The Evolution of Legal Thriller Tropes Over the Years
Legal thrillers are built on the irrepressible mounting tension of the thriller genre but include the crime and procedural elements of the legal system, along with the principal forces of antagonism — legal injustice and conspiracy.
Three of the classic tropes of the popular legal thriller genre are: The buzz of the courtroom trial, a countdown clock ticking toward an inevitable verdict, and the undying persistence of a lawyer fighting a corrupt system.
You’ve come to the right place if you’re interested in writing in this genre. This article explores the evolution of legal thriller tropes over the years.
Ready? Let’s get started!
What is a legal thriller?
The legal thriller is a subgenre of crime fiction, typically focusing on investigating a particular crime (or sequence of crimes). It generally involves an investigation that helps the protagonist (usually a legal professional) defend or accuse an opposing party, often in a courtroom or legal environment.
However, while a robust knowledge of the legal system is imperative, no novel is complete without great characters. The most gripping legal thrillers focus on the fascinating lives of the characters — acknowledging that the protagonist needs fatal flaws and a sharp, brilliant, analytical mind.
The legal thriller hero
The hero of the piece in a legal thriller is typically a legal professional, such as a judge or lawyer, and people with direct experience in the legal profession write some of the biggest best sellers of this genre. That’s not to say that you absolutely have to be a lawyer or judge to write a legal thriller.
Modern legal thrillers aren’t customarily written for other legal professionals to enjoy; the legal genre has broad, mainstream appeal. This means there needs to be a balance between authenticity and readability, so the writer needs to remain sensitive to the reader’s layman’s perspective.
Keeping the reader guessing
Like all thrillers, the author keeps readers guessing by continuously ramping up the tension.
Often, the principal investigator in a legal thriller is a lawyer who goes above and beyond the requirements of the case. They gather new evidence and explore the world of the crime as the author hits us with a string of revelations that initially complicate the case and then help us solve it.
A great author understands the full intricacies of the case, from the initial motives to the manifestation of the crime, choosing to drip-feed the revelations to keep the protagonist discovering and the reader turning the pages.
The history of legal thriller tropes
Scandalous courtroom trials had been the muse for many authors and playwrights as far back as the 1500s. However, one of the most notable early novels of the burgeoning genre was Georg Harsdorffer’s A Gallery of Horrible Tales of Murder, published in 1650, which explored the use of science in investigating murder crimes.
The genre took a significant leap forward in the 1730s when French lawyer, Francoise Richer, edited a version of Causes Célèbres et intéressants.
Causes Célèbres et intéressants
In the preface, Richer explained that he had consciously arranged the narrative details of the cases in the volume to prevent the reader from guessing the verdict.
He stated that he intended for readers to remain uncertain of the outcome during the development of the action. He wanted to drive the narrative with continual tension, dropping clues along the way to keep readers curious until the very last page.
Richer’s edict defined the modern legal thriller, identifying that suspense broadened the appeal of legal-based stories beyond legal professionals and toward the general public.
The value of logical reasoning
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) follows C. Auguste Dupin, a detective investigating the murder of two women in cosmopolitan Parisien society. This was one of the first examples of a novelist in control of the narrative form of a crime-based novel, purposely allowing readers to follow the investigation and gather pieces of evidence along with the protagonist.
This approach employed logical reasoning, as much as the intelligence and shrewdness of Detective Dupin, calling to and exciting the sleuth in readers. Centuries later, logical reasoning remains one of the principal facets of the genre.
Developing the framework
Wilkie Collins — a contemporary of Charles Dickens — developed the genre further with his novels The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868).
Collins was the first writer to crystallize the ingredients of the modern legal thriller formally, employing:
- An innocent person
- A conspiracy
- Suspense
- The detective
- The legal system
This framework is widely considered the core ground rules for modern detective novels.
19th century legal thriller tropes
Anna Katherine Green, whose father was a famous criminal defense attorney, became known as the mother of the American mystery novel. Her debut novel, The Leavenworth Case (1878), quickly became America’s first bestseller.
The dramatic style is almost mock-heroic in tone, so it may feel a little dated for modern readers. However, Green introduced a range of plot devices that live on in legal thrillers to this day.
Namely:
- The rich man murdered the night after announcing he was going to change his will.
- A tense love interest between the hero lawyer and client.
- The use of forensic evidence.
- A body found in the library.
Early 20th century legal thriller tropes
One of the most popular authors in the legal thriller genre at the turn of the 20th century was Melville Davisson Post, whose plots were fast-paced but easy for the reader to follow.
His characters were detectives or lawyers who stretched the definition of legality. His most famous character was Randolph Mason of Corpus Delicti. Mason was a sharp, collected lawyer who used legal loopholes to avoid prosecution, even going so far as to advise a client to commit a murder before defending them.
Pulp fiction
Edgar Allen Poe and Davisson Post’s novels influenced the fast-growing appetite for what we now know as pulp fiction: a dark, gruesome genre of hard-hitting crime stories.
They were often written at breakneck speed and published in magazines, like the 1880s Argosy Magazine, printed on low-grade pulp-wood paper, hence the name. Writers were paid a penny a word to encourage them to keep the stories flowing!
And while pulp fiction is as much about crime, gangsters, and brutal murders as the legal profession, there’s an inevitable interconnection between the genres.
1930s and 1940s
Erle Stanley Gardner built his reputation as a “champion of the underdog.” He practiced law by day and wrote fiction at night, publishing hundreds of stories to earn extra income.
He helped solidify the slangy, hard-boiled pulp style favoring fast-paced action over characterization with his character Perry Mason, who eventually made it into his first novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws. Another 81 novels followed for that character, exploring the fundamental premise:
An innocent person with a flimsy alibi and reasons to commit murder is arrested and Perry Mason defends them. Through investigation and courtroom proceedings, the real murderer is revealed in a climax that changes everything for the plot and the client’s fortunes.
1950s and 1960s
One of the first genuinely realistic legal thrillers, Anatomy of a Murder (1958), was written by John D. Voelker as Robert Tracer. It followed the story of a small-town hero battling against a hired gun prosecutor in the trial of an unlikeable man who may have killed somebody to protect his wife’s honor.
Anatomy of a Murder significantly raised the bar (pun intended) on legal accuracy and its dramatic, memorable finale. While forcing readers to overcome their prejudice against the accused, the protagonist investigated the case and found the evidence required to reveal the truth, and settled it in the courtroom.
This trope continued to thrive, manifesting most notably in Harper Lee’s classic debut, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), which made its mark on the reading public through its courtroom climax and clever sleuthing from Atticus Finch. The piece was published when racial segregation was still legal in America (finally repealed in 1964), again forcing readers to address their prejudices while highlighting legal injustice.
Modern-day legal thrillers
When you think of modern-day legal thrillers, several authors come to mind: James Patterson, Ian Rankin, Harper Lee, and Lynda La Plante, to name a few, including our own Peter Kirkland.
However, John Grisham is probably the most prolific and well-known author in the genre. In fact, seven of his books appear in the GoodReads Top Ten of the Best Legal Thrillers.
Grisham says of the legal thriller genre:
“You throw an innocent person in there, get ’em caught up in a conspiracy, and you get ’em out.”
But Grisham’s body of work is very much a product of the novelistic rules that came before him, which helped bring legal thrillers to a mainstream audience.
Relay Publishing wants you!!
Relay Publishing has published hundreds of novels and is always looking for new collaborations.
We’re looking to expand our legal thriller catalog. We are looking for ghostwriters to join our team of professional writers, editors, and designers to produce the next best-selling legal thriller novel.
If you have a background in the legal profession and want to flex your creative writing muscles, get in touch. Check out our recruitment pages for more information.
