Robert Bailey Books in Order

Robert Bailey is a Wall Street Journal bestselling American legal thriller author and a former civil defense trial lawyer from Huntsville, Alabama, best known for the McMurtrie and Drake series, which began with The Professor in 2014. The novel won the Beverly Hills Book Award for Legal Thriller of the Year twice in a row. His debut novel and its sequel, Between Black and White, established the series’ Southern setting and its courtroom-heavy plot. Since then, Robert Bailey has since built out a connected fictional world across four series in the same universe, with characters crossing between books as they go.

This page lists all Robert Bailey books in order, including the McMurtrie and Drake legal thrillers, the Bocephus Haynes series, the Jason Rich series, the new Max Ringo series, and his standalones.

Latest Robert Bailey Books

McMurtrie and Drake Series (Books in Order)

The McMurtrie and Drake series follows aging Alabama law professor Thomas Jackson McMurtrie and his headstrong former student Rick Drake as they take on dangerous criminal cases across the Deep South. Set in small towns and courtrooms in Alabama and Tennessee, the series is driven by the unresolved tension between McMurtrie’s experience and Drake’s raw ambition. Bocephus Haynes, a recurring character who later gets his own series, appears here as a main co-protagonist from the start.

Reading Order

1. The Professor, 2014
2. Between Black and White, 2016
3. The Last Trial, 2018
4. The Final Reckoning, 2019

Bocephus Haynes Series (Books in Order)

The Bocephus Haynes series follows attorney Bocephus Haynes, a supporting character from the McMurtrie and Drake books, who gets his own cases in Pulaski, Tennessee. His childhood was defined by racial violence, which is behind everything Bo does in court, and the series takes that history seriously, as each book puts him up against cases where prejudice and small-town power are always present. Reading the McMurtrie and Drake series first gives useful backstory, however, this series can be read on its own.

Reading Order

1. Legacy of Lies, 2020
2. The Wrong Side, 2021

Jason Rich Series (Books in Order)

The Jason Rich series follows Jason Rich, a billboard lawyer in Guntersville, Alabama who built his practice on accident claims and a very recognizable slogan. The cases are real enough, but so is Rich’s history of addiction and bad decisions. That past keeps pulling him back in with cases around local crime with heavy repercussions.

Reading Order

1. Rich Blood, 2022
2. Rich Waters, 2023
3. Rich Justice, 2024

Max Ringo Series (Books in Order)

The Max Ringo series follows former star trial lawyer Max Ringo who lost her career to a painkiller addiction and is trying to rebuild it as a mediator. The first book, The Mediator, puts her in a high-stakes divorce case that quickly turns into something far more dangerous when one of the parties kidnaps her teenage son. Max is Robert Bailey’s first female lead.

Reading Order

• The Mediator, 2026

Standalone Novels

• The Golfer’s Carol, 2020
• The Boomerang, 2025

Robert Bailey Biography

Robert Bailey is an American legal thriller author who wrote the McMurtrie and Drake series, the Bocephus Haynes series, the Jason Rich series, the latest Max Ringo series, and two standalone novels. He has published twelve novels since his debut in 2014.
Official website: robertbaileybooks.com

Born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, Robert Bailey studied history at Davidson College in North Carolina, graduating in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He next studied at the University of Alabama School of Law, where he later received his Juris Doctor. There he made law review and competed on the trial team, and returned to Huntsville to practice as a civil defense trial lawyer handling trucking litigation and civil jury cases. He spent nearly two decades in that job before retiring from law practice. He is also a registered mediator, which inspired his Max Ringo series.

Robert Bailey spent eight years writing his debut novel before The Professor was published in 2014. It won the Beverly Hills Book Award for Legal Thriller of the Year, as did its sequel Between Black and White in 2016, which was also a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year. His work was noted alongside Harper Lee’s and Michael Connelly’s in the spring 2015 issue of Alabama Alumni Magazine. He later became a Wall Street Journal bestselling author with his subsequent series and standalones, including The Boomerang, a standalone political thriller that was a departure from his courtroom-focused novels.

He lives in Huntsville with his wife, Dixie, their three children, two dogs, and two cats.

Robert Bailey Awards and Honors

Awards

• The Professor – Beverly Hills Book Award for Legal Thriller of the Year (2015)
• Between Black and White – Beverly Hills Book Award, Legal Thriller of the Year (2016)

Nominations and Shortlists

• The Professor – National Indie Excellence Award for legal thriller (2014)
• The Professor – Great Southeast Book Festival (2014)
• Between Black and White – Foreword INDIES Book of the Year (2016)

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