Trials (murder) book series in reading order

by Ed McBain

by David Rosenfelt

by William Bernhardt

by Steve Cavanagh

by D.W. Buffa

by Michael Connelly

by James Lee Burke

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.

Ed McBain

127 books• 7 series

Ed McBain is the pen name under which Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino (October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005), published the 87th Precinct police procedurals. Cop Hater, The Mugger and The Pusher, all dated 1956, are early entries in the listing, and Steve Carella and the imaginary city of Isola appear among the subjects. Matthew Hope is a second series character. Under the Evan Hunter name, the author wrote The Blackboard Jungle, a semi-autobiographical novel filmed in 1955, and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

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.

Steve Cavanagh writes legal thrillers, and the subjects on the 17 catalogued books include criminal defense lawyers, murder trials, the Mafia, kidnapping and New York. Cavanagh's series are Eddie Flynn, a set of Eddie Flynn short stories and novellas, and standalone novels. The earliest entry is The Cross (2015), followed by The Defence (2015), The Plea (2016), The Liar (2017), Thirteen (2018), Twisted (2019) and Fifty-Fifty (2020). Two Kinds of Stranger appeared in 2025, and One of Us Is Guilty is scheduled for 2027.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Legal thrillers written from a Christian standpoint make up most of Randy Singer's catalogue. Courtroom trials, murder cases, the insanity defence and questions of Christian life recur across 17 titles, beginning with Directed Verdict in 2002 and ending with Rule of Law in 2017. Singer also wrote non-fiction, including Made to Count: Discovering What to Do with Your Life in 2004. No new title has appeared since 2017.

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).

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).

J.F. Freedman is a thriller writer whose catalogue carries the Luke Garrison and Kate Blanchard series. Subject headings file the books under legal thrillers and mystery, list murder trials, public defenders, false testimony and women detectives, and name the fictitious character Wyatt Matthews. The 11 J.F. Freedman books in order begin with Against the Wind (1991) and end with Turn Left at Doheny (2014). House of Smoke (1996), Key Witness (1997), Above the Law (2000) and A Killing in the Valley (2006) fall between. The list is marked likely complete.

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.

Sandra Brown

94 books• 11 series

Sandra Brown, born Sandra Lynn Cox on March 12, 1948, is an American author of romance and suspense thrillers. Brown has also published under three pen names: Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan and Erin St. Claire. The catalogue counts 94 titles from 1981, when Love's Encore and Love Beyond Reason came out as Rachel Ryan, to Bloodlust (2026). Listed series include the Texas! Tyler Family Saga, the Coleman Family Saga, Mason Sisters and Lee Coburn. Texas, widows and murder recur among the subject headings.

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.

David Ellis writes legal thrillers and suspense fiction. The catalogue lists 15 books published between 2001 and 2026, opening with Line Of Vision (2001) and running to Keep Them Close (2026). Jason Kolarich is the figure who recurs across Ellis's series work, which sits alongside a set of standalone novels. Subjects recorded against the books include murder trials, legal stories, investigation and adultery. Ellis holds the sole credit on all 15 titles and is still publishing.

Ann Rule

37 books• 3 series

Ann Rule's books are true crime: case studies of murders, murderers, homicide investigations and the trials that followed. The catalogue holds 37 titles, opening with The Stranger Beside Me (1980) and taking in Lust Killer, The I-5 Killer, Small Sacrifices and the Crime Files line of collections. Lying in Wait and Other True Cases is the last entry, and the catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Legal thrillers make up most of Paul Levine's work. Jake Lassiter, a former football player turned Miami lawyer, carries fifteen of the 28 catalogued books, starting with To Speak for the Dead (1990). Levine also wrote the four Solomon vs. Lord novels in the mid-2000s and the Einstein-Chaplin books, which draw on the friendship between Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. Miami, murder trials and lawyers fill the subject tags, and Midnight Patriots (2026) is his newest title.

Christian suspense is Brandilyn Collins's register: murder, trials and police artists handled inside a faith-based frame. The catalogue holds 32 books published between 1995 and 2017, from A Question of Innocence to Plummet, across the Hidden Faces, Kanner Lake, Bradleyville, Rayne Tour, Chelsea Adams and Dearing Family series. Mothers and daughters and women artists recur as subjects. No new title has appeared since 2017.

Johnny Boggs writes Westerns. Hannah Scott and Pete Belissari are the recurring leads, and the Hannah and the Horseman books ran across several titles between 1997 and 1999. The catalogue holds 73 books published between 1997 and 2024, opening with Hannah and the Horseman (1997) and reaching Bloody Newton (2024). Frontier and pioneer life, Texas, outlaws and murder trials recur as subjects. Killstraight and Frontier Story are the other named series, at a median of 249 pages.

Harold Schechter, born in 1948, writes true crime about serial killers and the cases built around them. Schechter taught American literature and myth criticism at Queens College, City University of New York for 42 years and holds a Professor Emeritus post there. The 46 catalogued books start in 1980 with Film Tricks and The New Gods, turn to criminal case studies with Deviant (1989) and Deranged (1990), and reach 50 States of Murder in 2025. Schechter also edited the Library of America anthology True Crime: An American Anthology.

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.