens in 1933 with The Case of the Velvet Claws and The Case of the Sulky Girl, followed by The Case of the Curious Bride and The Case of the Howling Dog in 1934, and lists 152 books in all. Other Gardner series include Donald Lam & Bertha Cool, Doug Selby, Gramp Wiggens and Terry Clane. Gardner also wrote non-fiction, mostly accounts of travels through Baja California and elsewhere in Mexico. Pseudonyms included A. A. Fair and Carleton Kendrake, and at the time of death Gardner was the best-selling American author of the 20th century.

John Grisham

65 books• 11 series

Legal thrillers are the core of John Grisham's work. Grisham is an American writer, lawyer and former politician, born in 1955, who studied at Mississippi State University and took a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1981. The catalogue holds 65 books, running from A Time to Kill (1989) through The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client to Shaken (2026). Series include Jake Brigance, Mitch McDeere, Camino Island, Rogue Lawyer and Theodore Boone. The American Academy of Achievement credits Grisham with 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers and 300 million copies sold.

Legal thrillers about women lawyers form the core of Lisa Scottoline's work. Rosato & Associates, later listed as Rosato & DiNunzio, names the recurring law firm series, and the catalogue runs to 51 titles from Everywhere That Mary Went (1993) to This Changes Everything (2026). Scottoline also writes standalone suspense, non-fiction, and the Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman books, which the subject tags mark as humour. Publication is ongoing.

John Lescroart, born January 14, 1948, writes legal and crime thrillers built around three recurring characters: Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky and Wyatt Hunt. More than 10 million copies of Lescroart's novels have sold, in 22 languages across more than 75 countries, and 18 titles have reached the New York Times bestseller list. San Francisco appears in the subject tags. The catalogue lists 35 books, opening with Sunburn (1981), then Son of Holmes (1986), Rasputin's Revenge (1987) and Dead Irish (1989). The Vig (1990), Hard Evidence (1993) and The 13th Juror (1994) come next. The Auguste Lupa Mystery series and standalone novels also appear.

Paul Madriani, a lawyer working in California, is the recurring figure in Steve Martini's legal thrillers. The Simeon Chamber (1988) opens the catalogue and Compelling Evidence (1992) starts the Madriani run, which continues through The Judge (1996), The Attorney (2000) and The Jury (2001) to Blood Flag in 2016. Eighteen books are catalogued, and nothing later than 2016 is listed.

Michael Connelly

60 books• 10 series

Michael Connelly is an American crime novelist, born July 21, 1956. The catalogue lists 60 Connelly books, running from The Black Echo (1992) to Ironwood (2026). LAPD detective Harry Bosch and defence attorney Mickey Haller are the recurring leads, and the listed series include Bosch Universe, Lincoln Lawyer and Safe Man. The Black Echo won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a 2002 film of Blood Work. Subject headings cover police procedurals, legal fiction, serial murder and Los Angeles.

James Grippando writes legal thrillers set largely in Miami, with the defence lawyer Jack Swyteck at the centre. The Pardon (1994) opens a catalogue of 36 books that reaches The Right to Remain in 2026, alongside standalone novels, novellas and plays. Missing persons, suspense and the work between attorney and client supply the plots.

William G. Tapply, born in 1940 and died in 2009, was an American writer who published more than 40 books and lived his whole life in New England, working as a high school teacher and a college professor. Brady Coyne, a Boston lawyer who investigates, carries the mysteries he is known for, and Stoney Calhoun heads a second series. Fly fishing, one of Tapply's own pastimes, fills much of his non-fiction. Forty-seven titles span Death at Charity's Point (1984) to The Nomination (2011).

Scott Turow

20 books• 4 series

Scott Turow writes legal fiction set largely in the invented Kindle County. The Kindle County Legal Thrillers, featuring Rusty Sabich, anchor a catalogue of 20 books that starts with One L (1977), a title tagged to Harvard Law School, and reaches Presumed Guilty (2025). Non-fiction and standalone novels fill out the list. Lawyers, legal stories and missing persons are the recurring subjects.

Phillip Margolin

35 books• 6 series

Legal thrillers built on murder trials are the work of Phillip Margolin. Gone, But Not Forgotten (1993) sits early in a catalogue of 35 books that reaches 2026, and Margolin's series follow the lawyers Robin Lockwood, Amanda Jaffe, Madison Kincaid, and Brad Miller with Dana Cutler. Courtroom suspense and criminal investigation carry the novels, which run to a median of 362 pages.

Robert K. Tanenbaum was an American trial attorney who also served as mayor of Beverly Hills. The Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi legal thrillers are his main sequence, catalogued under public prosecutors, women lawyers, murder trials and New York City. Tanenbaum's 34 books run from Badge of the Assassin (1979) and No Lesser Plea (1987) through Depraved Indifference (1989) and Justice Denied (1994) to That Day in Dallas (2025), and the catalogue also holds non-fiction.

Sir John Mortimer (1923-2009) practised as a barrister in Britain and wrote plays, screenplays and fiction. Horace Rumpole, the barrister of Rumpole of the Bailey, is the creation Mortimer is known for, and the Rumpole short stories were worked up from episodes of the television series Mortimer wrote himself. Forty-three titles are catalogued, from Charade (1947) to Forever Rumpole (2011), with the Rapstone Chronicles alongside the Rumpole books and London courtrooms and English politics across the subject list.

Legal thrillers are the core of D.W. Buffa's 22 books, which begin with The Defense (1997). Joseph Antonelli is the character behind Buffa's main series, and murder trials, attorney and client, San Francisco and Portland are recurring subjects. The Prosecution, The Judgment and The Legacy followed from 1999 to 2002. Buffa also writes the Western Quartet and the Senator Bobby Hart series, published Rubicon (2008) as Lawrence Alexander, and closes the list with Lunatic Carnival (2023).

Robert Whitlow writes Christian legal fiction set in Georgia and South Carolina. The List (2000) opens a catalogue of 24 books that includes the Tides of Truth series, the Alexia Lindale novels and Chosen People, with women lawyers and courtroom cases recurring throughout. Whitlow publishes into 2026 with Witness Protection.

The lawyer Ben Kincaid is the recurring character in William Bernhardt's legal mysteries. Primary Justice (1991) is the earliest of 77 catalogued titles, followed by Blind Justice (1992), Deadly Justice (1993) and Perfect Justice (1994), and the listing reaches The Superman Wars (2026). Daniel Pike, Splitsville, Susan Pulaski and the Red Sneaker Writers books are further series. Tulsa, Oklahoma, murder trials and serial murder fill the subject tags.

Andy Carpenter leads David Rosenfelt's longest series, a run of legal mysteries set in New Jersey in which dogs recur throughout. Rosenfelt's catalogue holds 49 titles, opening with Open and Shut (2002) and running to Bark Humbug (2026). The K Team and Doug Brock series and a set of standalone novels complete the list. Murder trials and investigation are the recurring subjects.

Legal and political thrillers make up Richard North Patterson's catalogue - lawyers, murder trials, presidential candidates and terrorism. The Lasko Tangent (1979) opens the list, and Degree of Guilt (1992) and Eyes of a Child (1995) belong to the Christopher Paget run. Kerry Kilcannon and Tony Lord head the other series. Twenty-four titles are catalogued, the last of them Trial in 2023.

Kate Wilhelm wrote science fiction, mystery and suspense across a catalogue of 75 books published between 1963 and 2022. The American author won a Hugo Award for Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang and founded the Clarion Workshop with her husband Damon Knight and the writer Robin Scott Wilson. Her two long series are the Barbara Holloway books, about an Oregon lawyer, and Constance and Charlie, about the private investigators Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn. The list runs from The Mile-Long Spaceship (1963) to The House Share (2022) and has been dormant since.

William Lashner, born in 1956, is an American novelist who worked as a trial lawyer, serving in the Criminal Division of the United States Justice Department; NYU School of Law and the Iowa Writers' Workshop trained him, and he lives outside Philadelphia. Victor Carl, a Philadelphia lawyer, is the recurring character of the main series, which runs from Hostile Witness (1995) through Fatal Flaw and Past Due (both 2003), Falls the Shadow (2005) and Marked Man (2006) to A Killer's Kiss (2007). Kockroach (2006) appeared under the name Tyler Knox. Twenty books are catalogued, the last being Elizabeth Webster and the Chamber of Stolen Ghosts (2021).

Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pen name of two sisters, Mary and Pamela O'Shaughnessy, writing together from Northern California. Pamela trained at Harvard Law School and practised as a trial lawyer for sixteen years; Mary worked as an editor and writer on multimedia projects. Their legal suspense series follows Nina Reilly, a woman lawyer, across 15 books from Motion to Suppress (1995) to Dreams of the Dead (2011). Courtroom language marks the run, Invasion of Privacy, Obstruction of Justice, Acts of Malice, Writ of Execution.

Legal thrillers were Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's field, populated by women prosecutors, judges and probation officers working in California. Born in Dallas in 1946 and died in Las Vegas in 2017, Rosenberg published her first novel, Mitigating Circumstances, in 1993; Jonathan Demme took the film rights, most of her novels reached the New York Times bestseller list, and her work was translated widely. Rosenberg founded Voice of Tomorrow, a writing programme for inner-city young people, and Orange County's Board of Supervisors named her A Woman of Excellence, Learning for Life in 1994. Fourteen books span 1993 to 2010, including the Lily Forrester and Carolyn Sullivan series.

Gianrico Carofiglio

11 books• 2 series

Gianrico Carofiglio, born in 1961, worked as an anti-Mafia judge in Bari before writing legal thrillers set in Italy. Guido Guerrieri, a lawyer, carries the main series from Involuntary Witness (2002) through A Walk in the Dark (2003), Reasonable Doubts (2006), Temporary Perfections (2010) and A Fine Line (2014); Pietro Fenoglio leads a second. Involuntary Witness reached English in 2005 in Patrick Creagh's translation and became an Italian television series. The Past is a Foreign Country took the 2005 Premio Bancarella. Eleven books reach L'orizzonte della notte (2024), at a median of 249 pages.

Caro Fraser (1953 to 12 April 2020) was a British novelist and the daughter of George MacDonald Fraser, creator of The Flashman Papers. Born in Carlisle, Fraser grew up in Glasgow and later on the Isle of Man. Fraser worked as an advertising copywriter and then as a commercial and maritime lawyer before writing professionally from 1992. The catalogue lists 17 books from The Pupil (1994) to A Touch of Silk (2020), including the Caper Court series, with subject tags on lawyers, legal stories and England.