Two brand-new legal thrillers in one book - from the authors of Juror No. 3
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A young lawyer takes on the judge who is destroying her hometown - and ends up behind bars...

In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanors. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court.

Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There's only one place to learn the truth.

Sometimes the best education a lawyer can get is a short stretch of hard time.

INCLUDES BONUS STORY: POWER OF ATTORNEY
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'I couldn't put down Jailhouse Lawyer, a page-turning legal thriller' TONY MESSENGER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

'No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades.' LEE CHILD

'The master storyteller of our times' HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

'It's no mystery why James Patterson is the world's most popular thriller writer . . . Simply put: nobody does it better.' JEFFERY DEAVER

'Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind.' MICHAEL CONNELLY

'One of the greatest storytellers of all time' PATRICIA CORNWELL

'A writer with an unusual skill at thriller plotting.' MARK LAWSON, GUARDIAN

'James Patterson is The Boss. End of.' IAN RANKIN

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
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A RACIALLY CHARGED MURDER SPLITS A TOWN IN TWO

Ruby Bozarth, a newcomer to Rosedale, Mississippi, is also fresh to the Mississippi Bar – and she faces an impossible task defending a college football star accused of murder.

The victim is a young woman from one of the town's oldest families, and Rosedale's upper crust are howling for blood.

Then news breaks of a second murder, and lurid, intertwining investigations unfold.

Ruby discovers that no one in Rosedale can be trusted, especially the twelve men and women on the jury.

They may be hiding the biggest secret of all.

To uncover the truth, she'll have to break the code of the hills …

In the Missouri Ozarks, some things aren't talked about … even abuse. But prosecutor Elsie Arnold is determined to change that.

When she is assigned to prosecute a high-profile incest case in which a father is accused of abusing his three young daughters, Elsie is ready to become the Ozarks' avenging angel.

But as Elsie sinks her teeth into the case, everything begins to turn sour. The star witness goes missing; the girls refuse to talk about their father, who terrorizes the courtroom from the moment he enters; and Elsie begins to suspect that their tough-as-nails mother has ulterior motives. To make matters worse, Elsie receives gruesome threats from local extremists, warning her to mind her own business.

While Elsie swears not to let a sex offender walk, she realizes the odds—and maybe the town—are against her, and her life begins to crumble. But amidst all of the conflict, the safety of three young girls hangs in the balance ...

A powerful debut, with the haunting atmosphere of Winter's Bone and the page-turning suspense of Alafair Burke's thrillers.

“A gripping story with dramatic twists, and a memorable heroine.” —James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

McCown County assistant prosecutor Elsie Arnold is prepping an assault case when a girl is found beaten and bloodied at a roadside no-tell motel. Elsie tries to convince the teen to reveal who attacked her, but Mandy is too scared—and stubborn—to cooperate… and then she disappears. Elsie’s positive a predator is targeting the Ozark hills, yet the authorities refuse to believe their small town could be plagued by sex trafficking.

Then middle school student Desiree Wickham goes missing, but only Elsie suspects it could be connected to Mandy’s assault. As she digs deeper into the events leading up to Desiree’s disappearance, she stumbles upon an alarming discovery: local girls are falling prey to a dubious online modeling agency, and never seen again. Elsie shares her concerns with Detective Ashlock and the FBI, but they shut her out. 

She takes matters into her own hands and lands an interview with the head of the modeling agency. But when she meets him face-to-face, she discovers the fate of Desiree and Mandy… and becomes his newest captive. Elsie’s desperate to free the girls—and save herself—before the unspeakable happens. And she’s in for the fight of her life.

“The Elsie Arnold series deserves to run and run.”— Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls and The Killer Next Door

In rural McCown County, Missouri, a young pregnant woman is found beaten to death in a trailer park. The only witness to the murder is Ivy, her six-year-old daughter, who points to her mom’s boyfriend—father of the unborn child. County prosecutor Madeleine Thompson promises the community justice, and in the Ozarks, that can only mean one thing: a death sentence.

When Madeleine’s first choice for co-counsel declines to try a death penalty case, she is forced to turn to assistant prosecutor Elsie Arnold. Elsie is reluctant to join forces with her frosty boss, but the road to conviction seems smooth—until unexpected facts about the victim arise, and the testimony of the lone eyewitness Ivy becomes increasingly crucial. Against Elsie’s advice, Madeleine brings in the state attorney general’s office to assist them, while cutthroat trial attorney Claire O’Hara joins the defense.

Elsie will not let the power of prosecution—of seeking justice—be wrested from her without a fight. She wants to win the case, and to avenge the death of the mother and her unborn child. But as the trial nears, Elsie begins to harbor doubts about the death penalty itself. Meanwhile, the child Ivy is in greater danger than anyone knows.

“Unflinching and gritty.” — Library Journal

Prosecutor Elsie Arnold loves her small-town home in the Ozark hills, but she’s been waiting for a murder to come along and make her career. So when a body is found under a bridge, throat cut, Elsie jumps at the chance to work on the case, even if it’s alongside the brash new chief assistant, Chuck Harris—and her latest flame, Detective Bob Ashlock.

But when the investigation reveals that the deceased woman was driving a school bus, and the police locate the vehicle, its interior covered in blood, the occupant and only suspect is a fifteen-year-old boy. Elsie’s in for more than she bargained for.

Win or lose, this case will haunt her. No one has successfully prosecuted a juvenile for first-degree murder in McCown County. If she loses, it’s her career on the line and a chilling homicide unresolved; if she wins, a boy’s liberty will be taken from him before he reaches his sixteenth birthday.