Throw the book at me

May 11, 2015 10:05 AM

Wanted: novels about prosecutors.

Hi Mefites! Please recommend me your favorite novels about prosecutors. I'd prefer for the protagonist to be a woman, but that's not a requirement. I'd also take recommendations for novels about female police officers.

I have really liked what I've read by Marcia Clark and Alafair Burke; Linda Fairstein's stuff is all right but not my #1 favorite.

Thanks!

posted by ferret branca to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent is fan-fucking-tastic. It's told from the perspective of the accused, who happens to be a prosecutor, and the victim is also a prosecutor. I hope you haven't seen the movie. This is one of the best of its genre.
posted by janey47 at 10:20 AM on May 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

Gonna throw a little bit of a curve ball here. The Reversal. It's part of a series, but it's procedural so it can be read as a stand alone novel. The twist is its a about a lawyer, who has to for the duration of this book, act as a prosecutor.
posted by pyro979 at 11:07 AM on May 11, 2015

Kjell Eriksson's Ann Lindell series (female police officer, refreshingly falliable) is decent. Nicola Griffith's great Aud Torvingen crime books are about a retired (at 29) female police officer.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 1:54 PM on May 11, 2015

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult.
posted by mibo at 2:23 PM on May 11, 2015

For the cop side of your question, the Joanna Brady books by J. A. Jance might fit. They follow the protagonist as she decides to run for (and win) the office of sheriff of an Arizona town.

I was also going to suggest The Reversal, so consider that seconded.
posted by sardonyx at 2:31 PM on May 11, 2015

One of the victims in Nora Roberts's Obsession in Death is a woman prosecutor. There is some discussion of her role. The detective in this series is a woman police officer.
posted by paduasoy at 11:42 PM on May 11, 2015

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, is supposed to be really good, but I haven't read it.

The British television series Prime Suspect is very good, and features Helen Mirren as a police officer/detective.
posted by sudo intellectual at 7:36 AM on May 12, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! I in fact have not seen the movie of Presumed Innocent, so I look forward to reading the book.
posted by ferret branca at 9:41 AM on May 14, 2015