William Bernhardt vangt meesterlijk de spanning van de rechtszaal terwijl hij diepere menselijke motivaties verkent. Zijn uitgebreide oeuvre omvat spannende juridische drama's tot poëtische reflecties, wat zijn opmerkelijke veelzijdigheid aantoont. Bernhardt's stijl wordt gekenmerkt door scherp psychologisch inzicht en precieze taal die de lezer onderdompelt in het middelpunt van de actie. Zijn schrijven verkent vaak de complexiteit van de Amerikaanse samenleving en de menselijke conditie, wat hem lof opleverde als 'meester van het courtroomdrama' en het 'Amerikaanse equivalent van P.G. Wodehouse en John Mortimer'.
Focusing on the craft of world-building, the book offers practical guidance on how to create immersive fictional settings that engage readers. William Bernhardt emphasizes the importance of sensory details and "stealth description" to enhance storytelling without disrupting the narrative flow. He advocates for showing rather than telling, helping writers develop characters and settings that resonate. With insights drawn from his extensive experience and accolades, Bernhardt inspires committed writers to refine their skills and embrace their craft.
A struggling lawyer. A bitter custody battle. A deadly fire. This case could cost Kenzi her career—and her life.Kenzi Rivera is furious. Passed over for promotion at her own father’s firm, the talented divorce lawyer is tired of fighting chauvinism every single day. When a desperate scientist begs for help getting her daughter back, Kenzi can’t resist…even though this client is involved in Hexitel, a group she calls her religion but others call a cult.Kenzi uncovers evidence of disturbing practices at Hexitel involving large sums of money, servitude, and sex. She also learns her client’s lab has been plagued by death threats and cutthroat competition. After the workplace burns to the ground and her client is charged with murder, the ambitious attorney knows there is much more at stake than a simple custody dispute.Can Kenzi find a path to the truth before she’s trapped in a maze of death?Splitsville is the dramatic first book in the Splitsville Legal Thriller series. If you like gutsy heroines, diverse characters, and page-turning suspense, then you’ll love William Bernhardt’s twisty tale.
The protagonist, a writer known for crafting thrilling gunfights and high-stakes scenarios, finds himself in a perilous situation when he is kidnapped. His captors demand he orchestrate a genuine crime, turning his fictional expertise into a dangerous reality. As he navigates this harrowing experience, the line between his imaginative plots and the real-life consequences blurs, leading to unexpected and explosive developments.
As Tulsa's first black mayor and a former college football hero, Wallace Barrett was a city treasure--until he became the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of his wife and two daughters. Seen splattered with blood and fleeing his house after the crime, the mayor needs a miracle. Enter Ben Kincaid.While Kincaid may not be the slickest attorney in Tulsa, he has a knack for pulling off the impossible. But with a frenzied media, a string of damning expert witnesses for the prosecution, and surprise testimony that could rip right through Kincaid's already tenuous defense, impossible never looked so tough.
In a gripping high-stakes trial, Daniel Pike employs all his cunning to safeguard a young orphan from a terrifying destiny. As the courtroom drama unfolds, unexpected revelations and breathtaking surprises challenge his skills and resolve, making for a tense and unpredictable narrative.
Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid put his reputation on the line when he represented Ray Goldman. The seemingly mild-mannered man was charged with massacring an entire suburban Tulsa family. When the prosecution’s star witness—Erin Faulkner, the lone survivor of the slaughter—took the stand, Goldman’s fate was sealed. But just as his date with the death chamber is imminent, Erin abruptly recants her testimony; after seven years of silence, she is desperate to keep an innocent man from dying. Yet the next day, Erin is discovered dead, an apparent suicide. And Ben Kincaid is the only witness to her stunning confession. Now Ben must hunt down the killer who is determined to cover his tracks . . . with blood.
The crime is remarkably heinous: veteran police detective Joe McNaughton is found savagely slain, mutilated, and hung from a public fountain in downtown Tulsa. The accused is a tabloid reporter’s dream: stunning, nineteen-year-old Keri Dalcanton, a stripper involved in a kinky affair with the married McNaughton. Crusading attorney Kincaid takes up her defense. But when a police raid on his office uncovers the bloodstained murder weapon, Ben himself is charged with conspiracy and murder. What follows is a breathlessly twisting battle of legal wits–and lethal surprises–in which no holds are barred, no secrets are left unexposed, and ultimately, nothing is what it seems. . . .
Kincaid's legal success has earned him a dubious reward: a journey through the looking glass into the Beltway. Here, in the heart of the nation's capital, a powerful U.S. senator has been caught first in a sordid sex scandal, then in a case of murder. Senate aide Veronica Cooper was found in a secret Senate office beneath the Capitol building, on Senator Todd Glancy's favorite couch, blood pouring from the knife wound in her throat. The young woman's death comes on the heels of the release of a sordid videotape depicting her and Senator Glancy in compromising positions. With the senator's reputation in tatters, the evidence against him-as a sexual predator and possibly a killer-mounts. By the time a nationally televised murder trial begins, Kincaid and his team know they're facing the challenge of a lifetime. According to public opinion, and even in Kincaid's most private thoughts, Glancy is one more politician who cannot admit his own culpability. But while a dramatic trial unfolds in the courtroom-loaded with pitfalls, traps, and an astounding betrayal-another trial is taking place on the mean streets of D.C., as Kincaid's investigator pursues a young woman who was a friend of Veronica Cooper's, plunging Kincaid into a bizarre world of Goths, sadomasochists, and a community of self-proclaimed vampires. Somewhere in this violent underworld lies the secret behind Veronica Cooper's demise . . . and the crux of Senator Glancy's innocence or guilt. In a case that pits Kincaid and his freewheeling partner Christina McCall against the brutal machinery of Washington politics, the answers they seek are hidden in a murderous maze of lies and hidden motives. And in William Bernhardt's best novel yet, getting to the truth is an unparalleled experience in pure, satisfying suspense
Tulsa attorney Ben Kincaid plunges into a deadly maelstrom of dark secrets, conspiracy, and church politics as he defends his client, a radical parish priest on trial for murder and facing the death penalty if convicted.
Disillusioned with both the legal system and his private life, criminal attorney Ben Kincaid abandons his practice for a less stressful pastime: playing with a combo at Uncle Earl's Jazz Emporium. The musician's life is bliss--until a corpse crashes through the ceiling with a grisly smile carved on its face.The body is that of "Cajun Lily" Campbell, legendary singer and onetime girlfriend of club owner Earl Bonner. The cops are convinced that Bonner killed her--and Kincaid knows he didn't. Though he swore he was through with law forever, Kincaid descends into an underworld of gangs, drugs, Internet sex "clubs," and long-standing vendettas. And at the bottom, a killer waits, targeting Kincaid as the next to die with a smile on his face.
