McMurtrie and Drake Books in Order

The McMurtrie and Drake books follow veteran Alabama law professor turned lawyer Thomas Jackson McMurtrie and his former student Rick Drake, combining small town legal battles with personal reckonings. Set mainly in Tuscaloosa and rural north Alabama, they feel like stepping inside a real trial file.

In The Professor, Tom has literally written the state evidence textbook and built a reputation as a legendary trial lawyer before decades in the classroom. When a confrontation with fiery student Rick is used to push Tom out of his job, the two men go their separate ways until a catastrophic trucking wreck in Henshaw, Alabama, kills a young family. Rick takes on the wrongful death suit, only to discover that powerful people will do almost anything to bury the truth, and that he still needs his old professor if he wants to win.

In Between Black and White, the focus shifts to Bocephus Haynes, Tom's favorite former student, who as a child watched his father lynched outside Pulaski, Tennessee. Years later, Bo is the town's only Black attorney, still haunted by that night. When the man long believed to have led the lynch mob is found murdered at the same spot, Bo is charged with capital murder, pulling Tom and Rick back into court to defend a friend whose whole life has been shaped by one crime.

The Last Trial returns to the fallout from earlier cases. Tom agrees to represent a broken woman accused of killing trucking magnate Jack Willistone, his old enemy from the first book. The investigation takes him from the banks of the Black Warrior River into the homes and back rooms of people who would rather their secrets stay buried. With Rick juggling a family crisis and Bo called in to help, the legal fight becomes dangerously personal.

In The Final Reckoning, the danger moves far beyond the courtroom. Death row inmate JimBone Wheeler escapes prison and sets out to make good on his promise to destroy Tom and everyone he cares about. As Tom battles cancer and the clock, the fight leaves the courthouse for the back roads and fields of north Alabama, where the cost of past decisions comes due for Tom, Rick, and Bo.

Across the four books, the series blends detailed courtroom strategy with small town politics, college football memories, and the complicated bond between mentors and proteges. Trials play out alongside questions about aging, loyalty, race, and what it means to stand up when the odds say you should sit down.

If you enjoy grounded Southern settings, returning characters who grow over time, and legal thrillers that balance action with heart, the McMurtrie and Drake novels make a rewarding, self contained sequence.