Showing results by narrator "Michael Beck" in All Categories

Pete Banning was Clanton's favourite son, a returning war hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbour and a faithful member of the Methodist Church. Then one cool October morning in 1946, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn't shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it - to the sheriff, to his defense attorney, to the judge, to his family and friends and to the people of Clanton - was 'I have nothing to say'. 

In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing president grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the president issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power-broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his 10-year-old daughter, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal. But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice. Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It's the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer.

The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit D.C. every week. As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe.

Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake and Sweeney, a giant Washington law firm. He was a rising star, with no time to waste, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers, no time for a conscience. But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived; his assailant did not. Who was this homeless man?

Fight them, Mr Brigance. To the bitter end. We must prevail. In the long-awaited successor to the novel that launched his phenomenal career, John Grisham brings us the powerful sequel to A Time to Kill. As filled with twists as it is with legal mastery, Sycamore Row proves beyond doubt that John Grisham is in a league of his own. Jake Brigance has never met Seth Hubbard, or even heard of him, until the old man's suicide note names him attorney for his estate.

Politics has always been a dirty game. Now justice is, too. In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst 'cancer cluster' in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.

In 1970, one of Mississippi’s more colorful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim, until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his ten-year-old daughter, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal. But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice.

In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town's water supply, causing the worst "cancer cluster" in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day have the final say. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided?

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
Adam Hill is 26 years old and in his first year at a top Chicago law firm. He volunteers for the toughest assignment any lawyer could ask for. His prospective client doesn't want Adam or his law firm. Why would he take on Adam, a complete novice, to defend him? And why would Adam want his case so desperately?

Michael was in a hurry. He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. firm with 800 lawyers. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was 3 years away. He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers. No time for a conscience. Until a violent encounter with a homeless man stops him cold.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
An eccentric, reclusive billionaire looking for a way to die, a burnt-out Washington litigator just out of rehab for the fourth time, and a woman who left the modern world to live and work with a primitive tribe of Indians in the jungles of Brazil. They are all brought together by the startling secret of The Testament.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
Rudy Baker's world collapses when the law firm he was due to join is taken over. Suddenly, just before his bar examination, he is without employment and up to his neck in debt. His whole future hinges on his only two prospective clients.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymous young woman suggests she is able to predict the juror's increasingly odd behaviour.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
They kidnapped him in a small town in Brazil. He had changed his name and his appearance, but they were sure they had their man. Four years before, he had been called Patrick S. Lanigan. He had died in a car crash in February 1992. His gravestone lay in a cemetery in Biloxi, Mississippi. He had been a partner at an up and coming law firm, had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future.

Winner of the British Book Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007.
Trumble: a minimum security federal prison, home to the usual assortment of criminals, drug dealers, bank robbers, swindlers, embezzlers, tax evaders, two Wall Street crooks, one doctor, at least four lawyers. And three former judges who call themselves The Brethren: one from Texas, one from California, and one from Mississippi.

Soja liefert Eiweiß für die Massentierhaltung, steckt als Zutat in über 30.000 industriell erzeugten Lebensmitteln, dient im Ackerbau als Stickstoffdünger und ihr Öl gluckert in Autotanks. Vegetarier und Viehzüchter, Gesundheitsapostel und Unterernährungsbekämpfer vergöttern die kleinen braunen Schoten. Schon vor 9000 Jahren wurden sie angebaut, buddhistische Mönche verbreiteten sie in Ostasien, mit der Industrialisierung begann ihr globaler Siegeszug.

Jede Nacht erzählt Scheherzad eine neue Geschichte. Geschichten voller Magie, Zauberkraft und Phantasie. Sie fesseln den jungen König derart, dass er Scheherzads Hinrichtung verschiebt. Nacht um Nacht. Um wieder eine Geschichte zu hören und wieder. Und er taucht ein in die Welt von wilden Räubern, magischen Wunderlampen, wundersamen Weltreisenden und vielem mehr.