Twenty-five books were submitted for the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The distinguished selection committee included Robert Barnes, Steven Hobbs, Claire Hamner Matturro, Utz McKnight, and Gin Phillips.
Three finalists were chosen for the 2019 award: The Boat People by Sharon Bala, Class Action by Steven B. Frank, and The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey.
Sharon Bala's debut novel The Boat People was awarded the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The novel utilizes several perspectives to tell the story of a family of Sri Lankan refugees who escaped a civil war only to face accusations of terrorism and the threat of deportation. Other prominent characters include a young Sri Lankan-Canadian law student who aids refugee family and an adjudicator who is also the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants interned during WWII in Canada.
Bala was presented with the award during a special ceremony coinciding with the Library of Congress' National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on August 29, 2019.
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The boat people
Sharon Bala
A debut novel about a thirty-five-year-old Sri Lankan refugee who has survived the harrowing experiences of civil war, a prison camp, and a perilous ocean voyage to Canada--but his journey has only begun, as he and his young son navigate the morass of the refugee system -- Provided by publisher
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The widows of Malabar Hill
Sujata Massey
Introducing an extraordinary female lawyer-sleuth in a new historical series set in 1920s Bombay. Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's legal rights. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forfeit what their husband left them? Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X--meaning she probably couldn't even read the document. The Farid widows live in full purdah--in strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger. -- Provided by publisher;"Includes bibliographical references"
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Class action
Steven Frank
With the help of his older sister, his three best friends, and his elderly neighbor, sixth grader Sam Warren brings a class action suit against the Los Angeles School Board, arguing that homework is unconstitutional, and his case goes all the way to the Supreme Court;"Accelerated Reader AR MG 4.9 7 194400"
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Unreasonable doubts: a novel
Reyna Gentin
Jaded New York City Public Defender Liana Cohen would give anything to have one client in whom she can believe. Dozens of hardened criminals and repeat offenders have chipped away at her faith in both herself and the system. Her boyfriend Jakob's high-powered law firm colleagues see her do-gooder job as a joke, which only adds to the increasing strain in their relationship. Enter imprisoned felon Danny Shea, whose unforgivable crime would raise a moral conflict in an attorney at the height of her idealism--and that hasn't been Liana in quite a while. But Danny's astonishing blend of good looks, intelligence, and vulnerability intrigues Liana. Could he be the client she's been longing for--the wrongly accused in need of a second chance? Is he innocent? As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arm's length, Liana is forced to confront fundamental questions of truth, faith, and love--and to decide who she wants to be. -- Amazon.com
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The third victim
Phillip Margolin
In rural Oregon, two women are found dead after being tortured, battered, and burned. A third woman escapes with evidence that points overwhelmingly to a local man. When a young lawyer joins the team defending him, she uncovers corruption, lies, and secrets that threaten to shake up not only her firm but the entire town -- Provided by publisher;"Rural Oregon. A woman stumbles onto a road she tells a horrific tale of being tortured, battered, and bound. She's the lucky one-- two other women, with similar burns and bruises, were found dead. Evidence found at the scene, Alex Mason's summer home, is damning. The prominent local attorney insists upon his innocence but his wife gives evidence about his sexual sadism. Criminal defense attorney Regina Barrister agrees to take on the case. But she's got a secret, one that threatens her skill, her reputation, and, most of all, her clients"
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A gambler's jury
Victor Methos
What they’re doing to her client is a crime. Attorney Dani Rollins is bullish in the courtroom―pushing judges and prosecutors to their limits in defense of the innocent. So when she meets Teddy Thorne, a mentally challenged teen accused of selling drugs, Dani knows she’s got this in the bag. She can easily settle the case with a couple of court appearances. But when prosecutors move for an adult felony conviction, Dani suspects Teddy’s being used as a pawn in a sinister game. As the case moves forward, Dani is certain the judge and district attorney’s office have motivations beyond the crime―a fair trial isn’t in the cards. And when she takes on guardianship of Teddy, the case becomes personal as she fights her own demons and the government. Dani will stop at nothing to protect this innocent boy―there’s no other option. Because if she loses, both she and Teddy could lose far more than just the case…
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The shotgun lawyer
Victor Methos
Personal injury attorney Peter Game has a reputation: cynical, untroubled by ethics, and willing to take any case, anytime, in his pursuit of the win. He dreams of a sweetheart score that'll make his name and net him millions. Then comes the lightning rod: a school shooting just outside of Salt Lake City. His client: the devastated mother of one of the victims. What she wants is understandable--just not simple: to sue the manufacturers of the automatic weapon used in the mass killing. Game's opponent, brilliant lawyer Brennen Garvin, is the least of his problems: the entire legal system, influenced by decades of pressure from powerful gun lobbies, is stacked against him. For Game, this is the case of a lifetime. He's just not sure his trademark rules will work in his favor. And he's not sure he wants them to. As Game's lust for victory gives way to a hunger for justice, he could lose everything--or win back his soul. (goodreads.com)
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Never goodbye: a novel
Adam Mitzner
After her sister was murdered, Ella Broden meted out her own punishment, then abandoned her career to pursue her passion as a singer. But another murder that hits close to home draws her back to seek justice. Dana Goodwin is the newly appointed deputy chief in the Special Victims Bureau, replacing Ella. For her, the case is also personal, but behind Dana's relentless pursuit, her motives might be running deeper than anyone can see. Her secrets too. Connecting the two women is Ella's boyfriend, Gabriel Velasquez, who has teamed up with Dana to investigate the murder. At first, Ella thinks all she has to fear about this case is what she knows--that she could be the next target of a man's obsession. But the closer she works with Dana, the more she starts to believe that the most dangerous thing of all is what she doesn't know
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An Engineered Injustice
William L. Myers Jr.
When a passenger train derails in North Philadelphia with fatal results, idealistic criminal defense attorney Vaughn Coburn takes on the most personal case of his young career. The surviving engineer is his cousin Eddy, and when Eddy asks Vaughn to defend him, he can't help but accept. Vaughn has a debt to repay, for he and his cousin share an old secret--one that changed both their lives forever. As blame for the wreck zeros in on Eddy, Vaughn realizes there's more to this case than meets the eye. Seeking the truth behind the crash, he finds himself the target of malicious attorneys, corrupt railroad men, and a mob boss whose son perished in the accident and wants nothing less than cold-blooded revenge. With the help of his ex-con private investigator and an old flame who works for the competition, Vaughn struggles to defeat powerful forces--and to escape his own past built on secrets and lies
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Where the crawdads sing
Delia Owens
September 2018 selection of Reese Witherspoon's book club;"For years, rumors of the Marsh Girl have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world -- until the unthinkable happens"
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Good intentions
J D. Trafford
Judge Jim Thompson's world is unraveling. He's facing public backlash on a decision-gone-wrong for a young boy in foster care and, even worse, he's just discovered that his mentor, Judge Meyer, has been murdered. Despite his self-doubt in the face of media scrutiny, Jim is determined to continue his friend's legacy -- and find his killer. As he digs into the mysterious death, Jim comes across a case that had haunted the judge for decades -- a case he couldn't let go of. Judge Meyer had worked hard to find the right solutions for foster children, but rulings in such cases are never simple, and his decisions may have cost him his life. As Jim searches for answers, he begins to see similarities between his mentor's past and his own present. Now it's up to him to learn from his late friend's mistakes ad track down a killer -- before he loses everything that matters to him. --Page 4 of cover
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Blanket immunity
Adam Van Susteren
A successful prosecutor goes all in with a campaign to become a judge. After losing the race, she quits her job to open a criminal defense practice. Needing to build her practice and escape from debt, she takes an accused rapist as her first client, a drug dealer as her second, and a murderer as her third. The cases challenge her in ways she couldn’t have predicted, leading her to a perilous cross-roads. Find out if she works for or against the interests of a client to achieve justice and who should be entitled to Blanket Immunity.
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The wife: a novel of psychological suspense
Alafair Burke
When Angela met Jason Powell while catering a dinner party in East Hampton, she assumed their romance would be a short-lived fling, like so many relationships between locals and summer visitors. To her surprise, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. For Angela, the marriage turned out to be a chance to reboot her life. She and her son were finally able to move out of her mother's home to Manhattan, where no one knew about her tragic past. Six years later, thanks to a bestselling book and a growing media career, Jason has become a cultural lightning rod, placing Angela near the spotlight she worked so carefully to avoid. When a college intern makes an accusation against Jason, and another woman, Kerry Lynch, comes forward with an even more troubling allegation, their perfect life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, and Angela believes him. But when Kerry disappears, Angela is forced to take a closer look--at both the man she married and the women she chose not to believe. -- Provided by publisher
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A steep price
Robert Dugoni
Called in to consult after a young woman disappears, Tracy Crosswhite has the uneasy feeling that this is no ordinary missing-persons case. When the body turns up in an abandoned well, Tracy's suspicions are confirmed. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn't Tracy's only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her own: she's pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy's colleague Vic Fazzio is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead. Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk. -- Publishers description
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Bum deal
Paul J. Levine
Second-string linebacker turned disillusioned defense attorney Jake Lassiter finally switches teams. Appointed special prosecutor in a high-profile murder case, he vows to take down a prominent surgeon accused of killing his wife. There's just one problem, or maybe three: no witnesses, no evidence, and no body
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Juror #3
James Patterson
Struggling young attorney Ruby Bozarth defends a man she passionately believes to be innocent in a first murder trial that could make or break her career, only to discover that the case is affected by a juror's shocking secret
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Feared: a Rosato & DiNunzio novel
Lisa Scottoline
Sequel to: Exposed;" When three men announce that they are suing the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm for reverse sex discrimination--claiming that they were not hired because they were men--Mary DiNunzio and Bennie Rosato are outraged. To make matters worse, their one male employee, John Foxman, intends to resign, claiming that there is some truth to this case. The plaintiffs' lawyer is Nick Machiavelli, who has already lost to Mary once and is now back with a vengeance--determined not to not only win, but destroy the firm. It soon becomes clear that Machiavelli will do anything in his power to achieve his end ... even after the case turns deadly. The stakes have never been higher for Mary and her associates as they try to keep Machiavelli at bay, solve a murder, and save the law firm they love ... or they could lose everything they've worked for. -- Provided by publisher"
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The trial and execution of the traitor George Washington: a novel
Charles B. Rosenberg
British special agent Jeremiah Black, an officer of the King's Guard, lands on a lonely beach in the wee hours of the morning in late November 1780. The revolution is in full swing but has become deadlocked. Black is here to change all that. His mission, aided by Loyalists, is to kidnap George Washington and spirit him back to London aboard the HMS Peregrine, a British sloop of war that is waiting closely offshore. Once he lands, though, the aid by Loyalists proves problematic because some would prefer just to kill the general outright. Black manages--just--to get Washington aboard the Peregrine, which sails away. Upon their arrival in London, Washington is imprisoned in the Tower to await trial on charges of high treason. England's most famous barristers seek to represent him but he insists on using an American. He chooses Abraham Hobhouse, an American-born barrister with an English wife--a man who doesn't really need the work and thinks the career-building case will be easily resolved through a settlement of the revolution and Washington's release. But as greater political and military forces swirl around them and peace seems ever more distant, Hobhouse finds that he is the only thing keeping Washington from the hangman's noose. Drawing inspiration from a rumored kidnapping plot hatched in 1776 by a member of Washington's own Commander-in-Chief Guard, Charles Rosenberg has written a compelling novel that envisions what would take place if the leader of America's fledgling rebellion were taken from the nation at the height of the war, imperiling any chance of victory. --Amazon
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After Anna
Lisa Scottoline
Dr. Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti, and for the first time in a long time, he and his young son are happy. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn't seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she's even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she'd lost forever, her only daughter Anna. Maggie and Noah know that having Anna around will change their lives, but they would never have guessed that everything would go wrong, and so quickly. Anna turns out to be a gorgeous seventeen-year-old who balks at living under their rules, though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble brewing in a once-perfect marriage and home. Events take a heartbreaking turn when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused and tried for the heinous crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her daughter, but the realization that Anna's murder may have been at the hands of a husband she loves. In the wake of this tragedy, new information drives Maggie to search for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she could have ever imagined
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Knucklehead
Adam Smyer
A trade paperback original --Page 4 of cover;" In Knucklehead, we meet Marcus Hayes, a black law student who struggles, sometimes unsuccessfully, with the impulse to confront everyday bad behavior with swift and antisocial action. The cause of this impulse is unknown to him. When Marcus unexpectedly becomes involved with the brilliant and kind Amalia Stewart, her love and acceptance pacify his demons. But then his demons return, he is no longer inclined to contain them --Page 4 of cover"
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Anatomy of a scandal
Sarah Vaughan
Emily Bestler Books. ;" An astonishingly incisive and suspenseful novel about a scandal amongst Britain's privileged elite and the women caught up in its wake. Sophie's husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart. Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case: an experienced professional who knows that the law is all about winning the argument. And yet Kate seeks the truth at all times. She is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes. Who is right about James? Sophie or Kate? And is either of them informed by anything more than instinct and personal experience? Despite her privileged upbringing, Sophie is well aware that her beautiful life is not inviolable. She has known it since she and James were first lovers, at Oxford, and she witnessed how easily pleasure could tip into tragedy. Most people would prefer not to try to understand what passes between a man and a woman when they are alone: alone in bed, alone in an embrace, alone in an elevator ... Or alone in the moonlit courtyard of an Oxford college, where a girl once stood before a boy, heart pounding with excitement, then fear. Sophie never understood why her tutorial partner Holly left Oxford so abruptly. What would she think, if she knew the truth? -- Provided by publisher"
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The last trial
Robert Bailey
A legal thriller --Cover;"McMurtrie's old nemesis, Jack Willistone, is found dead on the banks of the Black Warrior River. Willistone had his share of enemies, but all evidence points to a forgotten, broken woman as the killer. At the urging of the suspect's desperate fourteen-year-old daughter, McMurtrie agrees to take the case. But as seasoned as McMurtrie is, even he isn't prepared for how personal and dangerous this case is going to get. With the trial drawing near and his sharp young partner, Rick Drake, dealing with a family tragedy, he recruits his best friend, Bocephus Haynes, to help investigate. As key witnesses disappear and old demons return, time becomes McMurtrie's most fearsome opponent. Soon loyalties will be tested and the boundaries of law will be broken as McMurtrie fights to save his legacy- and his client's life- before the truth is buried forever in the muddy waters of the Black Warrior"
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Her kind of case: a Lee Isaacs, Esq. novel
Jeanne Winer
Lee Isaacs is a top-notch criminal defense attorney still coming to terms with the death of her husband five years earlier. She has recently lost a high-profile murder case and worries she might be losing her winning touch. Then she's hired to defend a teenage boy accused of helping a group of skinheads murder a gay man. The boy has confessed to the crime and has no desire to defend himself. But the more Lee looks into this seemingly impossible case, the more convinced she is that the boy actually had nothing to do with the murder at all. The novel follows the twists and turns of Lee's attempts to earn her client's trust, track down promising leads, and deploy her decades of legal expertise to see that an innocent boy isn't doomed to life in prison
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The boardwalk trust
Avery Duff
A beach lawyer novel --Cover;" Big city. Big dreams. Big lies. With the flawless sky above and the boardwalk below, Robert Worth has set up shop on Venice Beach with an eye on Delfina Famosa, his unexpected first client. A whip-smart homeless kid, Delfina reaches out to Robert to keep her father, Teo, out of trouble. The pair claim to be beneficiaries of the seven-figure Famosa trust, and Delfina wants him to have their backs in court. But in a city of illusions, nothing is what it appears to be. Robert should be taking his own advice-- always keep his professional distance. Yet every sharp turn and revealed secret draws him closer to his clients. And the closer he gets, the greater the danger. All he wants now is for everyone to get what they deserve. For some, he hopes it's not too late. For others-- they won't even see him coming. -- From back cover"
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Though the heavens fall: a Collins-Burke mystery
Anne Emery
As 1995 dawns in the North of Ireland, Belfast is a city of army patrols, bombed-out buildings, and peace walls segregating one community from the other. But the IRA has called a ceasefire. So, it's as good a time as any for Monty Collins and Father Brennan Burke to visit the city: Monty to do a short gig in a law firm, and Brennan to reconnect with family. And it's a good time for Brennan's cousin Ronan to lay down arms and campaign for election in a future peacetime government. But the past is never past in Belfast, and it rises up to haunt them all: a man goes off a bridge on a dark, lonely road a rogue IRA enforcer is shot and a series of car bombs remains an unsolved crime. The trouble is compounded by a breakdown in communication: Brennan knows nothing about the secrets in a file on Monty's desk. And Monty has no idea what lies behind a late-night warning from the IRA about the Burke family. With a smoking gun at the center of it all, Brennan and Monty are on a collision course and will learn more than they ever wanted to know about what passes for law in 1995 Belfast. An inscription on a building south of the Irish border says it all: Let justice be done though the heavens fall.