Judge Stone

#1 New York Times Bestseller!

Academy Award winning actress Viola Davis and the world’s #1 bestselling author James Patterson’s Judge Stone “delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma. Tense, readable, and relevant.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

All rise…for Judge Stone.

In Union Springs, Alabama (population 3,314), Judge Mary Stone draws the most controversial case in the history of the South. Criminally, it’s open-and-shut. Ethically, there is no middle ground. Essentially, it’s a choice between life and death.
 
No judge can satisfy everyone. It would be dangerous to try. But Judge Stone is willing to fight to bring justice to the people and place she loves.

“Talk about a power combo! … With Davis’s razor-sharp emotional insight and Patterson’s mastery of rocket-fuel pacing, this is the dream team to deliver an up-all-night read that will keep the group chat buzzing.” —Oprah Daily

“Wonderfully satisfying … This legal thriller from [a] superstar duo … demands attention from its opening pages and never lets go.” ―Booklist (starred review)

• "Twists abound... The Davis-Patterson collaboration delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma. Tense, readable, and relevant.”
  Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
• “Talk about a power combo! … With Davis’s razor-sharp emotional insight and Patterson’s mastery of rocket-fuel pacing, this is the dream team to deliver an up-all-night read that will keep the group chat buzzing.”
  Oprah Daily
• "Wonderfully satisfying … This legal thriller from [a] superstar duo … demands attention from its opening pages and never lets go.”
  Booklist (starred review)
• “A stunning, powerful and incendiary courtroom thriller. Impossible to put down.”
  Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark
• “Gripping, tense, heart-wrenching, timely and so, so important. I read it in one sitting. This is a story that everyone will be talking about in 2026, and I can’t wait to see it brought to life on screen.”
  Ruth Mancini, bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge
• “Judge Stone is thrilling, compelling. Every character has a story.”
  Andy Cohen, SiriusXM Radio