The Jonathan Brooks Series
The Jonathan Brooks thriller series, published by Crimson Gate Books, follows a New Orleans attorney whose legal work draws him into murder, corruption, and conspiracies far beyond the courtroom. These fast-moving novels blend legal suspense with crime, espionage, and geopolitics, carrying readers from New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C., to flashpoints across Central America, Ukraine, North Korea, China, India, and Russia. Jonathan is no spy or soldier, just a lawyer forced to outthink ruthless adversaries in a world of deadly secrets and political intrigue. Kirkus Reviews calls it “a constantly unpredictable and entertaining thriller series.”
See book trailer
Dead in the Quarter (book 5)
After a celebratory dinner at a Mississippi riverfront restaurant marking his promotion to named partner at Brooks, Peyroux & Morel, attorney Tod Rochon heads home to the French Quarter. In the dead of night, managing partner Jonathan Brooks gets a call from the police: Tod has been found gravely injured, apparently struck by a vehicle. Soon after Jonathan reaches the E.R., Tod is gone.
At the funeral, a stranger offers quiet condolences—but something in his words feels off. Chilling, even. Enough to cast doubt on the official story. Driven by suspicion and grief, Jonathan starts digging. But the deeper he goes, the more unsettling the picture becomes—not just outside the firm, but within. Soon he’s caught in a web of corruption stretching from New Orleans’ corridors of power to a buried secret in Baghdad during the Iraq occupation—one that could sway the city’s upcoming mayoral election.
As the pieces—and bodies—start to fall, Jonathan realizes the threat isn’t just on the streets. It’s much closer to home. What began as a quest for justice spirals into a fight for survival—and for the soul of the city itself.
See book trailer
BUY ON AMAZON
BUY ON BARNES & NOBLE
Midnight in Delhi (book 4)
On a flight from a conference in Sri Lanka, attorney Jonathan Brooks is jolted from his seat by a sudden commotion. He rushes to assist an unconscious passenger, initiating CPR. But as the plane diverts to Oman, a second medical emergency grips the cabin. Moments before landing, the control tower issues a chilling order: the pilots must reverse course over the Arabian Sea. Meanwhile, far from the turmoil in the skies, rival intelligence agencies are sent scrambling when a renowned researcher is found dead in her Shanghai high-rise, a virologist disappears in Berlin, and a clandestine lab deep in Sri Lanka’s mountains burns to the ground. With fuel running low, Jonathan’s flight is redirected again, toward Goa. However, Indian authorities, now suspecting a dangerous, on-board contagion, reroute the aircraft to a remote airbase near New Delhi to impose a full-scale quarantine.
But Jonathan soon discovers evidence that a sinister plan is unfolding. As intelligence operatives worldwide zero in, and global media organizations amplify the escalating crisis, Jonathan is thrust into a harrowing race against time to unravel a conspiracy many governments are working to suppress, and to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe that could forever devastate the human race.
The Pyongyang Option (book 3)
New Orleans attorney Jonathan Brooks is desperate to rebuild his law firm after Hurricane Katrina. Short on clients, he takes the only work he can find: a murky business deal in Ukraine.
But after he lands in Kyiv, his client’s executive vanishes. Suspecting foul play, Jonathan enlists the help of a U.S. diplomat. But the next day they are brutally ambushed. Injured and racing against the clock, Jonathan embarks on a frantic search for clues through the back alleys of Kyiv to an abandoned town near Chernobyl.
Meanwhile, Jonathan’s ex-wife Linda, a journalist, lands in North Korea to report on historic nuclear disarmament talks. She begins probing local officials, not realizing that she and Jonathan are both on a collision course with a deadly web of hackers, spies and assassins. To uncover the truth and save them both, Jonathan may have only one option: to go to Pyongyang with as much leverage as possible and try to make it out alive.
The Serpent's Game (book 2)
You don't stand and wait as Hurricane Katrina barrels down on New Orleans, unless you don't have a choice, and maritime lawyer Jonathan Brooks has none. His career in shambles and duty bound to help a figure from his past locate her missing nephew feared drowned in the Mississippi, Brooks is burdened with responsibility and devoid of options. But Mariya is no friend. The sultry Russian provocateur saved his life a decade ago but not without dragging him into a world of murder, mayhem and deceit.
As darkness bleeds into the Crescent City, Brooks' search for the truth behind a body in the river catapults him into an international storm that sweeps into the espionage underworld of Russia, the intelligence centers of Washington, D.C., the politics of North Korea, the waterways of the Panama Canal, the back streets of Havana and the barrios of Caracas--and into the heart of Jonathan's own darkness.
See book trailer
BUY ON AMAZON
BUY ON BARNES & NOBLE
Tranquility Denied (book 1)
Hotshot maritime lawyer Jonathan Brooks may finally be in over his head. He can't find evidence that his client's ship was rammed by a U.S. Navy vessel--evidence he needs to win his trial and help his client escape bankruptcy. But after Jonathan's courtroom tactics expose a Navy captain lying under oath, the case takes a series of shocking turns, dredging up haunting memories of Jonathan's deceased brother. He soon realizes that the trial masks a vastly more sinister plot veiled by the shadowy past of the Cold War.
To uncover it, he's forced to risk everything--and everyone--he holds dear. Lives and corporate empires hang in the balance as he embarks on a hunt for the truth, which will lead him through the sultry alleys of New Orleans to remote Scandinavian villages, and deep into Moscow's dark corridors of power.
See book trailer
BUY ON AMAZON
BUY ON BARNES & NOBLE
Anthologies & Other Titles
A.C. Frieden has written other fiction titles and contributed to several crime fiction anthologies, which have been published by Level Best Books, Down & Out Books, and Avendia Publishing. Visit the homepage of this site for details and links to purchase the books.