Akron Public Library

Pete Banning was Clanton's favorite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his...

The accused was a slight, freighted man who had deliberately broken the law. His trail was a Roman circus. The chief gladiators were the two great legal giants of the century. Like two bull elephants locked in mortal combat, they bellowed and roared imprecations and abuse. The spectators sat uneasily in the sweltering heat with murder in their hearts, barely able to restrain themselves.

Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller never thought he would cross the aisle and work for the prosecution--until imprisoned child killer Jason Jessup is granted a retrial based on new DNA evidence. Convinced Jessup is guilty, Haller takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. But there's a serious political taint on the case, and Haller must face down a celebrity defense attorney who has already...

Slave woman Roxana switches her baby with the infant son of the master of the house in an attempt to ensure her child will not be sold down the river, but the episode has tragic results for everyone involved.

Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin.

For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends,...

Becoming suspicious when a homeless client produces a large amount of cash just before a murdered body is discovered in the car in which the client lives, Miami attorney Jack Swyteck finds himself racing to save the life of his best friend.

"For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in the city of Highland Isle, near Kindle County, she has known that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. She has maintained a spotless reputation--until now. Three male police officers have accused her of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions to higher ranks. With few people left who she can trust, Chief Gomez turns to...

"J.F. Freedman brings to life a world where cops and criminals commit acts of cowardice and courage, where the bad - and the good - betray each other. As Luke pieces together what really happened to Reynaldo Juarez and why, he must sift through the public ambitions and private vendettas, explosive secrets and hidden relationships between men and women on both sides of the law - to expose the lies that can damn the innocent, and free the guilty."--BOOK...

In 1954, Ishmael Chambers, a local reporter who lost an arm in the war, covers the murder trial of a Japanese American fisherman, whose wife had been Ishmael's childhood sweetheart