William Bernhardt Books in Order

On his first day at a prestigious Tulsa law firm, idealistic Ben Kincaid gets pulled into a murder tied to an adoption case and a child with severe memory loss. The deeper he digs, the more the firm's power and money start to look dangerous.

Ben has left corporate law and opened a scrappy practice defending people nobody else wants. When a friend is framed for murder, he faces a hostile judge and a case that looks unwinnable.

Short on cash, Ben takes a job as in-house counsel for a powerful Tulsa consortium. Office rivalries turn lethal when a fellow lawyer is killed and Ben ends up charged with murder.

In 1979 Oklahoma, Bobby Beresford and his wild best friend Mark Szasz swear by a private code of friendship. Then they both fall for the same woman, and college hijinks give way to a harder reckoning.

While vacationing in the mountains, Ben agrees to represent a white supremacist accused of killing a young Vietnamese immigrant. The case drops him into a town ripped apart by racism, fear, and violence.

Bernhardt steps away from Ben Kincaid for a standalone legal thriller about Travis Byrne, a former cop turned defense attorney. Framed by a clever enemy, he has to clear himself before the trap fully closes.

Ben defends a Black teenager accused of murdering a young woman, but another tragedy keeps pulling at him. When a missing boy vanishes into the hands of a predator, the two cases begin to collide.

A popular mayor is accused of killing his wife and two daughters, and Ben is suddenly in the middle of a media circus. The case is huge, ugly, and built to crush a small-time defense lawyer.

Ben Kincaid is dragged into one of his most volatile cases, where violence outside the courtroom is every bit as dangerous as the legal fight inside it. As the facts keep shifting, so do the lines between justice and survival.

Bernhardt edited this anthology of legal thriller stories by lawyer-authors, each taking the law in a different direction. It is more sampler than novel, with short pieces built around guilt, loyalty, surprise, and revenge.

On Christmas Eve, a battered woman turns to legal aid for protection from her violent ex-husband. When he kidnaps their son, lawyer Megan McGee races through the night to bring the boy home alive.

Burned out on courtroom battles, Ben heads to the Pacific Northwest for rest and finds a murder instead. A war between loggers and environmental activists turns a small-town case into a deadly trap.

Ben takes on a class-action suit over toxic chemicals in a community's water supply, knowing the odds are terrible. Then a string of brutal murders links the courtroom battle to someone else's private war.

Set in the polished but ruthless world of professional golf, this thriller follows a deadly contest where fame, money, and rivalry are never far from murder. Bernhardt trades courtrooms for fairways without losing the suspense.

After a Tulsa police sergeant is found mutilated in public, Ben defends the dead man's teenage stripper girlfriend and wins on a technicality. The backlash is savage, and soon the police are coming after Ben himself.

Bernhardt's collaborative suspense novel starts with a wealthy family murder and keeps widening the circle of suspects. Each handoff adds a new angle, making the book part legal thriller, part literary relay race.

A renegade priest Ben once helped becomes the prime suspect in a brutal murder at St. Benedict's. When another woman dies and the evidence worsens, Ben has to chase the truth through faith, fury, and dark secrets.

Seven years after Ben failed to save a client from a death sentence, a last-minute confession gives the case new life. Then the key witness dies, and Ben is in a race to stop an execution and uncover the real killer.

A practical Red Sneaker guide to the bones of fiction, from setup and escalation to climax and payoff. Bernhardt keeps the focus on making stories hold together and keep readers turning pages.

Las Vegas police behaviorist Susan Pulaski is grieving, spiraling, and still hunting a killer who stages the bodies of beautiful women. With help from autistic savant Darcy O'Bannon, she tries to outthink a murderer obsessed with Poe.

Christina McCall takes on the defense of a notorious bigot accused in a brutal anti-gay killing. When Ben joins the case, the only way to prove innocence may be to draw the real murderer back into the open.

This anthology, edited by Bernhardt, gathers a range of emerging voices rather than one continuous story. It is a showcase for new writers and a snapshot of the community Bernhardt helped build around publishing and mentorship.

Ben's success lands him in Washington, where a senator caught in a sex scandal is soon accused of murder. Between a televised trial and a vicious political underworld, nothing about the case stays simple.

This nonfiction book tells the story of Ada Sipuel's fight to enter law school in segregated Oklahoma. Bernhardt turns a landmark civil rights battle into a clear, accessible portrait of courage and change.

Newly appointed Senator Ben Kincaid is asked to help shepherd a Supreme Court nominee through confirmation. Then a murdered woman is found in the judge's backyard, and the fight turns into open political war.

Princess Alice finds a dragon egg in the Great Marshmallow Fields and decides to raise the hatchling herself. It is a playful children's story about friendship, responsibility, and very inconvenient fire.

Susan Pulaski is back in Las Vegas, where a ritual killer leaves body parts and mathematical formulas behind. To crack the pattern, she again turns to Darcy O'Bannon and steps closer to danger herself.

A wave of terror strikes Washington, killing top officials and pushing the country toward sweeping new antiterror laws. Ben suspects the threat is coming from much closer to home than anyone wants to admit.

Bernhardt imagines Eliot Ness in 1935 Cleveland, facing the Torso Killer while his public image starts to crack. It is part historical thriller, part portrait of a lawman chasing a case that may destroy him.

Bernhardt lays out the basics of writing fiction in clear, practical terms. It is aimed at writers who want one guide that covers story, style, revision, and the road to publication.

A grief-stricken professor tells Ben he wants revenge on the detective he blames for his wife's death. When that detective is shot, Ben takes the impossible defense while Loving digs into a secret that keeps getting darker.

Ben is with the president when a foreign dictator seizes control of America's nuclear defense system. Trapped in a bunker, he has to sort out panic, power, and betrayal before the country pays the price.

Mike Morelli and his partner Baxter are called to a baffling murder with no clear motive and too many tangled relationships. The deeper Mike digs, the more the case threatens his private life as well as the investigation.

Aura's gift for healing unleashes catastrophe and leaves her trapped inside a prisonlike rehab for girls with strange powers. It is the fast, high-stakes start of Bernhardt's YA science-fiction series.

The world of the Shines grows wider and more dangerous as Aura learns more about the forces trying to control them. Safe places vanish quickly in a series built on fear, secrecy, and rebellion.

Aura begins to understand she is not alone and that the so-called help offered to Shines hides something darker. As she gathers allies, the story shifts from shock and survival toward resistance.

Bernhardt's first poetry collection favors direct language, everyday feeling, and emotional clarity over obscurity. It is meant to welcome readers in, not shut them out.

On Christmas Eve, Ben agrees to look into a theft at the pawnshop next door. The small favor quickly turns into a mystery with life-or-death stakes and just enough holiday grace to make it memorable.

This Red Sneaker guide focuses on how characters talk, what subtext does, and why good dialogue carries story. It is compact, practical, and aimed at getting stiff scenes moving again.

After escaping the Transforming Your Light compound, Aura and the other Shines live as outlaws. They must fight Reverend Trent's growing power while searching for the missing people still trapped by the system.

This slim collection gathers three Ben Kincaid stories, including Yuletide Justice, What We're Here For, and After Hours. It is a good way to dip into Bernhardt's legal world in short bursts.

Bernhardt turns to prose style, showing how word choice, rhythm, and clarity shape the reading experience. The goal is not ornament, but writing that feels alive on the page.

In the ruins of North America, sixteen-year-old Daman Adkins lives under the Sentinel's harsh rule and dreads the ritual combat called the Winnowing. With Brita and a slave named Xander, he starts looking for the Resistance and a different future.

Ben represents Tess Corrigan, a model whose face was ruined in a terrible accident, in a personal injury case against a wealthy doctor. When the system starts failing her, Ben looks for another way to do right by his client.

Aura and the other Shines survive one escape only to fall into Reverend Trent's hands. To stop his plan to control and breed a new superior race, they will have to break free again and hit back.

Bernhardt argues that strong novels start with a strong core idea. This Red Sneaker volume is about finding the concept that can support conflict, character, and momentum from page one.

A father known as the Game Master races to rescue his kidnapped daughter while political and strategic games push the world toward disaster. Bernhardt blends thriller momentum with ideas about power, math, and control.

In 1935 Oklahoma, George Earle returns home to a Dust Bowl landscape stripped of comfort and hope. After landing in jail with a melancholy literary agent, he joins a desperate search that turns into a wild historical odyssey.

Writing the draft is only half the job, and Bernhardt digs into revision here. He focuses on how to diagnose problems, tighten scenes, and turn rough material into a cleaner, stronger book.

Ben Kincaid is back for another later-career showdown, with old allies, new legal trouble, and the same stubborn belief that truth is worth the fight. It plays like a return visit to the characters and moral pressure points that made the series work.

This poetry collection turns toward family, memory, and the quiet links between past and present. Bernhardt writes in a reflective, readable mode that keeps the emotional stakes close to the surface.

Bernhardt explores how to build characters who feel alive on the page, not just functional. The focus is on desire, contradiction, voice, and the details that make readers care.

This Red Sneaker entry looks at plot as motion, choice, and consequence rather than mere incident. Bernhardt connects structure to character so turns in the story feel earned.

Daniel Pike defends rising political star Camila Perez after a gruesome quadruple homicide and a blood-written clue turn public opinion against her. The case points toward a larger conspiracy with real power behind it.

St. Petersburg defense lawyer Daniel Pike gets a second chance with a new firm and a brutal murder case. To save his client and protect a young girl, he has to follow a trail of deceit from Florida to El Salvador.

A contested inheritance case pulls Daniel Pike toward the crooked cop who destroyed his father's life. When another heir is murdered, Pike has to defend a client who may be both victim and suspect.

This Red Sneaker volume gathers practical guidance on the parts of writing life that do not fit neatly into plot or character. It is the broad, useful book in the series, built around the questions writers keep running into.

This Red Sneaker book is about making places, people, and actions vivid without clogging the page. Bernhardt treats description as a tool for mood, movement, and meaning.

Daniel Pike is closer than ever to uncovering the truth about his father, but the people protecting that secret keep killing witnesses. His answer is a risky legal gambit that could destroy his case and his future.

Bernhardt looks at theme as the beating heart of a story rather than a classroom concept pasted on top. It is about discovering what a book is really saying and making that meaning resonate.

Daniel Pike's archnemesis is found shot and crucified, and Pike himself lands in jail for the crime. To save his own life, he has to expose the darker network operating behind the prosecution.

Kenzi takes on a high-profile divorce involving a tech-world throuple, only to find a scandal, leaked nudes, and a strangled victim waiting on the other side. The case pits compassion against a killer who is still working the angles.

Daniel Pike finally gets a shot at answers he has chased for years when he is forced to defend his oldest enemy on a murder charge. The deeper he digs, the more the case threatens everyone he cares about.

Kenzi Rivera is an underappreciated divorce lawyer who takes what looks like a custody battle and finds a cult, a fire, and a murder charge. Winning may save her career, but losing could cost her life.

Bernhardt breaks down how primary plots and secondary plots can work together instead of competing for attention. It is a craft book about building layers without losing control of the story.

When Kenzi handles her father's ugly divorce, the family mess becomes a homicide case. To save the woman accused, she and her circle dig into cheating, hacking, adult films, and sex trafficking.

This short profile is Bernhardt's own look back at the character who launched his career. He traces Ben's development, the series' roots in legal practice, and what kept the lawyer alive on the page.

A Christmas Eve mystery in Florence opens the door to the story of Pietro Begnini, a young man determined to become a poet and win Sophia's love. Bernhardt turns Renaissance Italy into a warm, funny, slightly wistful adventure.

Daniel Pike squares off against Kenzi Rivera in a civil case over the rights to a billion-dollar comic-book character. Then a severed head turns the lawsuit into a murder investigation and a conspiracy.

Bernhardt follows Superman creator Jerry Siegel through decades of contracts, betrayal, and courtroom fights over one of America's biggest icons. It is history, legal drama, and creator-rights story all at once.