James Grippando Books in Order
Browse James Grippando books in order, with quick summaries, Jack Swyteck series notes, standalones, and simple reading-path advice on where to start.
Last updated: June 9, 2026
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Publication Order
36 books
The Pardon
by James Grippando
1994
Miami defense attorney Jack Swyteck believes an executed client was innocent, and the case will not stay buried. When a killer frames Jack for murder and blackmails his governor father, father and son must hunt the truth from opposite sides.
The Informant
by James Grippando
1996
FBI agent Victoria Santos and reporter Mike Posten form an uneasy alliance when an anonymous caller starts predicting serial murders. To stop the killer, they may have to trust the one voice that sounds most dangerous.
Found Money
by James Grippando
1998
Single mother Amy Parkens receives an unmarked package stuffed with cash, and the gift feels more threatening than lucky. As she traces the money, she uncovers danger and old questions surrounding her mother's death.
The Abduction
by James Grippando
1998
Days before a historic presidential election, the disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl threatens to reshape the race. U.S. Attorney General Allison Leahy is forced to fight a crisis where politics and a child's life collide.
Under Cover Of Darkness
by James Grippando
2000
Seattle lawyer Gus Wheatley seems to have everything until his wife vanishes without a trace. Her disappearance collides with an FBI hunt for a brutal serial killer, and the case starts closing in on Gus's polished life.
A King's Ransom
by James Grippando
2001
Young Miami lawyer Nick Rey scrambles to save his father after gunmen seize him in Cartagena and demand millions. Kidnap insurance should help, but the company smells fraud, and time is running out.
Beyond Suspicion
by James Grippando
2002
Jack takes a civil case for an old girlfriend who won a fortune after a fatal misdiagnosis, then finds her dead in his bathtub. Suddenly he is fighting both a murder charge and a scam built on secrets from the past.
Last To Die
by James Grippando
2003
A dead heiress leaves her fortune to six enemies with one cruel rule, nobody gets paid until only one heir is left. Jack's client is a professional killer, and the bodies start falling fast.
Hear No Evil
by James Grippando
2004
A woman accused of murdering her husband at Guantanamo Bay claims she is the adoptive mother of Jack's unknown son. To see the boy, Jack must take the case and untangle lies stretching from Gitmo to Havana.
Got The Look
by James Grippando
2006
Jack's new girlfriend disappears, and her wealthy husband gets a ransom note that says only, pay me what she's worth. As ugly truths about the marriage surface, Jack is pulled into a kidnapping case with a vicious edge.
Leapholes
by James Grippando
2006
Ryan Coolidge is in trouble, and an odd old lawyer named Hezekiah offers a wild way to prepare his defense. Together they leap into famous court cases and meet people like Rosa Parks and Dred Scott face to face.
Operation Northwoods
by James Grippando
2006
This short thriller heads toward Cuba and the uneasy territory where policy, secrecy, and violence meet. Grippando packs a conspiracy, a political edge, and a fast sting of suspense into a small space.
Last Call
by James Grippando
2007
Theo Knight finally gets a lead on the man who killed his mother when an escaped convict turns up at his door. Jack and Theo chase the truth into an old Miami conspiracy where revenge and justice are hard to separate.
Lying With Strangers
by James Grippando
2007
Boston resident Peyton Shields survives a crash that she insists was no accident, but nobody, not even her husband, believes her. As her life tilts off balance, she realizes someone is watching and closing in.
When Darkness Falls
by James Grippando
2007
Jack reluctantly defends a homeless man called Falcon, only to find a murdered woman in the trunk of the man's abandoned car. When Falcon takes Theo hostage, a legal puzzle turns into a deadly standoff.
Born To Run
by James Grippando
2008
When the vice president dies on a hunting trip, Jack's father is suddenly in line for national office and desperately needs a lawyer. Jack steps into a decades-old cover-up that reaches all the way to the White House.
Intent To Kill
by James Grippando
2008
Former ballplayer Ryan James is still haunted by the hit-and-run that killed his wife when an anonymous tip suggests it was murder. The trail runs through sports radio, family secrets, and a cover-up with real power behind it.
Money To Burn
by James Grippando
2010
Wall Street star Michael Cantella wakes up to empty accounts, corporate ruin, and a message that seems to come from the wife who vanished on their honeymoon years earlier. To clear his name, he has to survive a financial war built on sabotage.
Afraid Of The Dark
by James Grippando
2011
Jack is asked to save Jamal from death row after a bombing and murder that seem tied to terrorism. With Andie warning him off, he follows the case across Europe toward a shadowy enemy known only as the Dark.
Need You Now
by James Grippando
2012
After a giant Ponzi scheme collapses, Patrick Lloyd and his girlfriend Lilly realize they know things powerful people will kill to keep buried. Their flight from Wall Street opens onto a much larger government conspiracy.
Blood Money
by James Grippando
2013
Jack wins an explosive child-murder case for Sydney Bennett, a defendant the public already hates. After the acquittal sparks fury and violence, he starts to suspect the story everyone swallowed is not the real one.
Black Horizon
by James Grippando
2014
Jack represents a Cuban widow after a deadly oil-rig explosion in Cuban waters sends disaster toward Florida. His search for accountability pulls him into environmental chaos, state pressure, and international brinkmanship.
Cane and Abe
by James Grippando
2015
Miami prosecutor Abe Beckham is already carrying grief and second thoughts when a dead woman turns up in the Everglades. Then his wife disappears, the FBI starts circling, and suspicion lands squarely on him.
Cash Landing
by James Grippando
2015
A desperate crew of small-time thieves steals millions from an armored cash run out of Miami International Airport. FBI agent Andie Henning follows the money, knowing the first people to crack may not live long enough to spend it.
Gone Again
by James Grippando
2016
A teenager vanished years ago, a man is about to die for the crime, and then the girl's mother says she got a call from her daughter. Jack races the clock to learn whether an innocent man is headed to execution.
The Penny Jumper
by James Grippando
2016
Young astrophysicist Ainsley Grace thinks she is helping finish the giant telescope project her mother once loved. Instead she stumbles into a high-speed Wall Street scheme where brains, code, and timing can get people killed.
Most Dangerous Place
by James Grippando
2017
At the airport, Jack watches police arrest the wife of an old friend for plotting to kill the man who raped her in college. The closer he gets to her past, the harder it becomes to tell victim, witness, and avenger apart.
A Death in Live Oak
by James Grippando
2018
When a Black fraternity leader is found murdered in the Suwannee River swamps, Jack defends the white fraternity president accused of killing him. The trial explodes into a tense fight over race, politics, and public fury.
The Girl in the Glass Box
by James Grippando
2019
Julia Rodriguez fled El Salvador with her daughter to escape gangs, abuse, and fear, only to be pushed into immigration detention in Miami. Jack takes her asylum case and runs straight into one of the country's angriest debates.
The Big Lie
by James Grippando
2020
A bitter Electoral College fight lands in a Florida courtroom, and Jack ends up representing a faithless elector. What looks like a political stunt quickly opens into a deeper battle over corruption, leverage, and power.
Twenty
by James Grippando
2021
After a school shooting shatters his daughter's campus, Jack and Andie are pulled into the panic that follows. Rumor, fear, and politics move almost faster than the evidence, and the wrong answer could destroy more than one family.
Watson
by James Grippando
2022
This play turns the life of Thomas J. Watson Sr. into a stark drama about technology, ambition, and moral failure. It focuses on the role IBM systems played in identifying Jews for Nazi persecution.
Code 6
by James Grippando
2023
Playwright Kate Gamble grows up in the shadow of her father's powerful data company and her mother's haunting suicide note. When a childhood friend disappears and the Justice Department closes in, her search for truth becomes a thriller about privacy and power.
Goodbye Girl
by James Grippando
2024
Jack's latest client is Imani Nichols, a global pop star accused of murder in the middle of a vicious fight over royalties and digital piracy. The case drags him into the music business at its richest and most ruthless.
Grave Danger
by James Grippando
2025
Jack agrees to defend a single mother accused of kidnapping her own child, only to find the case tangled in murder and international pressure. The deeper he digs, the more the fight threatens his home life with Andie.
The Right to Remain
by James Grippando
2026
Jack's murder client, Elliott Stafford, refuses to speak to anyone, including the lawyer trying to save him. As Jack searches for the reason behind the silence, the case turns stranger and far more dangerous.
Where should I start?
If you want to start with Jack from book one: The Pardon → Beyond Suspicion → Last To Die
If you want classic Miami legal suspense: Hear No Evil → Got The Look → Last Call
If you want later, headline-driven Jack books: Gone Again → The Girl in the Glass Box → The Big Lie → Twenty
If you want a standalone first: Cane and Abe → Cash Landing → Code 6
Author bio
James Grippando grew up in Antioch, Illinois, in a rural subdivision just south of the Wisconsin border. He was one of five kids, with a cornfield across the street, a lake down the road, and plenty of room to roam. That mix of ordinary life and restless imagination still shows up in his fiction.
His path to writing was not a straight line. He started college at the University of Illinois, then transferred when his family moved to Florida, and finished both college and law school at the University of Florida. He has called himself a Double Gator ever since.
He was a serious student, but not only that. He chaired homecoming, read widely, and paid close attention to the teachers who nudged him toward the page. His mother, who raised five children while building a career in nursing education, gave him a durable model of hard work. A high school English teacher helped convince him that good writers are first good readers.
Law came first.
After law school, Grippando clerked for Judge Thomas A. Clark on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. He then spent twelve years as a trial lawyer in Miami, working on death penalty appeals and major civil cases. One long fight on behalf of Florida chicken farmers even helped drive change in the poultry industry, which is not the usual road to becoming a thriller writer.
He wrote at night and on weekends. His first manuscript never sold, which would have ended the dream for plenty of people. Then came a late-night walk in 1992, when a police officer stopped him because he matched the description of a prowler. He was innocent, but the jolt of being almost mistaken for a criminal stayed with him. He went home, sat down, and started writing the scene that grew into The Pardon.
That book introduced Miami lawyer Jack Swyteck and changed Grippando's life. He kept writing, eventually left full-time practice, and built a long-running career out of legal thrillers that feel grounded because he has actually lived around the pressures they describe. Readers come for the twists, but they also come for the courtroom texture, the family tension, and the strong sense of Miami.
He has never stayed in one corner of the genre. Books like The Informant and A King's Ransom widen into bigger suspense territory. Leapholes brought legal history to younger readers and became the first novel for young readers published by the American Bar Association. Much later, Code 6 moved into Big Data, surveillance, and the cost of living inside other people's systems.
Certain themes keep returning. Power. Money. Institutions that promise fairness and often fall short. People trying to do the right thing after the moment for easy choices has already passed. Even when the stories get large, the moral pressure stays close and personal.
He lives and writes in South Florida and has kept close to both the law and the arts. He has written for the stage, talks with obvious affection about his family and his golden retrievers, and won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for Gone Again. One small habit says a lot about him: he has said that he reads his work aloud before it goes out into the world. That feels right for a writer whose books are built on voice, pace, and the sound of one hard question leading to the next.
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