Michael Beck
1) The summons
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.8 - AR Pts: 13
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi--a pillar of the community who towered over local law and politics for forty years. Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home. Knowing the end is near, Judge Atlee has issued a summons for his two sons to return to Clanton to discuss his estate. Ray Atlee is the eldest, a Virginia law professor, newly single...
Author
Series
Jake Brigance novels volume 3
Language
English
Description
Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial...
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, and drugs to contract killings. The vice was controlled by small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumored to be members of the Dixie Mafia. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends,...
4) The appeal
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 7 - AR Pts: 19
Language
English
Description
In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst cancer cluster un history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.9 - AR Pts: 24
Language
English
Description
Pete Banning was Clanton's favorite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his...
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6 - AR Pts: 16
Language
English
Description
In a small Florida town, a young lawyer is shot to death. A young black man, a former client, named Quincy Miller is charged and convicted. For 22 years, Miller maintains his innocence from inside prison. Finally, Guardian Ministries takes on Miller's case, but the Episcopal minister in charge gets more than he bargained for as powerful people do not want Miller exonerated.
7) The brethren
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.2 - AR Pts: 17
Language
English
Description
They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride. Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong....
8) Sycamore Row
Author
Series
Jake Brigance novels volume 2
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.2 - AR Pts: 28
Language
English
Description
When wealthy Seth Hubbard hangs himself from a sycamore tree and leaves his fortune to his black maid, Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial -- a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.
9) The broker
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.9 - AR Pts: 16
Language
English
Formats
Description
In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the worlds most sophisticated...
10) The last juror
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 6.8 - AR Pts: 19
Language
English
Formats
Description
In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details and the paper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt was tried before...
11) The Partner
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 5.6 - AR Pts: 17
Language
English
Formats
Description
Patrick Lanigan was a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. One winter night, Patrick apparently died, trapped in a burning car. He watched his own funeral, then fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his law firm's offshore account.
12) Camino winds
Author
Series
Camino Island novels volume 2
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Just as Bruce Cable's Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island ... The hurricane is devastating: homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded, and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce's and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson's injuries...
13) The runaway jury
Author
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 8 - AR Pts: 23
Language
English
Formats
Description
In the middle of a multimillion-dollar legal hurricane, a jury must make a decision in a precedent-setting lawsuit against a tobacco giant. But few know the truth: this jury has a leader, and the jury belongs to him.
Author
Publisher
Random House
Pub. Date
[2006]
Language
English
Description
Judge Atlee has been a powerhouse in local politics and law in his hometown of Clanton, Mississippi for over forty years. But he is dying, and has turned into a recluse. He has summoned his two boys, Ray and Forrest, home to discuss his estate before he dies. Ray is a good son, recently divorced, a professor of law at the University of Virginia. Forrest is a black sheep to end all black sheep. Forrest doesn't show up at the appointed time, and Ray...
16) Chiller
Publisher
Miracle Pictures
Pub. Date
1985
Language
English
Description
Corporate exex Miles Creighton dies, and is cryogenically frozen in hopes that he can be revived in the future. Ten years later, the procedure is a success, but he returns without a soul.
18) Gone to Texas
Publisher
Republic Pictures
Pub. Date
1986
Language
English
Description
The true-life story of Sam Houston, the frontier hero and statesman whose bravery and vision led to the creation of the Republic of Texas.
19) Xanadu
Publisher
Universal Studios
Pub. Date
1980.
Language
English
Description
Danny, an aging musician who wants to open a nightclub, and Sonny, a young artist, are both searching for inspiration. Kira, a beautiful mythical muse, is brought to earth in order to help both men fulfill their dreams.
Publisher
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2010], c1995, c1986
Language
English
Description
Gone to Texas: The true-life story of Sam Houston, the frontier hero and statesman whose bravery and vision led to the creation of the Republic of Texas.
Blue River: Depicts the powerful events that unfold in a small Wisconsin town driving 2 teenage brothers apart when later in life one brother, now a homeless derelict, arrives at the home of his brother, now a successful doctor.