William J. Coughlin Books In Order

The Court

Nine Supreme Court judges will soon decide four history making cases. Eight of them will split along party lines four to four. The ninth judge, holding the swing vote, will tip the scales of justice. He’s a good man, a fine man, and, unknown to nearly everyone, a dying man barely kept alive by machines in a very private hospital. High powered Washington attorney Jerry Green is one of the privileged few who discovers American justice rides on the rise and fall of a respirator. Now he’s been called by the President himself to do something about it. It’s a hunt for truth that will arouse his darkest suspicions…
force him to make a shocking choice…
and save the legitimacy of American justice. Or shatter it forever…

Shadow of a Doubt

Detroit attorney and former alcoholic Charley Sloan lost his practice, his wife, and his fortune to booze. A chance at a comeback arrives in his former lover, Robin Harwell. She’s now the desperate widow of a multimillionaire and stepmother of the teenage girl charged with his brutal murder.

Damned by forensic evidence, witness testimony, a history of mental problems, and by her own confession, young Angel s defense will be hard coming and believing in her innocence could come at a price far more personal than he ever feared.

As the media descends, Charley finds himself shadowed by rivals determined to destroy him, trapped in the seductive grip of a never forgotten love affair, and plunged in a dark morass of terrible lies, bitter secrets, and unforgiving family ties

Death Penalty

Detroit lawyer Charley Sloan has been around the block once or twice. Down for the count, drinking heavily, a three time loser in the marriage wars, Charley repairs his tattered career and gets back in the game. Heading his rogues’ gallery of clients is the infamous, twisted angel of mercy, Doctor Death, whose patients have a strange habit of dying under very peculiar circumstances. But now Charley steps into a case with the opportunity to do some good. The high stakes include a literal matter of life and death. And, as he quickly discovers, they also include the sinister stench of corruption that reaches to the highest levels of jurisprudence including Charley Sloan’s respected mentor. Suddenly, a rock and a hard place never looked so good.

The Judgment

The death of innocenceIn a rural area outside of Detroit, bodies are being found in the snow. One after another. Neatly washed, wrapped in platic, methodically laid out like sleeping angels. And very, very young. The birth of evilForty miles away and at the other end of the world, an honest cop, the deputy chief chief of police, has been framed for a corruption charge. In a world of big city politics, he wants ace lawyer Charley Sloan to get him off. The only hopePulled into the two very different cases, Charley faces the heat of a perplexnig serial murder investigation and the heavey hitters of the Motor City’s inner circle. Interviewing witnesses, putting together clues, Charley Sloan, a man who has been at the bottom and at the top, is about to uncover the explosive difference between true innocence and the most dangerous guilt of all…
The Judgement

Proof of Intent

Okay, so your client is a liar. Does that make him a murderer?In the dark hours of morning, Charley Sloan arrives at the palatial home of Miles Dane, celebrated novelist from the Detroit suburb of Pickeral Point, to find Dane’s wife murdered in their bed. Dane tells Charley he was downstairs working. Heard nothing, saw nothing. The police arrive. Dane tells his story again. Only, this time there’s a mysterious intruder fleeing down the hallway, with Dane in pursuit. Miles Dane became a famous writer because he had a wild and violent imagination. But now that imagination seems to be getting him in trouble. The more he talks to the police, the crazier his story sounds. Is he making things up because that’s just what he does? Or is it because he has something to hide?Once the cops uncover physical evidence linking Dane to the crime, they’re sure they know the answer. Dane is charged with murder. Charley Sloan has his work cut out for him. How do you protect and represent a client who seems to be his own worst enemy?Miles Dane’s wild thoughts continue to dog him as the evidence rolls in. The police soon suspect that he had planned this crime many years ago. And made the mistake of writing it all down. In exact detail. Was it a plan of action or just another of Miles Dane’s strange fantasies? At first Charley can’t help but think that Miles killed his wife. But as he begins conducting his own investigation into the case, Charley comes to believe that Miles his client has been framed. And that the real killer is using Dane’s own bizarre imagination against him. But if that’s true, why doesn’t Dane speak up?Charley thinks he knows why. Dane has something to hide. Something from his past. Something shameful. Charley understands shame. A recovering alcoholic with a string of wrecked marriages behind him, he has his own dark past. Charley has long been separated from his daughter Lisa, a law student and recovering alcoholic, who now joins the hard pressed legal team. Will the case bring father and daughter together or drive them apart?The trial begins and still it’s unclear where Miles Dane’s wild imaginings stop and reality begins. Or whether he is committing the ultimate sacrifice in order to atone for something he did long ago. Only in the crucible of the final, fevered moments of trial will Charley finally put the pieces together. And reveal the stunning truth.

The Stalking Man

In a twisted trail of blood, he spelled out his name, The Stalking Man, hunting women in cities across the country the way his father had once taught him to hunt deer. He loved the moment of terror frozen on their faces when the all too horrifying realization would hit them they were going to die a death more violent and ghastly than their worst nightmares…
They had caught him once he did his time and now he was ‘cured.’ But he’d been sloppy then. This time he slithered through the country, striking with cunning and precision, laughing at the law as he outran them again and again. Now two men must piece together his macabre clues and stop a sad*istic killer who’s about to strike too close to home…

In The Presence of Enemies

Attorney and client, they broke the first law: never fall in love. Elizabeth DarenWith evidence missing and key witnesses changing their stories, the battle for her dead husband’s fortune is turning ugly. Someone is out to get her, and only one of the country’s shrewdest, most battle hardened lawyers can save her. If he can trust her. Jake MartinHe’s a rising star in a powerhouse law firm. Everything he ever dreamed of and sweated for now means nothing to him. He’s become Elizabeth Daren’s lover and made her enemies his own. It’s a choice the could take him down…
and the only one that matters. With all the power and authenticity of The Firm and the Client, Federal Judge and former prosecutor William Coughlin dazzles us with In The Presence of Enemies the smash sequel to his best selling courtroom drama Shadow of a Doubt and his toughest, most absorbing novel yet!

The Heart of Justice

Hope Scott…
She’s a beautiful New York heiress who will do anything for love, including pulling strings with a ruthless power broker to advance her husband’s judicial career. But she doesn’t know the hidden price; a blackmail, the rape of her trust fund, and perhaps the ruin of her marriage. Judge Paul Murray…
He fought his way up from his working class Irish roots to the Federal bench. Tough and honest, dedicated to the law, he relishes sitting on the case before to rival some of America’s biggest corporate takeovers. The Heart of Justice.. The outcome is worth billions, the tactics cutthroat, and suddenly, with the threatened exposure of a ruinous secret, everything Paul cares about is on the line his marriage, his career, his reputation. Now faced with choices he never thought he’d have to make, he must confront what truly lies at The Heart of Justice…
With lighting dialogue and authentic courtroom action, William J. Coughlin, former prosecutor and bestselling author of In the Presence of Enemies and Shadow of a Doubt, spins another superb legal thriller filled with emotions on the fire, intellects at war, and an outcome exploding with excitement and surprise.