Paul Madriani

15 primary works • 20 total works

The Judge

by Steve Martini

Published 2 November 1995

When Judge Armando 'The Coconut' Acosta is caught with a prostitute, few are sympathetic. Lawyer Paul Madriani has a long history of enmity with the judge and considers Acosta's arrest to be the consequence of a lifetime of corruption. Even when the call girl is found to be a beautiful police academy recruit and the entire case appears to be a set-up, Paul is still reluctant to step in and save the judge's career from impending doom. Then the police recruit is brutally killed and Acosta is charged with murder.

Lenore Goya, an ambitious defence lawyer, takes on Acosta's case and reluctantly Madriani is persuaded to come on board - they both know he owes her one. Together they uncover the shocking evidence, the ugly lies, the deceit and the corruption that are at the bottom of the most complex and terrifying murder trial of Madriani's career.

The Attorney

by Steve Martini

Published 1 January 2000

Tired of the corrosive politics of Capital City, hot-shot lawyer Paul Madriani has reached a watershed in his life. A new practice in San Diego, the mellow swells of the Pacific, and if things work out, a future with Susan McKay - that's the plan.



But when Paul meets an old client, whose eight-year-old granddaughter has been abducted, he is drawn into a case which destroys everything he believes in.

The Jury

by Steve Martini

Published 1 June 2001

Paul Madriani has ample reason to suspect he's representing a guilty man. Dr. David Crone is charged with the murder of a young colleague. Forensic evidence links her death with material in Crone's garage. He had both opportunity and motive. But when a key witness dies unexpectedly, Crone's innocence seems confirmed...

The Arraignment

by Steve Martini

Published 1 January 2003

After a lawyer friend is killed along with a client in a hail of gunfire outside the federal courthouse, attorney Paul Madriani reluctantly takes on the surviving co-defendent's case. As Paul quietly investigates his friend's murder, both that and his new case take entirely unexpected turns.

Double Tap

by Steve Martini

Published 4 July 2005

New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini takes legal thrillers to a new level in this Paul Madriani novel about a soldier's secrets and a government's lies...

A beautiful businesswoman, founder of a high-tech software company catering to the military, is found dead, two tightly grouped bullet wounds to her a head—a “double tap,” the trademark of highly skilled assassins. Paul Madriani takes the case of the man accused of the crime: a career soldier who refuses to explain the mysterious gaps in his military résumé. Faced with an uncooperative client, Madriani begins a dangerous search for the truth—in the soldier's shadowy past, in the victim's deadly secrets... 

Shadow of Power

by Steve Martini

Published 1 January 1999

The latest electrifying Paul Madriani thriller from a master at the top of his game - Madriani once again finds himself under pressure as murder reaches deep into the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. Some people will do anything to influence the Supreme Court. They will sweet-talk and seduce, beg, borrow and steal, all as a matter of course. Killing is different though, isn't it? Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and provocateur who loves the kinds of controversy that makes headlines. As author of a new book which claims that Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Constitution support racial discrimination, he knows he's adding fuel to the fire. When Scarborough is found dead in a hotel room and a young man with connections to hate groups is charged with first-degree murder, defense attorney Paul Madriani is offered a case he can't pass up. Amid the glare of the cameras, Madriani must pursue an elusive witness within the confines of the Supreme Court itself, a search that threatens the very foundation of government.

Guardian of Lies

by Steve Martini

Published 1 July 2009

Defense attorney Paul Madriani gets caught in a web of deceit and murder involving Cold War secrets, a rare coin dealer who once worked for the CIA, and a furious assassin.

Guardian of Lies Low Price CD

by Steve Martini

Published 27 April 2010

The Rule of Nine

by Steve Martini

Published 1 June 2010

After a career terrorist threatens to destroy the Supreme Court in a single horrible act, defense attorney Paul Madriani must put his life on the line in order to stop the sinister deed before it comes to fruition.

The Rule of Nine Low Price CD

by Steve Martini

Published 3 May 2011

Trader of Secrets

by Steve Martini

Published 31 May 2011

While in Paris to find a former NASA employee whose name has been found on papers left in his nemesis's apartment, Paul Madriani stumbles upon a plot to harness the destructive forces of nature using stolen technology.

Trader of Secrets Low Price CD

by Steve Martini

Published 27 March 2012

The Enemy Inside

by Steve Martini

Published 12 May 2015

Defending an innocent young man, defense attorney Paul Madriani uncovers a morass of corruption and greed that leads to the highest levels of political power in this electrifying tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Steve Martini. One of the most successful lawyers in the country, Olinda Serna is a master at managing money as well as her influential clients. After years of fierce combat in the political trenches, Serna knows all the dirty secrets, where the bodies are buried, and how deeply they are stacked. When she's killed in a roadside crash in the high desert of Southern California, powerful heads in Washington begin to panic, worried that their secrets may not be safe anymore. Alex Ives, a friend of Paul Madriani's daughter, is accused of vehicular manslaughter in Serna's death. Ives claims he had only one drink on the night of the accident, yet he can't remember anything between the time he left for a party north of San Diego and the moment he woke up in a hospital the next morning. He's still dazed and a little bruised, but also obviously very afraid. After all, a woman is dead, and he's sure he didn't kill her.
To save an innocent young man's life, the brilliant defense attorney must uncover everything he can about Serna and her clients-no matter how unsavory-a search that will lead him into a vortex of corruption, and at its center, a devious killer poised to strike again.

Blood Flag

by Steve Martini

Published 17 May 2016

Defending a client accused of killing her father, attorney Paul Madriani is drawn into a treacherous conspiracy dating to World War II in this enthralling installment in the New York Times bestselling series.

Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds have a new client: Emma Brauer, a woman accused in the “mercy killing” of her aged father, Robert Brauer. Insisting she’s innocent, Emma tells Paul about a package sent to her father shortly before he entered the hospital. Bequeathed to him by a member of his unit from World War II, the box contains a key and a slip of paper. Emma fears that this package is connected to her father’s death.

When Paul’s young assistant Sofia is murdered, Madriani is blindsided by the realization that Emma’s fears are well-grounded.

Digging into Robert’s military history, Madriani discovers that other members of the Army unit Robert served with have recently died—under similarly suspicious circumstances. When he finds that the box sent to Brauer relates to a mysterious talisman that went missing at the end of the war—a feared Nazi relic known as the “Blood Flag”—Madriani and Hinds realize they are in for the fight of their lives.

With Emma’s life on the line and their own safety in jeopardy, Madriani must uncover the truth before the evil of the Blood Flag is allowed to spin a new web.

The Secret Partner

by Steve Martini

Published 19 June 2018

Undue Influence

by Steve Martini

Published 6 July 1994

With almost four million copies of his novels in print, Steve Martini has quickly joined the front ranks of psychological thriller writers, an author who John Grisham says "writes with the agile episodic style of a lawyer quick on his feet." In Undue Influence, Paul Madriani, the brilliant defense attorney readers came to admire in the New York Times best-sellers Compelling Evidence and Prime Witness, finds himself in a complex web of murder and deceit - this time within his own family. Paul's wife, Nikki, has died of cancer, leaving him alone to bring up their young daughter, Sarah. On her deathbed, Nikki asked a favor of Paul: that he look after her younger sister, Laurel Vega, who is mired in a bitter child-custody battle with her former husband, a powerful state legislator. The two Vegas have brawled in open court for weeks, locking horns over who will be awarded custody of their two teenage children. When Jack Vega's new, younger wife is found slain execution-style in their opulent home, Laurel Vega becomes a prime suspect. And when physical evidence closes the loop, she is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Paul, remembering his promise to his wife, has no choice but to take her case. As he scrambles to mount a defense, Madriani investigates every angle of the murder, and uncovers more than a few skeletons in the Vega family closet. He unearths a dark and enigmatic side of Laurel, an aspect he never knew existed, and with this discovery comes the most chilling question of all: Did Laurel Vega commit murder? Steve Martini holds the reader in his grip on every page of Undue Influence, with spiraling twists and turns, right down to the stunning, unexpected conclusion.

Shadow of Power Low Price

by Steve Martini

Published 1 May 2011

Shadow of Power

by Steve Martini

Published 1 June 2008

The Attorney

by Steve Martini

Published 1 September 2000

The Second Man

by Steve Martini

Published 14 April 2015