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Jay Porter Series

This series plunges readers into the gritty world of a determined, yet often struggling, lawyer navigating the complexities of justice in 1980s Texas. Each story unfolds against a backdrop of significant social and political shifts, revealing a protagonist with a past as an activist now entangled in dangerous cases. From uncovering corporate malfeasance tied to environmental crimes to defending the marginalized against powerful interests, the series consistently explores themes of corruption, racial tension, and the fight for truth. Readers are drawn into suspenseful plots where moral ambiguity and high stakes are a constant.

Pleasantville
Black Water Rising

Recommended Reading Order

  1. Black Water Rising

    • 448 pages
    • 16 hours of reading

    Jay Porter has long since made peace with not living the American Dream. He runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy Houston strip mall—where his most promising client is a low-rent call girl—and he's determined to leave the sins of his past buried: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him. That is, until the night he saves a woman from drowning and inadvertently opens a Pandora's box. Her secrets reach into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers and ensnare Jay in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family . . . even his life. Black Water Rising is a brilliant debut thriller that marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.

    Black Water Rising1
    3.6

  2. Pleasantville

    • 448 pages
    • 16 hours of reading

    It's 1996, Bill Clinton has just been re-elected and in Houston a mayoral election is looming. As usual the campaign focuses on Pleasantville - the African-American neighbourhood of the city that has swung almost every race since it was founded to house a growing black middle class in 1949.Axel Hathorne, former chief of police and the son of Pleasantville's founding father Sam Hathorne, was the clear favourite, all set to become Houston's first black mayor. But his lead is slipping thanks to a late entrant into the race - Sandy Wolcott, a defence attorney riding high on the success of a high-profile murder trial.And then, just as the competition intensifies, a girl goes missing, apparently while canvassing for Axel. And when her body is found, Axel's nephew is charged with her murder.Sam is determined that Jay Porter defends his grandson. And even though Jay is tired of wading through other people's problems, he suddenly finds himself trying his first murder case, a trial that threatens to blow the entire community wide open, and reveal the lengths that those with power are willing to go to hold onto it.

    Pleasantville2
    3.8