Robert Bailey Books in Order

If you want the core McMurtrie and Drake saga: The Professor → Between Black and White → The Last Trial → The Final Reckoning
If you want Bocephus Haynes's small town cases: Legacy of Lies → The Wrong Side
If you want a flawed hero courtroom ride: Rich Blood → Rich Waters → Rich Justice
If you want something hopeful and heartwarming: The Golfer's Carol
If you want a high stakes political thriller: The Boomerang

Robert Bailey writes legal thrillers that feel like they could walk into a real courthouse. A longtime trial lawyer from Huntsville, Alabama, he is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the McMurtrie and Drake series, the Bocephus Haynes novels, the Jason Rich books, the inspirational golf story The Golfer's Carol, and the political thriller The Boomerang.

Bailey grew up in Huntsville as the son of a builder and a schoolteacher, surrounded by talk of job sites, classrooms, and football. From the time he could walk, he loved stories, especially those about legendary coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant and the Alabama teams that loomed large over his home state.

In college he headed to Davidson in North Carolina, earning a degree in history and playing on the golf team. Golf gave him another obsession, the rhythm of practice rounds and pressure shots, and it later became the backbone of The Golfer's Carol, his novel about second chances on and off the course.

Law school brought him back to Alabama. At the University of Alabama School of Law he made Law Review, competed on the trial team, and learned what it meant to build a case from the ground up. He still found time to sit in the stands on fall Saturdays, soaking in every home football game he could.

After graduation he returned to Huntsville and went to work as a civil defense trial lawyer. For more than two decades he has tried cases involving trucking accidents, medical care, and everyday businesses pulled into high stakes lawsuits. Those years spent in conference rooms, small town courthouses, and late night strategy sessions gave him the raw material for his fiction.

Writing started quietly, in the margins of that busy practice. Out of those hours came The Professor, his debut novel about aging law professor Tom McMurtrie and hot headed former student Rick Drake taking on a ruthless trucking company. The book launched the McMurtrie and Drake legal thrillers, which picked up awards along the way from groups such as Beverly Hills Book Awards and Foreword INDIES.

As readers met Tom and Rick, they also met Bocephus Haynes, the gifted Black attorney from Pulaski, Tennessee, whose childhood trauma and calm presence made him a natural lead. Bailey eventually gave Bo his own series in Legacy of Lies and The Wrong Side, where questions of race, memory, and small town power are never far from the next motion or cross examination.

Another corner of his fictional world belongs to billboard lawyer Jason Rich, whose slogan about getting rich after an accident masks addiction, regret, and a stubborn streak of decency. In Rich Blood, Rich Waters, and Rich Justice, Jason stumbles into murder cases that test his skills and his conscience as much as any judge or jury.

Alongside the thrillers, Bailey has written stories that step outside the courtroom. The Golfer's Carol blends golf, grief, and a touch of the fantastic as a struggling husband is offered four life changing rounds with his heroes. The Boomerang moves into national politics, following a White House chief of staff who uncovers a deadly medical secret and has to decide how far he will go to protect his family.

Bailey still lives in Huntsville with his wife, Dixie, their three children, and a rotating crew of family pets. When he is not drafting briefs or pages, he can often be found playing golf, watching Alabama football, or coaching youth baseball. The result on the page is a body of work rooted in real places, hardworking people, and the belief that even imperfect lawyers can fight hard for what is right.