Christian Legal Thriller Authors

I am going to do some blog posts about some sub genre's in Christian fiction. This first post is going to be about legal thriller authors and books. I am planning on doing not just the genre's that I read, but also the ones that I do not read. 

1) Randy Singer. Unfortunately this author has not written anything since 2017 when he wrote The Rule of Law. I believe his wife was sick for a while and passed away, and he has never came back to writing. He wrote 15 books. Two of them are set during Jesus' time: The Advocate and The Cross Examination of Jesus Christ, while the others are all set modern day. He also did one Christmas novella. The Judge Who Stole Christmas, which went with a few of his books that are a series. Of the legal thriller authors that I have read, he is most likely my favorite. His most memorable book to me was The Justice Game. It was about a gun manufacturer being sued. The author did something very cool: He had on his website a way for readers to vote for the trial outcome, and went with the majority vote. And yes, I voted. 😊

I enjoyed his books, and still have all of them on my shelf,  and hope he returns to writing at some point. He does still has a website: RandySinger.net.

2) James Scott Bell. According to Amazon, Bell has written 111 books. I am not going to go through the list, but it is possible there are repeats and titles packaged together. He is what prompted this blog post and the idea of featuring sub genre's of Christian fiction. I was in the Amish part of Ohio the last couple of days, and bought a few books by him.

Bell started out his writing career writing for Zondervan Publishing. He wrote a handful of books for them. The last one was Presumed Guilty in 2006. In the early 2000's, he co-wrote a historical series for Bethany House with Tracie Peterson, The Trials of Kit Shannon, a female lawyer in early 20th Century Los Angeles. Those three books were followed by three more in the series authored by just Bell. Those are the three I bought this week.

Bell also has several non-fiction books, some on writing process.

After his last book with Zondervan, Bell started writing secular fiction. I am not sure if he has written any Christian fiction since 2006. I am not going to recommend his secular books, with one exception: I read his Ty Buchanan Thriller Trilogy twice, and definitely recommend it. The three book series is first person point of view - not my favorite - but it is really good and clean/bad language free. I read a stand alone once that had some bad language in. His 9 book Mike Romeo Thriller series is very popular, but I have no idea what they are like. Christianbook.com carries the second one, but that doesn't mean much. They carry books by Tyndale that have bad language in, and I am sure others. So take that for what it is worth.

But I can recommend the titles he wrote for Zondervan and Bethany House, and the Ty Buchanan secular series. His website: JamesScottBell.com.

3) Robert Whitlow. If I counted correctly, Whitlow has written 23 books, with #24 on the way. His first book came out in 2000, The List, which along with two of his other books was made into a movie. I'll be honest....I loved his earlier books, but the he wrote some that weren't so much legal thrillers, but just legal stories that I didn't really enjoy. One of the last books that I read by him was Jimmy, which had an ending that totally sucked. (Though there was an alternate ending you could print out).  I think the last book I read by him was Water's Edge in 2011. I have seen some books come out by him since that looked and sounded good, and others not so....but I don't know what they are like. He has one titled Witness Protection coming in April of next year that sounds good.

To be honest, I think I just got used to his legal thrillers and then found the ones he did that were different hard to get into, though I am sure they were and are good reads. He does have some recent releases that do sound really good. His website: RobertWhitlow.com.

4) Rachel Dylan. Rachel has written around 17 books, including two for Love Inspired Suspense, which have had been re-done......at least the covers.  She recently came out with the first book in her Deadly Justice Series, Death Follows Her, after not having written anything for a few years. I don't think I have read every book of hers, but enjoyed all of the ones I did read. Her books have a lot of suspense and legal drama. I reviewed at least three of her books, and they were really good.

She is a lawyer, so she knows what she is talking about. Her books have a lot of legal drama, court room scenes, and suspense. I don't think I have read all of hers, but I have enjoyed the ones I did read. Her website is RachelDylan.com. 

5) Cara Putman. This author has written over thirty books, some legal  thrillers, and some in other genre's, including non-fiction.  I reviewed a legal thriller series she did - Hidden Justice - and thought it was really good. I have not read all of her books, but was impressed with the one I did read. 

Cara is also a lawyer, which comes through in her books. In addition to legal thrillers on the Christian market, she has also written some historical, romance, romantic suspense, and historical suspense. 

Her website is CaraPutman.com.

6) Jerome Teel. This author wrote two legal thrillers back in 2006 and 2007. It has been that long since I read the books, so I don't remember much about them, other that I did enjoy them and wished he had written more. The Election (2006) and The Divine Appointment (2007).

He has not written anything since, and has no website that I can find. 

7) Michael Swiger. This is a new author to me. He has written 5 books since 2020, and all of them legal thrillers. I got his first book in e-book form, A Trial of Innocents, free in September 2023, and borrowed the rest on KU at some point. I liked them. A lot of suspense in them along with legal drama.

He has an interesting bio on Amazon, so I am going to share it: 

"Michael Swiger is the award-winning author of the Innocents Series - inspirational, suspense-filled legal thrillers that have perennially topped the Amazon bestseller list. He is the founder and Executive Director of True Freedom, Ohio’s largest prison ministry. Swiger served 17 years as an accomplice to a crime committed by his older brother. While incarcerated Swiger graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, before earning a degree in Applied Theology at the Reformed Theological Seminary. He became the first Ohio prisoner to be commercially published since O. Henry in 1902. Swiger lives near Cleveland with his wife and two children."

I cannot find a website for him. 

8) Rick Acker. Acker is still a fairly new author to me. Collen Coble - one of my favorite authors - asked him to collaborate on a few books. What We Hide, Tupelo Grove Series #1 came out last year, followed by I Think I Was Murdered (stand alone), and earlier this year the second Tupelo Grove book came out, with the third slated for March. One of the two main characters in the series is a lawyer, so there is some legal stuff, but I wouldn't call the books legal thrillers. The two authors are amazing together.

Acker has 10 books of his own published. Seven are legal thrillers, and 3 are kid's books. I read one of his solo books so far, Guilty Blood, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a couple others I bought on eBay that are sitting on my shelves waiting to be read.

Acker is a Supervising Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice. His unit prosecutes corporate fraud lawsuits. He has a website at RickAcker.com.

10) Todd M Johnson. Johnson has 4 books published, 3 are modern day and one historical, The Barrister and the Letter of Marque.  I read all but the historical one. It has been a while since I read anything by him, but I remember them being pretty good reads.

Johnson has been a practicing attorney for over 30 years. 

He does not seem to have a website.

11) Don Brown. Brown has written several books revolving around the Navy.  Though some of his books don't fall into the legal thriller genre', he did a 4 book series The Navy Justice Series that centers around a JAG officer, and a few others.  The Navy Justice Series were books I really enjoyed and recommend.

Has has also written some non-fiction titles. 

Brown served on active duty for five years in the Navy as a JAG officer, during which time he served as military prosecutor, a Special Assistant United States Attorney, and also won the New York City Bar Association Trial Advocacy Award for winning the trial advocacy championship at the United States Naval Justice School. DON BROWN remained on inactive reserve status with the Navy through 1999, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He currently lives in his native North Carolina.

And more recently, he announced his run for US Senator of North Carolina. 
His website is DonBrownBooks.com.

12) Jayna Breigh. This author has one book out so far, The Hunted Heir. It is a legal thriller/drama, and has a of great reviews.

Amazon bio: 
"Jayna is an award-winning writer of Romantic Legal Dramas - Suspenseful, Twist-Filled Mystery/Thrillers with Romance. She practiced “Big City Law” in Los Angeles for over a decade. Jayna loves funny, inspirational and painfully cute social media. The only real life drama allowed—British period pieces and games of Wordfeud."

She has a website: JaynaBreigh.com.

13) Craig Parshall. Parshall has 126 books in print, including a 3 book historical series co-written with his wife Janet, and a 4 book end times series co-written with Tim Lahaye. I have read all of his books except the series he did with his wife. And all of them, other than the end times series, are legal thrillers/legal stories of some sort, including the series I did not read. My favorites of his, which I have read at least twice, is his Chambers of Justice Series. There are 5 books - though there is another of his books that is supposed to be part of the series also that came along later. I consider him to be a great author, and enjoyed any book of his that I read.

He has no website that I can find.