When lawyer Sam Bogdarus agrees to see Jennifer Davies little does he realise that his attractive new client is to put his life at risk. Jennifer is tracing her father - her only clue being four sheets of parchment belonging to the journals of Sir Francis Drake. These papers hold the key to her father's identity and a multitude of unsolved mysteries... Full of scepticism, Sam agrees to show the papers to university professor Nick Jorgensen. Astoundingly, Nick verifies the papers' authenticity. But already too many people know of the journal's existence. And when his lawyer partner is found murdered, Sam encounters a ruthless killer who seems determined to stop his pursuit of the truth. Eventually Sam is lured into the Simeon Chamber, to discover one of the best-kept secrets time has ever known...

Paul Madriani, a brilliant criminal defense lawyer, had a once-promising career with a prestigious law-firm, until an ill-judged affair with the senior partner Ben Potter's wife led to his resignation. Now he scrambles for work amid the ghosts of his doomed affair and the remains of a failing marriage. Then Potter is found dead, an apparent suicide. But as details come to light, the case turns from suicide to murder and the needle of suspicion points towards the victim's seductive wife, Talia Potter. Indicted and arrested, Talia turns to Paul, her former lover, to defend her against the mounting evidence in a case that for her could result in the gas chamber

Tired of the corrosive politics of Capital City, hot-shot lawyer Paul Madriani has reached a watershed in his life. A new practice in San Diego, the mellow swells of the Pacific, and if things work out, a future with Susan McKay - that's the plan. But when Paul meets an old client, whose eight-year-old granddaughter has been abducted, he is drawn into a case which destroys everything he believes in.

Joss Cole, a burned out public defender from LA, has opted for a quieter life in Washington State. Then into her office walks Dean Belden in search of a lawyer to help him set up a business. Within days Belden appears before a federal grand jury and, just minutes before testifying, he is killed. Meanwhile, Gideon van Ry, a nuclear fission expert in California, is troubled by the failure to account for two nuclear devices missing from the former Soviet Union. Under a false bill of lading, they were shipped to a company called Belden Electronics, and Gideon's only lead is the lawyer who incorporated Belden Electronics - Joss Cole...

Gable Cooper has penned a novel worth six million dollars. But he doesn't exist. Abby Chandlis is lawyer-turned-novelist and the creator of Gable Cooper. She is looking for a charismatic man to pose as the author of her knock-dead thriller. When Jack Jermaine enters her life, Abby is convinced that his charm and good looks will clinch success for her novel, so they make a deal. But as her book rockets to the top of the bestsellers list and Jack is propelled into stardom, Abby senses peril. A series of deadly accidents persuades her that her life is in danger and, with Jack in pursuit, she races to the one person who can put an end to the nightmare that was once her dream of making The List.

Recently widowed attorney Paul Madriani is struggling to hold on to what is left of his family when he and his young daughter are caught up in yet another family tragedy. Paul's sister-in-law, Laurel Vega, is involved in a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband, Jack, who wants to take their children to Washington DC. When her case disintegrates, Jack's new wife is found dead in the family home. Laurel is arrested and charged with murder. Madriani takes on her defence but the evidence against Laurel is daunting and her own failure to cooperate - in particular, to tell Paul where she was on the night of the murder - leaves the reader wondering if perhaps he is defending a guilty woman. But what actually happened that night is more tragic than anything revealed so far. And it is up to Paul to uncover the shattering piece of evidence that will lead to the terrible truth.

Defense attorney Paul Madriani is embroiled in a case as perilous as any he has ever faced, one that involves an angry killer who will stop at nothing short of vengeance, and, the other, two missing NASA scientists who are holding secrets that a government desperately wants to purchase--in blood if they must.

Madriani's daughter narrowly evades the man known as Liquida, who has stalked her across the country. Meanwhile, in California, two men argue over millions in cash and a scheme involving government technology-for-sale that could rock the world.

Paul Madriani, his companion Joselyn Cole, and his law partner Harry Hinds begin to track Liquida and a missing scientist across the globe, and find themselves falling into a vortex of international terror. They must find the men before they can unleash a weapon of mass destruction that will set the world ablaze.

The Old Weatherman dreams of a plan that could be his swan song, an attack to drive a stake through the heart of the right-wing establishment and bury it for good. Now he's found the money, the ideal weapon, and the professional who knows how to use it. And he has set his sights on the perfect target at the very seat of the United States government, in the heart of downtown Washington. It will be a strike heard round the world.

San Diego defense attorney Paul Madriani is still reeling from the trauma of a near nuclear explosion he helped avert at the naval base in Coronado. Threatened by federal authorities to keep quiet about the close call in California, Madriani is now faced with a new problem in the steely-eyed and alluring Joselyn Cole, a weapons control expert, who believes he has to go public with what he knows if they have any hope of stopping a similar event in the future.

But Madriani has been linked to the murder of a Washington, D.C., political staffer, and authorities believe a shadowy figure called Liquida--a hired assassin known as "the Mexicutioner"--may be responsible. And this man, as the last survivor of the attack in San Diego, might be driven by a bizarre and horrifying star-crossed vendetta, and might now be looking for Madriani himself. What Madriani and Cole begin to fear is that the Old Weatherman and this madman have joined forces and intend to pull the city--and the country--into a vortex of terror before Madriani and Cole can find answers to the enigma that is "the rule of nine."

In the space of five days the college town of Davenport is rocked by four brutal murders: two couples - students - their bodies found tied and staked out on the banks of Putah Creek. Then two more bodies are discovered. This time the victims are Abbott Scofield, a distinguished member of the university faculty, and his former wife Karen. The police suspect Andre Iganovich, a Russian immigrant, but Paul Madriani thinks there is more to the case than meets the eye. Forensic reports on the physical evidence suggest lingering questions about the Russian's involvement in the Scofield killings, and Paul becomes increasingly convinced that the second murders are the product of a copy-cat killer - a cold and calculating murderer who has taken the lives of the Scofields for reasons that Paul is determined to uncover...

Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin in one of the most entertaining novels yet in this "New York Times" bestselling series.

A woman pauses in the hallway of a darkened San Diego beach house at night--listening for just the right moment when she can flee before her companion notices that she's gone.

A man outside watches the same mansion, waiting for a sign that he can enter on his mission of blood and carnage.

So begins this riveting new tale about Paul Madriani and his latest case--that of Katia, a woman accused of an unlikely crime--a trial that will unravel a careful but horrifying conspiracy. Madriani soon realizes that he's signed onto something much more sinister than a botched heist. As he searches for the truth that will clear Katia's name, he finds himself on a path that takes him from Southern California to Costa Rica, and, ultimately, to a secret buried since Castro's rise to power.

Together with his partner, Harry Hinds, Madriani must piece together the threads of a decades-old conspiracy involving priceless gold coins, an aging American spy, a disaffected Russian soldier, and a forgotten weapon from the days of JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis. As the separate strands of the story come together, Madriani finds information that will ultimately lead him to the one person who holds the key to it all: a man some call "The Guardian of Lies."

In this fascinating thriller from "New York Times" bestselling author Steve Martini, Paul Madriani faces his most challenging--and most urgent--case yet, a breathless story that combines fact and fiction and will hold readers captive until its final, explosive conclusion.

When a controversial legal scholar--whose latest book contains shocking information about the U.S. Constitution and founding father Thomas Jefferson--is killed, defense attorney Paul Madriani faces his greatest challenge yet. Searching for the truth in what appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder, Madriani's pursuit of justice pits him against one of the nation's highest public institutions: the Supreme Court.

When Judge Armando 'The Coconut' Acosta is caught with a prostitute, few are sympathetic. Lawyer Paul Madriani has a long history of enmity with the judge and considers Acosta's arrest to be the consequence of a lifetime of corruption. Even when the call girl is found to be a beautiful police academy recruit and the entire case appears to be a set-up, Paul is still reluctant to step in and save the judge's career from impending doom. Then the police recruit is brutally killed and Acosta is charged with murder. Lenore Goya, an ambitious defence lawyer, takes on Acosta's case and reluctantly Madriani is persuaded to come on board - they both know he owes her one. Together they uncover the shocking evidence, the ugly lies, the deceit and the corruption that are at the bottom of the most complex and terrifying murder trial of Madriani's career.

Defending an innocent young man, defense attorney Paul Madriani uncovers a morass of corruption and greed that leads to the highest levels of political power in this electrifying tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini.One of the most successful lawyers in the country, Olinda Serna is a master at managing money as well as her influential clients. After years of fierce combat in the political trenches, Serna knows all the dirty secrets, where the bodies are buried, and how deeply they are stacked. When she's killed in a roadside crash in the high desert of Southern California, powerful heads in Washington begin to panic, worried that their secrets may not be safe anymore.Alex Ives, a friend of Paul Madriani's daughter, is accused of vehicular manslaughter in Serna's death. Ives claims he had only one drink on the night of the accident, yet he can't remember anything between the time he left for a party north of San Diego and the moment he woke up in a hospital the next morning. He's still dazed and a little bruised, but also obviously very afraid. After all, a woman is dead, and he's sure he didn't kill her.To save an innocent young man's life, the brilliant defense attorney must uncover everything he can about Serna and her clients--no matter how unsavory--a search that will lead him into a vortex of corruption, and at its center, a devious killer poised to strike again.