Steve Winslow Books In Order

Publication Order of Steve Winslow Books

The Steve Winslow series is a series of mystery and legal thriller books written by one of the noteworthy authors from The United States named Parnell Hall. He wrote the series under the pen name of J.P. Hailey. The series is comprised of a total of 6 novels and 1 novella, which were released between the years 1988 and 2013. Each and every novel in the series features the chief protagonist in the title role of Steve Winslow, who is depicted by author Hall as a courtroom attorney working in the New York City. Author Hall began the writing work of this legal thriller series in the year 1988 and in the same year the series’ debut book was released. It was released under the title of ‘The Baxter Trust’. As far as the future plans of author Hall is concerned related to the series, he says that he is working to develop a new book. He is expected to publish the book very soon. This makes the series an ongoing one. The first novel written in the Steve Winslow series by Parnell Hall is titled as The Baxter Trust. It was self published by author Hall in the year 2011 after being originally published in 1988. In this book, the other main character along with Steve Winslow is introduced in the form of Sheila Benton. In the starting sequence, Sheila Benton is depicted as a young and sexy lady who has a trust in her name worth several million dollars. She knows that she will lose all of it if her name gets involved in any kind of scandal. Therefore, she thinks that it is wise to stay away from drugs, married men, etc. However, in spite of taking all the precautions, she ends up facing a murder charge when a dead blackmailer is found lying on the kitchen floor of her house. Sheila Benton finds it very difficult to prove to people, so she approaches Steve Winslow and asks him to help her clear her name from the murder charge. As it is the first case of his career as an attorney, Steve too finds it to be a tough case. Because of the fact the he won’t be getting paid from her trustee until he wins the case for her, Steve cannot afford to leave his day job, that is working as a cab driver.

Being the sole heiress of the multimillionaire Baxter fortune, Sheila was hoping to get all the money after the reaching the age of 35. But, at 24 only she seems to have become dead broke in the New York City. She has a very hot boyfriend in the form of a Wall Street broker named Johnny Dutton. Sheila faces more problem from this relationship as Johnny is already married. She has an uncle named Max, who solely executes the Baxter trust and he helps Sheila with just enough money to make her pay the rent of her small apartment. Sheila seems to have developed an addiction to cocaine, which is supplied to her by Johnny. But, when he goes to Reno, Nevada to complete the divorce proceedings with his wife, Sheila falls short of her cocaine supply. To make the matters worse, she finds a blackmail not in her mailbox. When Sheila brings the note to the notice of the police for help, she is not entertained by them. Sheila becomes highly distraught and visits her uncle to get some cash to obtain her drug supply. And when she returns to get her score, she finds the dead body lying on the floor. Sheila panics and mails the cocaine to herself. The police arrive and discover that Sheila’s knife is stabbed in the back of the victim and has the fingerprints of Sheila on it. Subsequently, she gets arrested and considered guilty by the police. As she has no one to help and no money, she sees through the yellow pages and finds Steve Winslow’s name. But, Sheila does not know that Steve has been out of work for more than a year and drives a taxi to earn his living. When he learns about the case, he quickly accepts it and later realizes the difficulty level in it. Now, Steve Winslow is required to prove to Sheila Benton and to himself that he is capable of winning the case for her. Overall, the novel proved to be a breezy and fun read. The readers found the book to be a light hearted read with no gore. It has a reasonable mystery and believable characters. All these features helped the book to become highly successful.

The next successful book written in the series by Hall was released under the title of ‘The Anonymous Gift’. It was first released in the year 1989. Author Hall has set the story of this book in New York, United States. At the start of the intriguing story, author Hall has shown that Steve Winslow becomes very much delighted when he receives a cash retainer worth $10,000 in his mail. But, more than being delighted he appears to be worried by wondering who would have sent such a huge amount to him. The events that follow in his life after getting the money make him face a lot of difficulties. At first, he gets arrested on the charge of a murder. Consequently, the cops take him for questioning and grill him a lot. Even during his trial before the jury, all the evidences seem to be going against him. While all this happens, Steve Winslow continues to wonder who his client is who has sent him the money, but is not willing to come in front of him. Once again, author Hall has done a tremendous job in producing a rich setting and believable characters. However, there are quite less scenes of action in this book than what is normally seen in the crime fiction novel. Nevertheless, the courtroom sequences shown by Parnell Hall appear to be quite compelling. This helped the novel gather a huge number of readers all over the world. On the whole, the book is full of heavy dialogues with the arcane maneuvering of the legal proceedings. Also, the tensed and urgency-filled scenes helped to provide the required suspense, thrill, and intrigue to the plot. All these factors allowed the book to be appreciated a lot and eventually become successful.