John Grisham's first work of nonfiction, an exploration of small town justice gone terribly awry, is his most extraordinary legal thriller yet. In the major league draft of 1971, the first player chosen from the State of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A's, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of big league glory. Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits--...

"In 1970, Willie Traynor comes to Clanton, Mississippi, in a Triumph Spitfire and a fog of vague ambitions. Within a year, the twenty-three-year-old finds himself the owner of Ford County's only newspaper, famous for its well-crafted obituaries. While the rest of America is in the grips of turmoil, Clanton lives on the edge of another age--until the brutal murder of a young mother rocks the town and thrusts Willie into the center of a storm. Daring...

When a newspaper journalist covers the trial of a Japanese American accused of murder, he must come to terms with his own past.

Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected--and first female, state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard county doesn't see many homicides. As Lu prepares for the trial,...

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything fro Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty. Parents and children alike are best friends-so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born. When the midnight calls come in from the hospital, no one is prepared for the appalling truth; Emily is dead at seventeen...

Bennie Rosato is surprised by the physical resemblance between her and her new client, and when her client announces she is Bennie's identical twin, Bennie doesn't believe her, but she finds herself drawn to her and as she investigates her client's case, she uncovers secrets her family would kill to keep from her.

In the small city of Strattenburg there are many lawyers, and thirteen-year-old Theo Boone thinks he is one of them, but his inside knowledge of the justice system means trouble when a cold-blodded killer is about to go free and only Theo can stop him.

"Paul Madriani, now a brilliant criminal defense attorney, was once a promising associate with Potter, Skarpellos, a prestigious law firm. One of its co-founders, his faultless reputation has earned him a probable nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court -- until the aftermath of an affair with Ben Potter's wife. Paul has left the firm and taken up a self-imposed exile in a small solo practice. On the eve of the nomination, Potter is found dead, an apparent...

"Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely...

Hackberry Holland takes the sheriff job in a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border hoping he can leave his past behind and lead a quiet life, but the discovery of nine illegal aliens who were brutally murdered ruins any chance of peace and sends Hackberry in search of Iraq veteran Pete Flores and his girlfriend, who witnessed the crime and are wanted by the ruthless criminals who will stop at nothing to keep them quiet.