Book picks similar to
The Twelve Apostles by William J. Coughlin


mystery
courtroom
fiction
the-twelve-apostles

The Lake House Secret


Debra Burroughs - 2013
    When human remains are discovered not far from town, Jenessa is assigned the story, throwing her into the thick of town drama.Caught between her old boyfriend, with whom she shares a sordid past, and her new love interest, who offers her something she has desperately been wanting, Jenessa is embroiled in a homicide investigation that ends up pointing the finger at someone she cares very much about. Can she uncover the truth of this murder before it destroys her family and any chance she has for a happy life?

Special Circumstances


Sheldon Siegel - 2000
     Debut author Sheldon Siegel bursts into the legal thriller arena with a riveting courtroom drama, exposing the world of big-time law firms and lawyers in a fresh, sharp-witted, wonderfully sardonic page-turner. Meet Mike Daley. Ex-priest. Ex–public defender. And as of yesterday, ex-partner in one of San Francisco's most prominent law firms. Today he's out on his own, setting up practice on the wrong side of town. Then his best friend and former colleague is charged with a brutal double murder, and Daley is instantly catapulted into a high-profile investigation involving the prestigious law firm that just booted him. As he prepares his case, Daley uncovers the firm's dirtiest secrets. It doesn't take long for him to discover that in this trial, ambition, friendship, greed, and long-standing grudges will play just as important a role as truth and justice. Brilliantly paced, crackling with energy and suspense, Special Circumstances reminds us why we love to hate lawyers — but can't get enough of courtroom drama when it's done this well.

The Advocate's Daughter


Anthony Franze - 2016
    lawyer and a frequent major media commentator on the Supreme Court, Anthony Franze delivers a high-stakes story of family, power, loss and revenge set within the insular world of the highest court of our country.Among Washington D.C. power players, everyone has secrets they desperately want to keep hidden, including Sean Serrat, a Supreme Court lawyer. Sean transformed his misspent youth into a model adulthood, and now has one of the most respected legal careers in the country. But just as he learns he's on the short list to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, his daughter, Abby, a talented and dedicated law student, goes missing. Abby's lifeless body is soon found in the library of the Supreme Court, and her boyfriend, Malik Montgomery, a law clerk at the high court, is immediately arrested. The ensuing media frenzy leads to allegations that Malik's arrest was racially motivated, sparking a national controversy.While the Serrat family works through their grief, Sean begins to suspect the authorities arrested the wrong person. Delving into the mysteries of his daughter's last days, Sean stumbles over secrets within his own family as well as the lies of some of the most powerful people in the country. People who will stop at nothing to ensure that Sean never exposes the truth.

Open Primary


A.C. Fuller - 2017
    Smith Goes to Washington for the social media age."---------------After a lifetime of political disillusionment, Mia Rhodes created an alternative to the two-party system: Ameritocracy. Part American Idol, part Iowa Caucus, her online political competition promises to find the most popular independent candidate in America and give them a genuine shot to win the presidency.But her project flounders until Mia catches the eye of eccentric tech billionaire Peter Colton. With Mia's vision and Peter's money, Ameritocracy moves rapidly from punchline to possibility. As the site grows, the stakes rise crisis by crisis, and Mia must learn that ending politics as we know it means saying goodbye to the Mia Rhodes she has always known.---------------Grab Book 1 today and find out what happens when one woman harnesses the power of the internet to destroy the two-party system...Series List--Designed to Be Read in Order:Book 1: OPEN PRIMARYBook 2: OFF MESSAGEBook 3: ECHO CHAMBER

Dead Peasants


Larry D. Thompson - 2012
    Thompson has decades of courtroom experience in his home state of Texas on controversial and important trials. Now, in Dead Peasants, Thompson has delivered a fast-moving and suspenseful legal thriller featuring a retired lawyer whose life gets turned upside down when a stranger asks for help.Jack Bryant, exhausted after a high-profile career as a lawyer, takes an early retirement in Fort Worth, Texas, where he plans to kick back, relax, and watch his son play football at TCU. But then an elderly widow shows up with a check for life insurance benefits and that is suspiciously made payable to her dead husband's employer, Jack can't turn down her pleas for help and files a civil suit to collect the benefits rightfully due the widow. A chain of events that can't be stopped thrusts Jack into a vortex of killings, and he and his new love interest find themselves targets of a murderer.Gripping, engaging, and written with the authority that only a seasoned lawyer could possess, Dead Peasants is a legal thriller that will stun and surprise you.

No Safe Place


Richard North Patterson - 1998
    Kilcannon believes he can make the system work. And he just may die trying. Driven by the violent nightmare of his childhood, fueled by forces that few could understand, and burdened by secrets no one must know, Kilcannon is running for President--and entering the crucial battleground of California with seven days to go. But for Kilcannon, there are hurdles that his courage, charisma, and compassion may not overcome: the network correspondent he still loves; the reporter bent on their exposure; the rival who'll do anything to win; and the fanatic who believes that he must murder Kilcannon to protect the right to life.

Satan's Garden


Kit Lyman - 2014
    It chronicles their experiences in parallel over the course of six years, unfolding the independent challenges they face while struggling to survive worlds apart from each other. This book club pick inspires readers to see that love, friendship, and faith can survive in spite of the most terrible circumstances.Dani and Keely imagined that life was more magical than others believed. If they had to be summed up, their one plus one would equal three. Together, they became something greater. It was twin sisters against the world. But the world had different plans. The man followed them to their secret tree house that unusually warm day in September. He only came for one, there and gone in the blink of an eye. Satan’s Garden takes you on the six-year journey of two sisters who learn what it means to survive. It’s a story of resiliency, hope, and above all, a bond that cannot be taken away. It teaches us how quickly life can change and yet how much of it we can change ourselves.

Revelation


Jo Fenton - 2020
    Manchester, 1989A student, Rick, is found dead in halls of residence.His friends get caught up in the aftermath: Dan, who was in love with Rick; and Becky, who is in love with Dan.Their fraught emotions lead them into dark places – particularly a connection to a mysterious Kabbalistic sect.Will Becky discover who killed Rick in time to save her best friend?

The Kindness of Neighbors (A Short Story)


Matthew Iden - 2014
    His wife is gone and his neighbors avoid him. He’s a recluse and a creep, and that’s just the way he wants it; he can ignore what they say behind his back if they leave him to his work and his daily walks. But when ten-year-old Emma goes missing in the nearby woods, the eyes of his neighbors turn toward him, their fear and accusations escalating as the days go by. Jack proclaims his innocence, but what the neighbors—and the reader—find out is the last thing anyone would suspect.

Trust No One


L.J. Breedlove - 2013
    Mac Davis likes being a reporter.No one shoots at him, he eats real meals regularly -- what's not to like? Then someone kidnaps his friends, and tries to kill him. Mac doesn't know who or why, but he plans to find out. And make them pay.First book of the Mac Davis thrillers.

The Darkest Flower


Kristin Wright - 2021
    Attempted murder? Inexplicable accident? Either way, a PTA mom struggled for her life in an elementary school cafeteria, poisoned by wolfsbane. Now all eyes are on the accused, the victim, and a woman hired to look deeper.Ambitious defense attorney and single mother Allison Barton is anxious to escape the shadow of the low-down dog of a marquee partner carrying their renowned Virginia law firm. A win for her high-profile new client will give Allison the career she deserves. And PTA president Kira Grant certainly appears innocent—except for the toxic bloom in her backyard and perhaps a bit of a malicious streak. But no one said the innocent had to be likable—or entirely honest. Besides, with an image as carefully cultivated as her garden, Kira would be insane to risk everything on something as outrageous as the attempted murder of one of her closest friends.What about those in Kira’s orbit, a sunny suburb of moms behaving badly? What do they really know about Kira? What does Kira know about them? For Allison, the answers are getting darker every day.

The Poison Path


Solomon Carter - 2020
    THE BODY BELONGS TO A DEADBEAT ACTOR STARRING IN A LOW BUDGET FILM. FIRST IMPRESSIONS SUGGEST ACCIDENTAL DEATH… BUT HOGARTH LEARNS THE MAN HAD PLENTY OF REASONS TO LIVE... AND THE BODY UNDER THE PIER ISN’T THE ONLY MYSTERY IN TOWN. HOGARTH MUST BATTLE HIS DEMONS BECAUSE TEMPTATION IS SET TO STRIKE AGAIN…No one knows why Gareth Manning died but everyone in the film crew has a theory. Manning was a drinker, a wastrel with a history of falling apart. But Manning had ambition too. DI Hogarth, DS Palmer and DC Simmons must work through the clues and the lies… but the deeper they delve, the murkier it gets.

Contempt


Michael Cordell - 2020
    But his efforts are complicated by death threats from the father of his alleged victim and the tidal wave of public outrage at his release.As Thane begins to find footing in the free world, a former fellow inmate is accused of murder by the same DA who put Thane behind bars. The inmate reaches out to Thane, who is unable to resist the desperate plea for help. He takes the case, thereby pitting himself against the ruthless adversary who stole five years of his life. And this adversary has a grudge to settle.But prison has taught Thane a thing or two about survival, and the last time he played by the rules, he landed on death row. This time he's staking it all - his marriage, his reputation, and even his life - on the outcome of the impending case. Thane is determined to do whatever it takes to uncover the truth, especially when startling links to his own conviction rise to the surface. But will he uncover the truth in time?

Lost Sister


Ben Cheetham - 2018
    A trip to the cinema turns into a nightmare for Anna and her little sister Jessica, when two men throw thirteen-year-old Jessica into the back of a van and speed away.The years tick by... Tick, tick... The police fail to find Jessica and her name fades from the public consciousness... Tick, tick... But every time Anna closes her eyes she’s back in that terrible moment, lurching towards Jessica, grabbing for her. So close. So agonizingly close.... Tick, tick... Now in her thirties, Anna has no career, no relationship, no children. She’s consumed by one purpose – finding Jessica, dead or alive.Detective Jim Monahan has a little black book with forty-two names in it. Jim’s determined to put every one of those names behind bars, but his investigation is going nowhere fast. Then a twenty-year-old clue brings Jim and Anna together in search of a shadowy figure known as Spider. Who is Spider? Where is Spider? Does Spider have the answers they want? The only thing Jim and Anna know is that the victims Spider entices into his web have a habit of ending up missing or dead.

Monsters


Remington Kane - 2013
    Homicide detective Ricardo Pierce suspects that many of the city's missing persons are actually victims of a serial killer.When Pierce goes on a quest to find the killer, he discovers not one, but two monsters stalking the night.Pierce is the right man to stop them, however, the detective has his own demons that he struggles against.Will Pierce stop the night predators that threaten the city, or, will he ultimately become one himself?