JESSE KRENZEL
Author
Introducing the Jack Larue Novel Series
Meet Jack Larue, a lawyer with a conscience. He’s had a tough couple of years recently, both personally and professionally. Most of that, he would admit, was his fault.
When his artist client, Yvonne, is murdered, police are quick to arrest Freddy, her drunken estranged husband. Freddy, a former friend of Larue’s, pleads with Larue to defend him in the murder case. Larue reluctantly allows himself to be drawn into the case after confirming Freddy’s seemingly airtight alibi.
With the help of Cody, his ambitious new paralegal, and Otto, an amorous investigator, Larue uncovers a tangled web of fraud, greed, and violence surrounding Yvonne’s landscape paintings. Her wealthy ex-boyfriend, a crooked artist’s rep, her disappeared stepson, and Freddy himself, are all suspects, but a persuasive motive remains elusive.
Then the suspects begin dying or disappearing.
With authorities about to close Yvonne’s murder case, Larue takes his two children on a backcountry camping trip only to learn that the murderer is stalking them. He makes the biggest mistake of his life when he chooses a route to safety that a coming storm turns into a flooding nightmare.
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Book 2 of the Jack Larue legal mystery / thriller series continues when the town of Madrone is torn apart by a land developer's promise of big money if the city will approve his proposed development. But events unfold quickly when the mayor is murdered hours after blocking the approval of the project.
Larue takes on the legal defense of the mayor's addicted former boyfriend and discovers that the mayor and some city council members have dark secrets.
As always, Cody is at Jack's side, but she's worried about him. He's taken on another new case, a child custody matter in which he has a deeply personal stake. The child's mother was his lover. She died in a horrific traffic accident as Larue was speeding to stop the child's father from kidnapping the infant.
The child's grandparents, now his guardians, initially blamed Jack for their daughter's death, but now they seek his help when the father reappears to claim custody of his young son.
As the relentless Cody presses on with the murder case investigation, she draws the ire of a suspicious city councilman and an aggressive investigator from the prosecutor's office.
A wildfire breaks out in the hills above Madrone and advances on the city the day that Jack's daughter, Elie, becomes a target for the mayor's killer. Cody alerts Jack, who must confront the threat to save his daughter and finally settle an old score.
About the Author
Formerly a career lawyer and sometimes backpacker, a dozen of Jesse’s short fiction pieces have appeared in anthologies and literary journals, and three have been performed on Hawk & Cleaver’s U.K. podcast The Other Stories. Jesse's first two novels, Deadly Landscapes and Murder Valley, were released in 2026 by publisher The Book Folks / Joffe Books. The novels are the first two installments of the Larue Legal Thriller Mystery series.
Jesse currently lives in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California with his wife and pets. Contact him at:
