Michael Connelly

"Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long-shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. After getting a wrongfully convicted man out of prison, he is innudated with pleas from incarcertaed people claiming innocence. He brings on board his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, to weed through the letters, knowing most claims will be false. Bosch pulls a needle from the haystack: a woman in prison for five...

"Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. Criminal defense in Los Angeles has virtually dried up, and he has had to expand his business into foreclosure defense. But just when Mickey thinks criminal court is in his rearview mirror, one of his new clients is accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. For Mickey, it's back to what he does best. He puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, despite what seems...

"Murder has always been easy for the Butcher's Boy—it's what he was raised to do. But when he kills the senior senator from Colorado and arrives in Las Vegas to pick up his fee, he learns that he has become a liability to his shadowy employers. His actions attract the attention of police specialists who watch the world of organized crime, but though everyone knows that something big is going on, only Elizabeth Waring, a bright young analyst in the...

James Patterson selects a variety of works of American mystery writing as the best of the genre from the year 2014.