Deschutes Public Library

To the African-American community in San Antonio, Malachi Reese is a saint, a community leader, and a man who helps the hungry and the homeless. To District Attorney Chris Sinclair, he is the Angel of Death, a killer possessed by the need for power and willing to do whatever it takes to gain it.

A killer claims Portland's chief district attorney paid $10,000 to kill his wife, the money delivered by his second wife. No witnesses are available to corroborate the story, but lawyer Joe Antonelli agrees to prosecute the attorney anyway. The story of a trial.

When a 22-year-old law student is found brutally murdered, her father comes undone, and rightfully so. In a fit of rage, Donald Sales accuses Eric Lipton, his daughter's arrogant and brilliant professor, of killing her. Then, after an article of the victims blood-soaked clothing is found in Professor Lipton's possession, he hires attorney Casey Jordan to represent him.

Although Matthew Riordan gave up his Seattle law practice because of stress, he now agrees to help his sometime lover Elizabeth (also a lawyer) save the life of a convicted serial murderer she believes has been railroaded.

In the course of a sting operation in California a judge is arrested for soliciting prostitution. Lawyer Paul Madriani, who hates the judge, takes the case out of human charity when every other lawyer refuses. As the case proceeds the young policewoman who snared the judge is slain. Police think the judge did it and now Madriani has a murder case on his hands.

Marta Richter of the nation's top defense attorneys and an obvious choice to defend millionaire business man Elliot Steere, accused of murdering the homeless man who tried to carjack him. After mounting a sterling self-defense claim, Richter closes her case, confident she's won over the jury and obtained justice for her client. Then just as the jury begins to deliberate, she learns the shocking truth -- Steere is guilty of cold-blooded murder.

In Kindle County, personal-injury lawyer Robbie Feaver is caught evading taxes by U.S. Attorney Stan Sennett, but Sennett has bigger plans for Feaver. He wants Feaver to expose the corrupt judges in the Kindle County Superior Court by wearing a wire and getting the judges to take bribes. Feaver agrees in exchange for receiving a reduced sentence, the assurance his law partner won't be prosecuted, and extra time with his dying wife. Undercover FBI agent Evon Miller is assigned to work with Feaver and to keep an eye on him. As Sennett spins an elaborate plot to bring down Chief Judge Brendan Tuohey, Feaver and his attorney George Mason become key players in the scheme. As the legal trap is set and Feaver zeroes in on Tuohey, everyone finds they have been outsmarted and nothing ends as it was supposed to, including the legal machinations.

After years on the run, Burke is desperate to return to his native New York, the only way he can reconnect with his outlaw “family.” But to survive in their part of the City, where reputation is everything, Burke must take major risks to reestablish his presence.

Barbara Holloway's a trial lawyer who tends to take on difficult cases.One involved a woman accused of killing her own child, another involved a mentally handicapped man, and her last one found her entangled in such a mess that it's a wonder she lived through it at all.But in every previous case she has had some fragment with which she could build an argument.This time out, it seems there's no defense at all.