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James Grippando

Biography

James Grippando

James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense and the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. He lives in South Florida, where he is a trial lawyer and teaches law and literature at the University of Miami School of Law.

James Grippando

Books by James Grippando

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Swyteck’s latest client, Imani Nichols, is a Grammy-winning pop star whose career has skyrocketed. Despite her success, she’s the most underpaid superstar on the planet because of an onerous record contract she signed as a teenager with her now ex-husband, Shaky Nichols. Preferring to see thieves profit from her music than let her ex-husband pocket one more dime, Imani takes to social media and tells her millions of fans to “go pirate” and download her music illegally. Her hardball tactic leads to scorched-earth litigation, and now she needs Jack’s help. The case takes a deadly turn when salacious allegations of infidelity send Imani and Shaky down a path of mutual assured destruction, each implicating the other in the unsolved murder of Imani’s extramarital lover 12 years ago.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Aspiring playwright Kate Gamble is struggling to launch a script she’s been secretly researching her entire life. Her father is Christian Gamble, CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Kate’s father adores her, and a play about the dark side of Big Data would be the ultimate betrayal in his eyes. But Kate is compelled to tell this story --- not only as an artist exploring the personal information catastrophe that affects us all, but as a daughter trying to understand her mother’s apparent loss of purpose. Then Patrick Battle comes back into her life, changing everything she has ever thought about her play, her father and her mother’s tragic death.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Swyteck receives an emergency text from Riverside Day School. Both his daughter, Righley, and his wife, FBI agent Andie Henning, are in danger. Andie hears the fire alarms, then loud popping noises and screams coming from the hallway. The police find a handgun on the school grounds registered to a Muslim man named Amir Khoury. Within minutes Al Qaeda claims responsibility. Amir is married to Andie’s friend, Lilly, a WASP whose bloodline goes back to the American Revolution. When Xavier, Amir and Lilly’s oldest child, confesses to the crime, the local community’s anti-Muslim fervor explodes to levels unseen since 9/11. Jack must unearth the Khourys’ family secrets in order to expose the shocking truth and save his client from certain death.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

For the sixth time in American history, the winner of the popular vote will not occupy the Oval Office. President Malcolm MacLeod appears to have secured a second term, thanks to a narrow victory in the Electoral College. His opponent, Florida Senator Evan Stahl, saw his campaign rocked by allegations of an extramarital affair --- with another man. But Stahl is refusing to concede. Gun lobbyist Charlotte Holmes is one of Florida’s 29 electors who is bound by law and by oath to cast her vote for MacLeod. When she announces that she intends to vote her conscience and throw the Electoral College to Stahl, the president and his Florida machine haul her into court on felony charges. Miami attorney Jack Swyteck is going to use every legal maneuver he can to keep his new client free --- and alive.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Julia Rodriguez and her teenage daughter, Beatriz, escaped bloodthirsty gangs, random violence and Julia's abusive husband back in El Salvador. Arriving in Miami, mother and daughter struggled to carve their own piece of the American dream. While life in the States is hard, it is safer, until Julia rejects her boss's unwanted sexual advances. Suddenly --- thanks to an "anonymous" tip to U.S. immigration authorities --- she is arrested, locked in detention with criminals and slated for deportation. Miami attorney Jack Swyteck’s only viable legal move to save her is asylum --- a long shot that’s become nearly impossible in today’s charged political climate.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When the body of Jamal Cousin, president of the preeminent black fraternity at Florida's flagship university, is discovered hogtied in the Stygian water swamps of the Suwanee River Valley, the death sets off a firestorm that threatens to rage out of control when a fellow student, Mark Towson, the president of a prominent white fraternity, is accused of the crime. Contending with rising political tensions, racial unrest and a sensational media, Townson’s defense attorney, Jack Swyteck, knows that the stakes could not be higher. The evidence against his client, which includes a threatening text message referencing "strange fruit" on the river, seems overwhelming. Then Jack gets a break that could turn the case.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In MOST DANGEROUS PLACE, Jack Swyteck takes on a new client tied to his past. It begins at the airport, where Jack is waiting to meet his old high school buddy, Keith Ingraham, a high-powered banker based in Hong Kong, coming to Miami for his young daughter’s surgery. But their long-awaited reunion is abruptly derailed when the police arrest Keith’s wife, Isabelle, in the terminal, accusing her of conspiring to kill the man who raped her in college. Jack quickly agrees to represent Isa, but soon discovers that to see justice done, he must separate truth from lies --- an undertaking that proves more complicated than the seasoned attorney expects.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Swyteck is called to action when teenager Sashi Burgette vanishes on her way to school. The night after Sashi’s disappearance, ex-con Dylan Kyle was stopped for drunk driving and a piece of her clothing was found in his truck. A police videotape of his drunken explanation under interrogation sealed his fate at trial. Now, just days from Kyle’s execution, Sashi’s mother visits Jack and delivers shocking news: “Sashi called me.” Unconvinced that the case is closed, Jack jumps into the investigation. But the deeper he digs, the more he discovers that nothing is what it appears to be.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Every week, a hundred million dollars in cash arrives at Miami International Airport, shipped by German banks to the Federal Reserve. A select group of trusted workers moves the bags through Customs and loads them into armored trucks. Ruban Betancourt has always played by the rules. But the bank taking his house and his restaurant business going bust have driven him over the edge. He and his wife deserve more than life has handed them, and he’s come up with an elaborate scheme to get it.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A woman’s body is discovered dumped in the Everglades, and Abe Beckham is called upon to monitor the investigation. The FBI is tracking a killer in South Florida they call “Cutter” because his brutal methods harken back to Florida’s dark past, when machete-wielding men cut sugarcane by hand in the blazing sun. But when the Feds discover that Abe had a brief encounter with the victim after his first wife’s death, and when his current wife goes missing, the respected attorney finds himself under fire.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Three summers after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, oil is again spewing into the ocean --- from a drilling explosion in Cuban waters 60 miles off the Florida Keys. Representing an American woman whose Cuban husband was killed on the rig, criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck discovers that his incendiary case may be lethally connected to his new wife Andi's undercover assignment for the FBI.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When a jury finds Sydney Bennett not guilty of killing her two-year-old daughter, the public is shocked. A mob gathers outside of the jail on the night of Sydney's release, and an innocent young woman resembling Sydney ends up in a coma. The victim's parents ask defense attorney Jack Swyteck for help because they are sure the attack was not an accident. In searching for the truth, Jack makes a frightening discovery.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When big-city life threatens the safety of one of their children, Brad and Darlene Henderson move with their three teenagers from Houston to the tiny town of Round Top, Texas, where adjusting is difficult for the entire family.  Darlene takes a job outside the home for the first time in their marriage, and when the widowed father of one of Darlene's students starts paying more attention to her than is appropriate, Darlene needs God more than ever.

by James Grippando - Fiction, Thriller

Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck is shocked to discover that the client he’s been assigned to defend, a young man facing the death penalty for terrorist activities, is already wanted for the murder of his girlfriend and the permanent blinding of a police officer.