Eight top legal thrillers

Jillian Medoff is the author of four acclaimed novels: This Could Hurt, I Couldn't Love You More, Good Girls Gone Bad, and Hunger Point. Hunger Point was made into an original cable movie starring Christina Hendricks and Barbara Hershey and directed by Joan Micklin Silver (Lifetime TV, 2003).

My Book, The Movie: This Could Hurt.

Medoff's new novel is When We Were Bright and Beautiful.

At CrimeReads she tagged "eight [courtroom dramas] that stunned me with their artistry, insight, and sheer brilliance," including:

Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

A short, addictive novel that packs an enormous punch. I read it compulsively in one sitting, and when I finished, I instantly started over. Ciment subverts the traditional courtroom procedural in two clever ways. First, rather than focus on the accused, accuser, or law enforcement, she hones in on the jury, specifically jurors C-2 and F-17, who have a passionate affair while sequestered. Second, Ciment illustrates the jurors’ experience in and out of the courtroom. The first half of the novel details the three-week trial of a wealthy teenager accused of murdering her toddler brother; the latter half deals with the emotional fallout of the trial on the jurors’ private lives. Juror C-2’s observations, thoughts, notes, and relationship with her fellow juror drive the story. As the push and pull of their entanglement play out against the backdrop of a gruesome murder, Ciment explores the big questions: guilt versus innocence, loyalty versus betrayal, life versus death.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue