D.W. Buffa Books In Order

Joseph Antonelli Books In Publication Order

The Defense (1997)
The Prosecution (1999)
The Judgment (2001)
The Legacy (2002)
Star Witness (2003)
Breach of Trust (2004)
Trial by Fire (2005)

Senator Bobby Hart Books In Publication Order

Rubicon (2008)
The Grand Master (2010)
Hillary (2017)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

Evangeline (2010)
The Swindlers (2011)
The Dark Backward (2011)
The Last Man (2012)
Helen (2014)
Necessity (2019)
The 45th (2019)
Julian’s Laughter (2020)
The Privilege (2020)

Joseph Antonelli Book Covers

Senator Bobby Hart Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

D.W. Buffa Books Overview

The Defense

Defense attorney Joseph Antonelli is a stranger to defeat. There doesn’t seem to be a case no matter how implausible that is beyond him. Until the phone rings one crisp April morning and Judge Rifkin asks Antonelli to defend Johnny Morel, a con man and convicted drug dealer accused of raping his twelve year old stepdaughter, Michelle. The prosecutor’s case is riddled with inconsistencies, and Michelle’s history of sexual abuse could be the perfect straw man for The Defense. Antonelli never confused the legal system with justice, so it should have been routine to defend a man he knew was guilty. And it should have ended there. No one suspected it would end in murder. Suspenseful and engaging, The Defense is also a deeply disturbing tour de force about justice, truth, and the dangers of our legal system.

The Prosecution

From the best selling author of The Defense, a spellbinding sequel. It was a one way ticket out of his self imposed isolation and into the courtroom on the right side of justice. It was a favor for his old friend Judge Horace Woolner. It was a once in a lifetime chance to serve as special prosecutor in a case against a man sworn to uphold the law, Marshall Goodwin, the chief deputy district attorney accused of having his former wife murdered. It was an opportunity Joseph Antonelli couldn’t walk away from. But Antonelli is walking into more than he bargained for. The Goodwin case renews his appetite for the practice of law, and although Antonelli is determined to remain on the side of justice, there are many shades between right and wrong. And Antonelli may be over his head when Russell Gray, an urbane, worldly, and wealthy man from a prominent Portland family, is found murdered in his living room. Horace Woolner’s wife stands accused of the crime. With justice and love on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this stunning look at our legal system and our hearts, D. W. Buffa delivers on the promise of The Defense and takes us into the dark recesses of our courtrooms and our souls, where there are no easy answers.

The Legacy

The acclaimed author of The Judgment delivers another stunning legal thriller featuring charismatic criminal defense attorney Joseph Antonelli. On a dark, foggy San Francisco evening, Jeremy Fullerton, a hot shot California senator with his eye on the presidency, is found murdered in the front seat of his car after speaking at a political fundraiser. The police arrest a young black male found fleeing the scene. The youth, a medical student, says that he tried to help the senator, but ran because he was afraid of the police. However, all the evidence says otherwise. The only lawyer willing to take the case, fraught with political and social ramifications, is an outsiderandJoseph Antonelli leaves his Portland, Oregon, practice in search of justice. As he begins to prepare his defense, he finds himself lost ina world ruled by backroom politics and old money. He digs deeper and uncovers a chain of deceit, betrayal, and naked ambitionand soon discovers just how much one person will risk in order to leave behind a legacy.

Star Witness

Attorney Joseph Antonelli tackles a case overflowing with greed and glamour, moviemaking, and murder in this new thriller in the Edgar Award nominated series. Star Witness is about a man on trial for murder a man recognized as one of the film industry’s most successful writer/ directors, a man of almost mythic drive and talent, and someone who looks more guilty with every passing witness. Attorney Joseph Antonelli suave, philosophical, fearless takes up the director’s defense for the murder of his wife, the actress every woman wants to be and every man wants to possess. Despite Antonelli’s examination of the prosecution’s witnesses, the jury finds fewer and fewer reasons to doubt. Then the director shows Antonelli the script he considers his masterpiece a re imagining of Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane with a visionary film director as its hero. In this story within a story, the accused reveals his version of the tragedy the secrets of his marriage, and the ominous events that led to his wife’s death. In it we see the way art can imitate life and unmask a killer even the court can’t find. Star Witness is a stunning novel about the nature of fame and the ever confusing intersection of truth and fantasy, dream and desire a rich tale of Hollywood unlike one you’ve read in many years.

Breach of Trust

In Breach of Trust Antonelli is seduced into taking an old case that has dangerous implications for the upcoming United States presidential race, but also for a group of old friends who thought they had put the sudden death of a young woman years ago long behind them. When Antonelli attends a Harvard Law School reunion at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, he doesn t suspect how disturbing his return will be for it was at a party in this very hotel that a bright and lively young woman fell from a window to her death. The event was ruled an accident at the time, but the case is about to be reopened, and a potential witness is wary of its potential to ruin his political chances a man with promise and ambition in equal measure the vice president of the United States. When the trial begins, the nation s eyes turn to the accused, the downtrodden James Haviland, and to the unseen powers both within and without the White House who want to bury him. It s up to the shrewd and sharp Antonelli to uncover just where the secrets lie and exactly who is playing whom.

Rubicon

It could Happen…
Bobby Hart, an idealistic young senator from California, thinks that he’s escaped the political spotlight when he decides not to run for president. Then, on a secret mission to Germany, he discovers that there is going to be an assassination. He doesn’t know who is the target, who is behind the plan, or where it will take place. All he knows is that it will happen before the election. And that it operates under the code name Rubicon. Rubicon, Hart remembers, is the river Caesar crossed with his army when he decided to seize power in Rome. For Caesar it meant that there was no turning back for a republic on its way to becoming an empire. But crossing the Rubicon meant the beginning of an era in Rome. Could it mean the end of something else today? As events pile up before the predicted attack, it becomes clear that Rubicon isn’t just about the election. It’s a plot to steal the country. Now Hart is in a race against time to find out who is behind the conspiracy and how to stop it before it’s too late and democracy in America is changed forever. A blistering indictment of our current political climate, Rubicon is an intelligent, action packed thriller that will change the way readers think about the next election.

The Grand Master

A scandalous coverup that includes the President’s wife a woman with ambitions of her own and the mysterious deaths of everyone who comes too close to the truth, makes The Grand Master a riveting tale of conspiracy and espionage. Senator Bobby Hart agrees to look into the rapidly covered up murder of the President by a pricey call girl and finds he has become a target in an international plot directed by one of the world’s wealthiest, and most mysterious, men. Dodging gunmen in the back alleys of Paris, the Senator traces his way to the source of the operation, only to find out that the one he suspects to be pulling the strings has, in reality, a completely different plan…

Evangeline

Evangeline, the finest ship of her kind, built to sail anywhere in the world, sinks in a ferocious storm off the coast of Africa. A single lifeboat with fourteen people crowded into it gets away. Forty days later, a thousand miles from South America, six survivors are rescued from the sea. One of them, the captain Vincent Marlowe, is charged with murder. His only defense is that it was necessary to kill some to save the others.