Blog Archives
Bad Day for Justice (Warren & Carmichael Legal Thrillers – Book 2)
Bad Day for Justice follows two Seattle lawyers, Sydney Warren and Duncan Carmichael, as they get pulled into the fallout from a brutal year in 1983. A Navy pilot vanishes in a stolen EA-6B Prowler, a huge public power project implodes, and a financial advisor named Harold Dawson dies under very suspicious circumstances. Decades later, the grown children of the supposed killer and the victim, along with the Ortez family from the missing-jet scandal, stumble into a fresh blackmail scheme tied to a lost jewel called the Tsarina’s Spider, and everyone has to decide what “justice” looks like when the truth arrives forty years late.
I really enjoyed how the authors handle the nuts-and-bolts stuff. The legal and military pieces feel grounded, yet the story still moves. The opening sequence with the stolen Prowler has real punch, and the later courtroom work around the Dawson death goes down smooth, even when the arguments get technical. The book hops between Navy bases, Seattle law offices, British Columbia ferries, and a Cascade trailhead, and each place feels authentic. I liked spending time with older versions of Sydney and Duncan. They are competent, stubborn, a little tired, and still fully in the fight. The large cast can feel crowded at first, yet by the time Allison rides that little Aquabus with a fake jewel in her lap, I had a decent handle on who mattered and why.
The core question of justice delayed sits over everything, and the forty-year gap makes that question sting. The children of Dawson and Nowak carry scars from choices they never made, and their scenes together have a quiet ache that lingers. I liked the way the story refuses a clean hero-villain split. Dawson’s suicide, Nowak’s ruined life, Danny Ortez’s desperate choices in the past and his weary acceptance in the present, all of that pushes the book into interesting moral gray. The backstory around the WPPSS bond debacle and the art-heist angle with the Tsarina’s Spider feels like a lot of moving parts, and once or twice, I had to pause and mentally sort out who owed what to whom. Still, the emotional throughline kept pulling me back.
By the end, the big deck gathering at the Carmichaels’ house gave me that mix of relief and unease that I like in a legal thriller. The good guys get some wins, old lies get aired out, reputations get patched, yet there is no magic fix for lost decades or wrecked careers. It feels honest. I would recommend Bad Day for Justice to readers who enjoy character-driven legal thrillers, people interested in the Pacific Northwest and real-world financial messes, and anyone who likes seeing older protagonists treated as full-on leads instead of background mentors. If you want a smart, steady, slightly twisty story about family, accountability, and what “justice” costs once the dust finally settles, this one is worth your time.
Pages: 397 | ASIN : B0GGL6WRDT
The Quiet Determination…
Where The Pecan Trees Grow follows a Mexican father who sets out on a challenging journey to find work in the United States only to be faced with the complications of politics, and broken promises. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
I was thinking about my own life, and how it’s rare that life unfolds the way the way we expect. I faced uncertainty, setbacks, wrong turns, and I often questioned whether I was on the right path. This book grew from that space. The idea that perseverence, family, and purpose can slowly shape a life that you are proud of.
Is there anything from your own life included in the characters in your book?
Yes, but not in a literal way. I didn’t copy people from my life, but I used familiar emotions, doubts, and moments of uncertainty that I recognize both in myself and others. The fears, the hopes, and the quiet determination… that all comes from real life.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I wanted to explore belonging, resilience, and the quiet work of building a life, especially when the path forward isn’t obvious. I also wanted to address some current themes involving immigration and the racism that unfortunately still exists in our society.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I have a few new projects that I am currently working on. There are no release dates yet, but they are coming along nicely.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
In Where The Pecan Trees Grow, one hardworking immigrant’s quiet life among the pecan orchards of California’s Central Valley shatters when the law comes crashing through his front door. What began as a desperate gamble to save his family slowly became everything he’d ever hoped for… steady work and the fragile comfort of finally belonging.
Then, a pre-dawn raid tears him away from his home and plunges him into the cold machinery of detention cells, rushed hearings, and small-town politics. Papers, promises, and the truth itself seem to matter less than someone else’s version of his story.
As courtroom battles mount and tensions rise across the orchards, he’s forced to confront one impossible question: in a country built on second chances, who truly gets one?
Taut, emotional, and impossible to put down, Where The Pecan Trees Grow is a gripping legal thriller about family, sacrifice, and the fight to hold on to the life you’ve worked for—perfect for readers who love high-stakes courtroom drama with a deeply human heart.
A 360-Degree View
Dream Me Dead follows a dead woman watching her husband’s trial for her murder, who tries to leave clues for the living as to what happened to her. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
As living people, we only know what we are told, or what we assume to be true, but if the story is told through the eyes of a deceased person, they are able to have a 360-degree view of the world, and there is no more room for speculation. Peggy Prescott knows exactly what happened to her and how it happened, but she only reveals bits and pieces of her story so that the reader can begin putting the pieces together until they make sense. If she revealed everything at once, it would not be exciting. When someone has to work for the reward, the goal is that much more exciting and fulfilling. The reader feels challenged to put their mind to work as the clues accumulate. The reward, therefore, is worth the effort. Peggy knows her life on earth was valuable, and wants the readers to appreciate her trials and tribulations, making her life, and death, more meaningful. Hopefully, it gives the reader the idea that everything we do, everything that happens to all of us, will one day make sense.
What intrigues you about the paranormal that led you to explore this direction in your psychological thriller novel?
I have always questioned the paranormal, believing that we can only know what we know, but that is not the entire story. I believe in unseen entities, good and bad, who guide us along the way, preparing us to make better choices, be fearless, love deeply, and know that when someone dies, they are still with us. Those whose death was unexpected need for those left behind to make sense of things, and to dig deeper for clues that finally are revealed. Timing is everything, especially for those who search for answers. When I look up at the sky, I see endless possibilities, other lifetimes, souls who have moved on, souls who have remained for a while to keep their loved ones safe. It is an endless cycle of love and possibilities, that intrigue me the most. We have miracles all around us if only we look for them.
What was the most challenging part about writing a mystery story, where you constantly have to give just enough to keep the mystery alive until the big reveal?
The most challenging part of writing a mystery/psychological thriller is to ask the reader to be part of the story, to immerse themselves in the richness of the characters, and to follow the clues as they appear. This cannot occur if the reader becomes bored with the story, or finds that they cannot relate to the characters, so my job was to create characters who come alive, who the reader wants to root for, or despise, but cares about deeply one way or the other. The clues have to be available, but hidden, and can be found just beneath the surface if the reader looks hard enough. For me, the characters in Dream Me Dead are taking the reader on a journey and asking them to believe that they exist, if only on the pages, but remain in our hearts as real people.
Will there be a third book in the Dream Me Home series? If so, what can readers expect, and when will it be available?
Yes, there will be a third book, entitled Dream Me Gone, which will challenge the reader to take a stand, knowing that just as in life, each person can view the same problem differently, depending on their own personal experiences. I know what the ending is, of course, but that’s because I am a believer that anything is possible. Being an optimist and hopeless romantic, I will determine that the ending comes from a place of love, but others, those who are realists, who employ logic as their first language, are welcome to view an ending that makes sense in a realistic world. In other words, just as the readers will align themselves with specific characters, they will also stand firm on a logical conclusion. Everyone should feel that the time they put in to reading the Dream Me Home series was time well spent.
Author Links: Website | Book Trailer | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Dream Me Dead: A Story of Betrayal, Infidelity, and Love
Dream Me Dead is a psychological thriller with a strong emotional core, and its premise grabs you from page one. The story follows Peggy Prescott, who opens the book by telling us she is dead and determined to reveal the truth about her husband Rob, a respected surgeon now on trial for her murder. What unfolds is a layered mix of courtroom drama, trauma, suspicion, and blurred realities, all threaded through Peggy’s unsettling perspective as she watches events play out from beyond the living world. As the story progresses, her memories fracture and re-form, her sense of the living and the dead becomes porous, and the real history of her marriage to Rob surfaces piece by piece.
Peggy’s voice is striking because it’s calm even when what she describes is horrific, and that contrast creates a tension that stays with you. Author Laurie Elizabeth Murphy makes deliberate choices here, especially in letting Peggy narrate from a place suspended between worlds. It lets her speak plainly about betrayal, longing, and fear, but with an eerie restraint. I found myself reacting not only to the events but to how Peggy processed them, especially when her certainty about what happened collides with the medical team’s insistence that her memories are confused.
Murphy also isn’t shy about leaning into the messy parts of human behavior. The trial sequences give the book a legal-thriller pulse, but underneath the questioning and objections you feel the emotional wreckage of this family. Rob’s arrogance, Peggy’s desperation to be believed, the daughters’ anger, even the way secondary characters like Dr. Steinbrenner or Mrs. Stoner color the narrative with their own biases and wounds. It becomes clear that this story isn’t just about a crime. It’s about the stories people tell about themselves to survive. And because the book blends psychological fiction with elements of suspense and the supernatural, it has room to explore those ideas without having to explain every mystery. Sometimes it’s the uncertainty that keeps you reading.
By the time I reached the final chapters, I felt the book had shown me both the exterior plot and the interior landscapes of these characters, which is where it’s strongest. It’s a thriller, yes, but one with emotional weight and a haunting, almost dreamlike undertow. I’d recommend Dream Me Dead to readers who enjoy psychological suspense that leans into character and memory as much as plot. If you like courtroom tension, unreliable narration, and stories that sit somewhere between mystery and emotional reckoning, you’ll enjoy this book.
Pages: 355 | ASIN : B0F1WG5JHK
Blackstone’s Law
Blackstone’s Law follows Elijah Ramirez, a young defense lawyer in Buffalo who stumbles into the case of Antoine Blackstone, a man who has spent twelve years in prison for a murder he insists he never committed. The story jumps between Elijah’s legal battles, the corrupt legacy of Detective Ralph Silas, and the tension between Buffalo’s criminal justice system and the communities harmed by it. By the time the truth about the case cracks open, Elijah finds not only a path to freeing Antoine but also a way to find himself after years of chasing prestige instead of purpose.
Author DB Easton’s writing moves quickly and has this natural rhythm that makes even the heavier scenes easy to fall into. I found myself rooting for Elijah early on, mostly because he starts out kind of cocky and comfortable, then slowly realizes how deeply he has to dig to be the lawyer he always thought he was. The scenes with Antoine in the prison visiting room got to me. Antoine comes across smart, tired, hopeful, and angry, all at once. When he starts talking about his life before his arrest, I felt that familiar twist in my stomach that comes from hearing something unfair but completely believable. The author does a great job showing how a single crooked cop can tilt an entire system off balance and how a whole city learns to either look away or make noise.
The plot tightens in the last stretch, and I found myself flipping pages fast. The courtroom moments, the media swarming Elijah, the tension around the investigation, all of it pulls together in a way that feels cinematic without losing the human parts. Blackstone’s Law sits comfortably alongside legal thrillers like The Lincoln Lawyer and Presumed Innocent, but it feels more grounded in everyday struggle than either of those. Easton gives the courtroom tension you’d expect, yet the book carries the emotional weight and social awareness you see in novels like Just Mercy, only with a faster and more commercial pace. It also shares some of the gritty big-city texture of Richard Price’s work, though the tone is warmer and more personal. Overall, it blends the slick entertainment of popular legal fiction with the heartfelt bite of stories that deal with wrongful convictions and the communities shaped by them.
I’d recommend Blackstone’s Law to anyone who likes legal thrillers with a little heart, readers who enjoy stories about flawed people trying to do right, and anyone curious about how the justice system can bend when the wrong person gets power. It’s gripping, emotional, and surprisingly warm in all the right places.
Pages: 284 | ASIN : B0G4NT9PBB
For Cause
In Kansas City, truth used to be simple… facts, evidence, justice. But attorney Josephina Jillian Jones… 3J… is about to learn that in a world of deepfakes, even reality can be weaponized. When Paxton Energy files for Chapter 11, 3J expects a brutal legal brawl with a powerful bank group. What she doesn’t expect… is betrayal captured on video. A damning confession from CEO Remmy Paxton… clear, crisp, and devastating. There’s only one problem. He swears… it isn’t real. As the banks tighten their grip and a crooked Wichita banker pulls strings from the shadows, the judge gives 3J twenty days to prove the impossible: that the truth is a lie. Her only hope lies with a digital forensics prodigy, who now works for Robbie McFadden, the Irish mobster who rules Kansas City’s underworld with charm, menace, and a new business model: manipulating reality itself. From urban courtrooms to the windswept oil fields of northwest Oklahoma, 3J, her mentor Bill Pascale, and investigator Ronnie Steele race to unravel a conspiracy where corruption runs deep… and the wrong move could cost far more than a case. This time, justice has competition. Coming in early 2026.
The Conti Family: Luca (An Enemies to Lovers Mafia Romance)
After eleven years in prison, Don Luca Conti walks free. Harder now. More dangerous. Elena is the federal prosecutor determined to send him back. But when their eyes meet across the courtroom, the world stops…and forbidden desire ignites. She is sent to destroy him, but ends up beneath him. One unforgettable night that leaves her carrying a mobster’s baby. And when the death threats begin, and danger closes in, the only man who can protect her is the one she vowed to destroy. Some lines shouldn’t be crossed. And some desires can’t be denied. LUCA. A Conti Family Mafia Romance by Claire Kirby.
Tequila
Tequila follows generations of the Ramirez family, from Sotero’s gamble on aging tequila in the 1950s Jaliscan Highlands to the modern corporate empire known as RAM Industries. What begins as a tale of sweat, soil, and ambition slowly becomes a saga of family betrayal, violence, and power. Across decades, we watch tequila move from rustic distilleries into the bloodstream of global trade, all while the Ramirez family wrestles with love, greed, and blood feuds that never seem to fade. It is a story that swings between passion and brutality, family devotion and ruthless ambition.
I admired the way author Tim Reuben captures place, especially the Mexican highlands where Sotero’s first plants take root. Those early chapters breathe with heat and dust, the struggle of a farmer dreaming big. Then, almost suddenly, the narrative shifts to boardrooms and courtrooms, and it struck me how ambition hardens with each generation. I found myself both hooked and unsettled. The violence was raw, sometimes shocking, yet it felt earned, a natural extension of the world Reuben built.
The writing itself is quick, sharp, and often cinematic. The dialogue snaps, the scenes cut hard, and there is little handholding. I enjoyed that rhythm because it gave the book urgency. But I also caught myself wishing for pauses, more room to breathe, especially when the story moved into modern-day plots with kidnappings, corporate lawyers, and family infighting. Still, I admired the boldness. Reuben doesn’t play it safe. He tells a story that spills over with energy, grit, and heat.
I’d recommend Tequila to readers who enjoy family sagas laced with crime, corporate drama, and old-world passion. Tequila felt like a mix of The Godfather’s family drama, the cutthroat energy of Succession, and the grit of Narcos, all poured together into one fiery shot of a story.
Pages: 407 | ASIN : B0FDH5FYHM
LITERARY TITAN 