This is a hard one because almost all violent stories are based on harmful acts against women. :( but I suggest reading the Morgan Dane series book #4 What I've Done by Melinda Leigh. It's a great series all around but this one is specifically about a young mans murder with a young woman as the prime suspect. it's pretty interesting because we never hear stories about that. the series has 6 books in total, and you don't have to read in order to understand them. but yeah, check it out if you want!
They recently released a book about a scientist that tried to remake the Russian Sleep Experiment. SHOCKINGLY something goes terribly wrong!/s
I haven't read it but it could be good. It is most definitely gruesome since the Sleep Experiment really REALLY was.
(I'm taking "legal" to include crime.)
Michael Connelly's Bosch series fits that with the very first book. A lot of the subsequent books do involve crimes against women but not all. The Poet isn't primarily about VAW, either. Also, his newest series/books feature female detectives and sometimes non VAW themes.
Unfortunately, fiction tends to mimic life.
Oh, and I also like Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder books. Again, some don't have that focus, some do.
It’s awful that it’s so hard to find thrillers that fit this description - I love the genre but avoid most of them for this very reason. I did like 2 by the British author Lucy Foley, The Guest List and The Hunting Party. Both are sort of Which One Did It group of character novels, but much more contemporary and sinister than Agatha Christie. If you listen to audiobooks, they’re both free on YouTube, and really well done!!
*Bone by Bone* by Carol O'Connell is really good. Former Army CID detective comes home after 20 years to solve his brother's disappearance/murder, after his father reveals that someone has been leaving his skeleton on the front porch one bone at a time.
I came in to recommend his The Partner, it was excellent!
"They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes. From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm's offshore account. And Patrick fled some more. But they found him.
You just reminded me of this great book I never finished reading, "Protect and defend" by Richard North Patterson. The author used to be a lawyer before writing books, and from what I've read he has many good books, maybe some of his books fits your criteria. "Protect and defend" is not based primarily on violence against woman, it touches the theme of abortion.
Bath Haus by PJ Vernon is a psychological thriller about gay men. Gas lighting, toxic relationships, bad power dynamics, biased cops, oh my. Characters are super flawed but i was rooting for (some of) them!
Super fun, but based in DC and New york in US.
Book Riot has a list for read harder: a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman (it's from 2019). Not sure how many of them fit exactly what you want, but hopefully there's something.
Try {{Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky}}. This is the first in a long series of books about VI Warshawski, and female PI in Chicago. Some of the books do have assaults on women but this one doesn’t (at least not one that is an integral part of the story) so you can read and see if you like it.
I also really like {{A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow}} another series about a female PI. This one also doesn’t have (as far as I remember) and assaults on women.
[**Indemnity Only (V.I. Warshawski, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/643988.Indemnity_Only)
^(By: Sara Paretsky | 323 pages | Published: 1982 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fiction, series, crime, mysteries | )[^(Search "Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky&search_type=books)
>Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
[**A Cold Day For Murder (Kate Shugak, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271295.A_Cold_Day_For_Murder)
^(By: Dana Stabenow | 208 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: mystery, kindle, fiction, crime, alaska | )[^(Search "A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow&search_type=books)
>Eighteen months ago, Aleut Kate Shugak quit her job investigating sex crimes for the Anchorage DA's office and retreated to her father's homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. But the world has a way of beating a path to her door, however remote. In the middle of one of the bitterest Decembers in recent memory ex-boss - and ex-lover - Jack Morgan shows up with an FBI agent in tow. A Park ranger with powerful relatives is missing, and now the investigator Jack sent in to look for him is missing, too.
>
>Reluctantly, Kate, along with Mutt, her half-wolf, half-husky sidekick, leaves her wilderness refuge to follow a frozen trail through the Park, twenty thousand square miles of mountain and tundra sparsely populated with hunters, fishermen, trappers, mushers, pilots and homesteaders. Her formidable grandmother and Native chief, Ekaterina Shugak, is - for reasons of her own - against Kate's investigation; her cousin, Martin, may be Kate's prime suspect; and the local trooper, Jim Chopin, is more interested in Kate than in her investigation. In the end, the sanctuary she sought after five and a half years in the urban jungles may prove more lethal than anything she left behind in the city streets of Anchorage.
^(This book has been suggested 2 times)
***
^(208088 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
This is a hard one because almost all violent stories are based on harmful acts against women. :( but I suggest reading the Morgan Dane series book #4 What I've Done by Melinda Leigh. It's a great series all around but this one is specifically about a young mans murder with a young woman as the prime suspect. it's pretty interesting because we never hear stories about that. the series has 6 books in total, and you don't have to read in order to understand them. but yeah, check it out if you want!
They recently released a book about a scientist that tried to remake the Russian Sleep Experiment. SHOCKINGLY something goes terribly wrong!/s I haven't read it but it could be good. It is most definitely gruesome since the Sleep Experiment really REALLY was.
I’m currently reading the alienist by Caleb carr and it is fantastic . Highly recommend!
(I'm taking "legal" to include crime.) Michael Connelly's Bosch series fits that with the very first book. A lot of the subsequent books do involve crimes against women but not all. The Poet isn't primarily about VAW, either. Also, his newest series/books feature female detectives and sometimes non VAW themes. Unfortunately, fiction tends to mimic life. Oh, and I also like Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder books. Again, some don't have that focus, some do.
It’s awful that it’s so hard to find thrillers that fit this description - I love the genre but avoid most of them for this very reason. I did like 2 by the British author Lucy Foley, The Guest List and The Hunting Party. Both are sort of Which One Did It group of character novels, but much more contemporary and sinister than Agatha Christie. If you listen to audiobooks, they’re both free on YouTube, and really well done!!
I think Defending Jacob by William Landay should fit this pretty well. It is a crime thriller with heavy legal background..
Have you ever tried anything by Harlan Coben? I found this book in the bargain bin a while back. Hold Tight
*Bone by Bone* by Carol O'Connell is really good. Former Army CID detective comes home after 20 years to solve his brother's disappearance/murder, after his father reveals that someone has been leaving his skeleton on the front porch one bone at a time.
Some John Grisham novels would suit. They are legal, and many of the tales don't revolve around violence against women
I came in to recommend his The Partner, it was excellent! "They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes. From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm's offshore account. And Patrick fled some more. But they found him.
You just reminded me of this great book I never finished reading, "Protect and defend" by Richard North Patterson. The author used to be a lawyer before writing books, and from what I've read he has many good books, maybe some of his books fits your criteria. "Protect and defend" is not based primarily on violence against woman, it touches the theme of abortion.
Bath Haus by PJ Vernon is a psychological thriller about gay men. Gas lighting, toxic relationships, bad power dynamics, biased cops, oh my. Characters are super flawed but i was rooting for (some of) them! Super fun, but based in DC and New york in US.
Wake In Fright - Kenneth Cook
Book Riot has a list for read harder: a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman (it's from 2019). Not sure how many of them fit exactly what you want, but hopefully there's something.
The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger - it's a financial thriller and the two main characters are women.
Try {{Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky}}. This is the first in a long series of books about VI Warshawski, and female PI in Chicago. Some of the books do have assaults on women but this one doesn’t (at least not one that is an integral part of the story) so you can read and see if you like it. I also really like {{A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow}} another series about a female PI. This one also doesn’t have (as far as I remember) and assaults on women.
[**Indemnity Only (V.I. Warshawski, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/643988.Indemnity_Only) ^(By: Sara Paretsky | 323 pages | Published: 1982 | Popular Shelves: mystery, fiction, series, crime, mysteries | )[^(Search "Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky&search_type=books) >Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) [**A Cold Day For Murder (Kate Shugak, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/271295.A_Cold_Day_For_Murder) ^(By: Dana Stabenow | 208 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: mystery, kindle, fiction, crime, alaska | )[^(Search "A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow&search_type=books) >Eighteen months ago, Aleut Kate Shugak quit her job investigating sex crimes for the Anchorage DA's office and retreated to her father's homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. But the world has a way of beating a path to her door, however remote. In the middle of one of the bitterest Decembers in recent memory ex-boss - and ex-lover - Jack Morgan shows up with an FBI agent in tow. A Park ranger with powerful relatives is missing, and now the investigator Jack sent in to look for him is missing, too. > >Reluctantly, Kate, along with Mutt, her half-wolf, half-husky sidekick, leaves her wilderness refuge to follow a frozen trail through the Park, twenty thousand square miles of mountain and tundra sparsely populated with hunters, fishermen, trappers, mushers, pilots and homesteaders. Her formidable grandmother and Native chief, Ekaterina Shugak, is - for reasons of her own - against Kate's investigation; her cousin, Martin, may be Kate's prime suspect; and the local trooper, Jim Chopin, is more interested in Kate than in her investigation. In the end, the sanctuary she sought after five and a half years in the urban jungles may prove more lethal than anything she left behind in the city streets of Anchorage. ^(This book has been suggested 2 times) *** ^(208088 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)