From “a first-rate storyteller”: An ex-corporate lawyer in Oklahoma starts a new career defending the innocent (Tulsa World).
Ben Kincaid is too honest for corporate law. When his refusal to compromise his ideals gets him tossed out of Tulsa’s largest, most corrupt firm, he hangs out his shingle on the rough side of town. He works for peanuts—and occasionally chickens—but is safe in the knowledge that he is helping people who have nowhere else to turn. His newest client is also one of his oldest friends: Christina McCall, a onetime colleague in the world of corporate law. Christina is beautiful, daringly dressed, and on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. The last thing Christina remembers is the smell of her mother’s perfume. When she comes out of her stupor, her client is dead, the gun is in her hand, and the police are cuffing her wrists. Proving her innocence may be an impossible, but the impossible is becoming Kincaid’s specialty.
William Bernhardt (b. 1960), a former attorney, is a bestselling thriller author. Born in Oklahoma, he began writing as a child, submitting a poem about the Oklahoma Land Run to Highlights—and receiving his first rejection letter—when he was eleven years old. Twenty years later, he had his first success, with the publication of Primary Justice (1991), the first novel in the long-running Ben Kincaid series. The success of Primary Justice marked Bernhardt as a promising young talent, and he followed the book with seventeen more mysteries starring the idealistic defense attorney, including Murder One (2001) and Hate Crime (2004). Bernhardt’s other novels include Double Jeopardy (1995) and The Midnight Before Christmas (1998), a holiday-themed thriller. In 1999, Bernhardt founded Bernhardt Books (formerly HAWK Publishing Group) as a way to help boost the careers of struggling young writers. In addition to writing and publishing, Bernhardt teaches writing workshops around the country. He currently lives with his family in Oklahoma.