Splitsville Books in Order

The Splitsville books center on Kenzi Rivera, an ambitious divorce lawyer who is very good at her job and very tired of being underestimated. She works inside her father's firm, where family politics and workplace sexism never sit far beneath the surface. That setup gives the series its first jolt, because Kenzi is not fighting only for clients. She is also fighting for room to matter.

These are legal thrillers, but they do not start with the usual murder case.

Instead, Bernhardt uses family law, custody fights, ugly divorces, and public scandals as the entry point. Then the floor drops out. A custody dispute leads to cult secrets and arson. A glamorous divorce spirals into leaked intimate images and homicide. A father's messy personal life turns into a murder charge that lands inside Kenzi's own family circle. In other words, the books treat divorce court as a pressure cooker where money, resentment, sex, reputation, and control are already boiling before the body appears.

Kenzi is a strong lead because she is not a generic tough lawyer. She is sharp, compassionate, proud, and sometimes furious, especially when men in power assume she can be managed. She also relies on a circle of female friends and allies, which gives the series a different texture from Bernhardt's older books. The investigations do not belong to one lone genius. They move through friendship, trust, and shared work.

The tone is contemporary and a little more tabloid-aware than the Ben Kincaid novels. Social media, viral scandal, sexual politics, and the business of public image all matter. But beneath that fast surface, the books are still classic Bernhardt: tricky cases, shifting motives, courtroom combat, and a lead character trying to reach the truth before the system locks in the wrong answer.

If you like your legal thrillers with a strong female lead, messy family stakes, and crimes that grow out of private life rather than distant conspiracies, Splitsville is a good place to start. Kenzi's world is sharp-edged, current, and built on the idea that what happens at home can be just as dangerous as anything that happens in court.