{"title":"Jake Needham","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"contempt-of-court-paperback","title":"Contempt of Court - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFive boxes full of secrets. A missing wife. And a lawyer who just wants to be left alone.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Atmospheric, sharp, and relentless, this is the story of a man who tried to walk away from the law, only to find it waiting for him in the California sun.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's 1992 in Los Angeles. The riots are over, the Menendez brothers are awaiting trial, and Charlie Trust is living in a borrowed beach house in Malibu right next door to Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal, just trying to figure out what comes next for him. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter inheriting a little money and a lot of burnout, Charlie left Virginia to run the Pacific Coast Highway in a cherry red 1969 Mustang. Now he spends his days reading Raymond Chandler paperbacks and watching the gulls on Carbon Beach. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut his quiet life of reinvention is interrupted when the friend who loaned him the house asks for a little favor in return. Talk with Emma Scott, a woman trapped in a divorce from one of Hollywood's most powerful television producers. Just one conversation. Just some friendly advice. How could Charlie possibly say no? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt turns out that Emma Scott isn't a scorned wife looking for casual advice. She's the keeper of her husband's darkest secrets. When she drops evidence of a huge international money laundering ring operating in the American television business right into Charlie's lap and then disappears into thin air, Charlie is left holding the bag. Literally. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat follows is a classic LA mystery with a modern twist. Charlie is dragged from his life on the beach into a world of high-priced fixers, old-money Brentwood estates, and shady PIs operating behind storefronts on Normandie Avenue. With no backup but a crusty eighty-year-old retired legal legend, an even older private investigator who swears he was Chandler's inspiration for Philip Marlowe, and the loaded Glock he keeps by his bedside, Charlie is just trying to survive long enough to find a way out of what that simple favor for a friend has gotten him into. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet against the sun-soaked beaches of Malibu and the dark underbelly of 1990s Hollywood, CONTEMPT OF COURT is a razor-sharp legal thriller that asks, \u003ci\u003eHow far would you go to protect a client?\u003c\/i\u003e And what if doing the right thing and protecting that client might get \u003ci\u003eyou\u003c\/i\u003e killed? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor readers who like their heroes flawed, their lawyers cynical, and their body count rising, this is a darkly funny California noir thriller that combines the high-stakes contemporary tension of Michael Connelly with Raymond Chandler's world-weary vision of Los Angeles.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharlie Trust is a fresh voice in legal thrillers. He's a true noir hero.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102259482847,"sku":"9786166299441","price":24.28,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/XMoH8m1Kh89786166299441.webp?v=1781079237"},{"product_id":"habeas-corpus-paperback","title":"Habeas Corpus - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharlie Trust is a burned-out lawyer who never wants to see another case, but there's still one client he can't refuse. And the problem is, that client just might be a killer.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eIn Malibu, everyone is watching. But nobody is telling the truth.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLos Angeles, 1992\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter eight soul-crushing years working as a divorce lawyer in Virginia, Charlie Trust has left the law behind. Burned out, disenchanted, and done with clients forever, he's living in a borrowed house on Malibu's Carbon Beach. All he wants to do now is drink beer on the deck, watch the sun set into the Pacific, and wonder what comes next. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThen the riots tear through Los Angeles, and America's paradise turns to ashes. The fires are still burning in Hollywood when Charlie's neighbor comes knocking and brings a different kind of disaster to his door. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMartin Cole, Detective Harry Murphy on one of TV's hottest cop shows, is a familiar face to most Americas. He's also a man whose wife has gone missing, and two hot-shot detectives from LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division don't think she walked away. They think Marty Cole killed her. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMarty pleads with Charlie to help him, and Charlie can't say no. Pulled into a case he never wanted, Charlie is faced with a choice between loyalty and truth, and between Hollywood and reality. On Carbon Beach, where multimillion-dollar houses stand watch over the relentless surf, everyone has secrets worth killing for. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCaught between calculating detectives, ruthless Hollywood lawyers, and his own client's deviousness, Charlie Trust learns that friendship can be the most dangerous weapon of all. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet against the backdrop of Malibu in the uneasy spring of 1992, \u003ci\u003eHabeas Corpus\u003c\/i\u003e is the electrifying first installment of the \u003cb\u003eCharlie Trust novels\u003c\/b\u003e, a series that blends legal intrigue with California noir for fans of Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and Scott Turow. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Needham cares about justice, and about the ways pursuing it gives us difficult decisions to make in our own lives. Thanks for writing such good stuff, Jake.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e- Michael Tigar, legendary defense attorney and author of SENSING INJUSTICE\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"If there's a living writer whose work makes me think of the great Raymond Chandler, it's Jake Needham. He's a prose master in the same vein.\" \u003c\/i\u003e-- \u003cb\u003eJames David Audlin\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102616948959,"sku":"9786166292121","price":24.28,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/JaRumT6-be9786166292121.webp?v=1781083607"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/jake-needham.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}