The Plea

The truth has no place in a courtroom. The truth doesn't matter in a trial. The only thing that matters is what the prosecution can prove. Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been more than a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy.

Hollywood actor Robert Soloman stands accused of stabbing his wife and her lover, but he is pleading that he had nothing to do with it. This is the trial of the century, and the defence want Eddie Flynn on their team. The biggest case Eddie has ever tried before, he decides to take it on despite the overwhelming evidence that Robert is guilty. As the trial starts, Eddie becomes sure of Robert's innocence, but there's something else he is even more sure of - that there is something sinister going on in the jury box.

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.

Scott Fenney is a hotshot corporate lawyer at a big Dallas firm. At 33, in the prime of his life, he rakes in $750,000 a year, drives a Ferrari, and comes home every night to a mansion in Dallas' most exclusive neighbourhood. He also comes home to one of Dallas' most beautiful women, with whom he has a much-loved daughter, Boo. For Fenney, life could not be better. But when a senator's son is killed in a hit-and-run, Fenney is asked by a state judge to put his air-conditioned lifestyle on hold.

After five grueling years, Robert Worth is just days away from making partner at a powerful Santa Monica law firm. When a client confides in him that senior partner Jack Pierce sexually assaulted her, Robert breaks two of his mentor's cardinal rules: Never let yourself get emotional about clients. And never make an enemy of Jack Pierce. Robert crosses Pierce and is fired on the spot, losing not only his job but also his reputation. Advised to go quietly, Robert vows revenge against the ruthless man who betrayed him.

When hotshot lawyer Elizabeth Brice turns up to collect her daughter, Grace, from football practice, the coach tells her she needn't have bothered, as Grace's uncle has already picked her up. The only problem is - Grace has no uncles. And so begins a furious race against time to save Grace from unknown kidnappers. Grace's Internet geek father, John, leads the search, forced to unite with his terrifying wife and even more terrifying father, Ben, a battle-hardened Vietnam veteran.

When defence lawyer Dan Grant inherits a murder case just weeks away from trial, he's just expected to babysit it and take his fee. But Dan's not that kind of lawyer. If he takes on a case, then he investigates it his way - wherever the evidence takes him. Investigator Jayne Brett is Dan's investigator and a woman with a terrible secret in her past - one that still haunts her today. Needing the money, she takes on the task of investigating the case that Dan's inherited. But has she taken on more than she can handle?

Who is JT LeBeau? A best-selling crime writer, whose words have gripped the world. The only mystery greater than his stories is his true identity. One woman thinks she's found him - her husband has millions in the bank and a letter for the enigmatic author. But the truth is far more twisted.... 

Andy Prescott is the most laid-back young lawyer in Austin, Texas. Specialising in traffic law, he operates from a small room above a ramshackle tattoo parlour. He rides a trail bike and spends way too much time drinking beer in the sunshine. Ambition has never been Andy's strong point - he prefers to take it easy. That is, until one of Texas's wealthiest men walk into his office.

Criminal defence lawyers must make their peace with one harsh fact of life: most of their clients are guilty. Yet when William Tucker, a celebrated and self-centered star college football player, is suddenly arrested and charged with the brutal rape and murder of a college coed two years before, his broken-down, drunken estranged father, Frank, can't believe he's guilty. What father could? But Frank is also an ex-criminal defence lawyer.

A young, ambitious lawyer is eager to prove he is better than the mobster dominated family he grew up in. Working as a Bronx Legal Aid attorney he learns how to become an unbeatable defense lawyer. But it's 1982. The Spiderman rapist is on the loose and New York City is a city in fear. When an outraged victim commits suicide right before his eyes, searching for absolution and determined to prove his client's innocence, he knocks the pegs out from under the prosecution's case.

The last time Tess de Vere saw William Benson, she was a law student on work experience. He was a 21-year-old, led from the dock of the Old Bailey to begin a life sentence for murder. He'd said he was innocent. She'd believed him. Sixteen years later Tess overhears a couple of hacks mocking a newcomer to the London Bar, a no-hoper with a murder conviction, running his own show from an old fishmonger's in Spitalfields.

In the ninth installment of New York Times best-selling author Sheldon Siegel's iconic San Francisco series, ex-spouses Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez have come a long way from their days as small-time defense attorneys. No longer working in a converted martial arts studio on the earthy side of Mission Street. Rosie is now San Francisco's Public Defender, and Mike is the head of the Felony Division. Their daughter is in college. Their son is in middle school. For the first time in years, there is a semblance of order in their lives. It doesn't last long.

Mark Dawson's Group Fifteen Files. Quick, lightning-paced, action.

They call him 'Scorpion'. No-one knows his real name, and the only people who have seen his face are dead. He works for the highest bidder, and he's never missed a target.

The assassin appears in London with the name of an investigative reporter on his list. But has Scorpion met his match? The reporter has a protector - John Milton. And Milton might be the only man in the world more dangerous than him.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Among Thieves by John Clarkson, read by John Chancer. Unfairly imprisoned by the State of New York, ex-con James Beck is a man with a keen sense of right and wrong. But when a friend's niece turns to him for help, he soon discovers that the men at whose hands she's suffered are more dangerous than he could possibly have imagined.