New Release Books by Steve Martini

Defending a medical researcher accused of murdering a colleague raises one of the most difficult ethical questions attorney Paul Madriani has ever faced: how far should science go to find a cure for our most life-threatening diseases? When medical researcher Michael Givens is charged with the murder of a colleague he turns to Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds to defend him. The murder victim, a noted chemist and genetic specialist, was on the cusp of one of the great medical discoveries of history, a cure for cancer—a genetic silver bullet. Prosecutors are convinced that Givens coldly planned and carried out the murder, and that the motive was professional jealousy. Madriani doesn’t buy it. A longtime criminal defense attorney with a keen eye for assessing clients, he is convinced that Givens would not commit murder, and certainly not with the crude explosive device that was used. But someone else did. Digging into the victim’s work and his personal life, Madriani discovers a web of deceit and lies. Rumors surface of serious ethical violations in the testing program required to pave the way to vast riches for those who hold the patents on the new drug. Whispers abound that the dead doctor crossed moral boundaries not only in his professional life, but in his personal affairs as well, conduct for which others might well have killed him. Concerns are voiced that the new wonder drug may prove so successful in eradicating cancer that global mortality rates could plummet. If so, could a population explosion of huge proportions result, leading to economic and political upheaval, violence, and war? Every silver lining has its dark cloud. Behind all of this is a sinister web of intrigue into which the lawyers tumble as they fight to defend their client and discover the truth. It is a trial unlike any they have seen before, a cauldron of conspiracy that threatens to destroy Paul and Harry along with their client.

Defending a client accused of killing her father, attorney Paul Madriani is drawn into a treacherous conspiracy dating to World War II in this enthralling installment in the New York Times bestselling series. Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds have a new client: Emma Brauer, a woman accused in the “mercy killing” of her aged father, Robert Brauer. Insisting she’s innocent, Emma tells Paul about a package sent to her father shortly before he entered the hospital. Bequeathed to him by a member of his unit from World War II, the box contains a key and a slip of paper. Emma fears that this package is connected to her father’s death. When Paul’s young assistant Sofia is murdered, Madriani is blindsided by the realization that Emma’s fears are well-grounded. Digging into Robert’s military history, Madriani discovers that other members of the Army unit Robert served with have recently died—under similarly suspicious circumstances. When he finds that the box sent to Brauer relates to a mysterious talisman that went missing at the end of the war—a feared Nazi relic known as the “Blood Flag”—Madriani and Hinds realize they are in for the fight of their lives. With Emma’s life on the line and their own safety in jeopardy, Madriani must uncover the truth before the evil of the Blood Flag is allowed to spin a new web.

In this unprecedented collaboration, twenty-three of the world's favourite crime writers bring you original, co-written short stories featuring teir much loved series characters.

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.

Navy SEALs are the military's elite—highly trained, deadly, and sworn to secrecy about the details of their dangerous and confidential missions. So when one of the men goes public about a high-profile assassination abroad, all of his comrades are thrown into peril. In this riveting novella, attorney Paul Madriani comes to the aid of a Navy SEAL who is pursued by his own government and facing possible prosecution for disclosures he says were made by others. When the soldier disappears, Paul finds himself ensnared in a deadly game of intrigue that forces him to track the man down before it is too late.

In this short story from the New York Times bestselling thriller anthology FaceOff, Linda Fairstein and Steve Martini—along with their popular series characters Alex Cooper and Paul Madriani—team up for the first time ever. Paired together on a legal conference panel, Assistant Manhattan D.A. Alexandra Cooper and Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Paul Madriani butt heads over a hypothetical case. But Madriani—currently representing a defendant in the suspected murder of an L.A.-area madam—runs afoul of Coop within minutes over the issue of empathy for the victim, real or hypothetical. Still, after the panel there are no hard feelings and the two colleagues plan to enjoy a drink at one of Coop’s favorite New York City watering holes—that is, until they are approached by an audience member claiming to know something about Madriani’s real-life case that will exonerate his client. Cooper and Madriani’s meeting with the source will lead them into the thick of a global conspiracy that reaches to the highest echelons of power—and ultimately, justice will be done. For more exciting pairs, check out all eleven short stories in FaceOff!

For a limited time, meet bestselling author Steve Martini's hero Paul Madriani in this special, discounted digital edition of Guardian of Lies, including excerpts from The Rule of Nine and Martini's forthcoming Madriani thriller, Trader of Secrets (available May 31). In Guardian of Lies, fate has bound attorney Paul Madriani to a young Costa Rican woman accused of a horrific crime, ensnaring them both in a frightening conspiracy that ranges beyond U.S. borders. A Cold War nightmare is being reshaped for a new century—a threat too terrible to imagine yet too real to be ignored—leading Madriani, his partner Harry Hinds, and the fugitive Katia directly into the path of an unstoppable, very angry assassin. From the halls of American justice to the jungles of South America and a dark secret buried since the days of Castro's ascendance, the race is on to prevent the unthinkable—by unveiling the hidden truth protected by the "Guardian of Lies."

Still reeling from the trauma of a near nuclear explosion at the naval base in Coronado, San Diego defense attorney Paul Madriani now finds he's been linked to the murder of a Washington, D.C., political staffer. Authorities believe the bloodthirsty assassin Liquida Muerte—aka "the Mexicutioner"—may be responsible, and that Madriani is the ultimate target of the killer's twisted vengeance. But the danger pales before an even more terrible unfolding scenario. Evidence is mounting that the elusive maniac and a domestic terrorist who calls himself the Old Weatherman have joined forces, intending to strike at the very seat of the United States government, pulling the capital city—and the country—into a vortex of terror . . . unless Paul Madriani and weapons control expert Joselyn Cole can somehow unravel the enigma of . . . The Rule of Nine.

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."

New York Times bestselling master of suspense Steve Martini returns, ensnaring defense attorney Paul Madriani in a web of terror and death being spun in the shadows of America's most sacred and secretive institution-the Supreme Court.A writer is savagely slain while on a publicity tour-a literary provocateur who craved headlines, but whose last book may have gone too far. His revelations about secret language buried in the U.S. Constitution-and hints about an explosive missing letter of Thomas Jefferson's-may be enough to cause an irreparable tear in the fabric of the nation . . . and perhaps drove a volatile youth to homicide. But Paul Madriani thinks a troubled young man with dark connections has been chosen as a scapegoat to cover up something far deadlier that festers in America's political heart. And in the wake of the strange disappearance of a Supreme Court judge, Madriani must survive long enough to find the devastating answers hidden in the shadow of power.

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.

New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini takes legal thrillers to a new level in this Paul Madriani novel about a soldier's secrets and a government's lies... A beautiful businesswoman, founder of a high-tech software company catering to the military, is found dead, two tightly grouped bullet wounds to her a head—a “double tap,” the trademark of highly skilled assassins. Paul Madriani takes the case of the man accused of the crime: a career soldier who refuses to explain the mysterious gaps in his military résumé. Faced with an uncooperative client, Madriani begins a dangerous search for the truth—in the soldier's shadowy past, in the victim's deadly secrets...

'The List': Gable Cooper has penned a novel worth 6 million dollars. But he doesn't exist. His creator is looking for a charismatic man to pose as the author. 'Critical Mass': A burnt out public defender from L.A, has opted for a quiter life in Washington State. But the a client is murdered.

In California, two men argue in a parked car . . . as the plot unfolds to profitably transfer secret tech- nology into malevolent hands. In Ohio, a young woman slips away from her protectors for a morning run—unaware that the killer she’s being protected from waits in the darkness. The woman is Sarah, daughter of defense attorney Paul Madriani. Her assailant is the vengeful assassin named Liquida. Now Paul Madriani—along with his companion, Joselyn Cole, and his law partner, Harry Hinds—must venture into the vortex of international terror in search of an ice-cold killer and a trader of secrets before the ultimate weapon of mass destruction sets the world ablaze.

In this gripping New York Times bestseller, a double murder leads lawyer Paul Madriani into a web of international intrigue and conspiracy. The verdict on The Jury was unanimous. Larry King in USA Today called it “a cracklin’ good read” and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it as “one of Martini’s best novels to date.” Now, The Arraignment takes Madriani into uncharted territory—into the minds of men whose murderous greed knows no bounds...and onto the front lines of the South American drug war.

The Attorney, which marked the return of Steve Martini's lawyer-sleuth Paul Madriani, was hailed for its "well-observed courtroom maneuverings" (The Christian Science Monitor) and "crisp dialogue and tart observations" (Publishers Weekly). Now Martini delivers the most daunting capital case of Madriani's career. Paul Madriani has ample reason to suspect he's representing a guilty man. Dr. David Crone, a respected medical researcher and principal in mapping the human genome, is charged with the murder of a young colleague: twenty-six-year-old Kalista Jordan, an African-American research physician whose body washed up on a beach in San Diego Bay. Forensic evidence links her murder with material in Crone's garage. Crone had both opportunity and motive: Kalista had recently ended their affair, and may have been deserting him professionally as well, moving on to a rival genetic research facility. However, when a key witness for the prosecution dies unexpectedly, leaving an incriminating note behind, Crone's innocence seems confirmed-until Madriani hits upon a potentially damning loose end.

Lawyer Paul Madriani tackles another thrilling case in this explosive mystery from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini. When Judge Armando Acosta is charged with soliciting a prostitute, attorney Paul Madriani is less than sympathetic. Nevertheless, Madriani is forced to defend his old nemesis. And when the policewoman who snared Acosta is brutally murdered, Madriani wonders if the judge is also the executioner.

A mysterious journal is the key to a hidden fortune and to a four century long conspiracy.

Defense attorney Paul Madriani is mired in a complex web of intrigue and murder when the sister of his late wife, embroiled in a bitter custody battle with her former husband, becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her ex-husband and his new young wife.

Synopsis coming soon.......