David Adams Books In Order

Publication Order of David Adams Books

David Adams Series
The author of the David Adams series is the Houston-born Chad Zunker (January 1974). Chad graduated from The University of Texas, Austin, wherein he pursued journalism between 1992 and 1999. Chad has worked at The Church at Lake Travis: as a campus pastor, from February 2008 to November 2010; and as an operative employee, between 2011 and 2014. From May 2010 to June 2011, he worked for Riverpoint Church as the pastor of operations. In January 2011, he founded Baby Shusher LLC, where he is also the CEO.

Chad has been writing fulltime since October 2015; his niches include mystery and legal fiction whose inspiration is his then paralegal occupation—he started as a clerk—and his love for essay writing during his schooling days. He debuted—the December 2015 book The Tracker—twenty years after his first attempts at traditional publishing that nearly discouraged him after receiving 1000+ rejection letters, prompting him to self-publish years before getting a traditional publisher’s contract. Chad’s literary influences include American writers John Grisham and Harper Lee.

Books in the David Adams Series
Inarguably, the Sam Callahan series—whose first book is his debut—is Chad’s most notable work, closely followed by his noteworthy David Adams series. Originally dated November 1, 2019; An Equal Justice is the earliest book in Chad’s David Adams series. The protagonist is called David Adams, an ambitious legal associate employed at a relatively well-paying Austin-based legal firm called Hunter & Kellerman, near Texas Capitol. David, who has had a poor childhood and whose mentor is an associate named Thomas Gray, schooled at both Abilene Christian University and recently completed his legal education at the Stanford Law School.

The external conflict is the suspicious deaths of his two close friends. One is a 14-year-long homeless fugitive named Benjamin “Benny” Dugan, aged 62. The then lonesome Benjamin had found a sense of belonging in a homeless people-oriented community called the Camp, where he had overcome his drug addiction. Benjamin—he once rescued David from thugs and helped him befriend the other Camp members— had been tracing a missing homeless, addicted son figure at midnight when a vengeful murderer found Benjamin and shot him dead.

The other death is that of a workmate called Nick Carlson after Benjamin dropped him off at his home; and on returning to deliver a lost item, saw a presumed murderer leaving the house of the slain associate who had a fallout with the firm’s flashy and annoying Yale-educated attorney William Tidmore. David suspects the shadowy, moneyed firm’s management.

First dated May 19, 2020; An Unequal Defense is the second book in the David Adams series. David dams, who has since quit Hunter & Kellerman, is now an unsuccessful private practitioner at a run-down startup firm called Gray & Adams LLC that he owns alongside attorney Thomas Gray. The firm doubles up as the broke David’s house. External conflict: an activist for the homeless prompts David to freely serve as a criminal defense lawyer for alleged murderer called Roger North, a maniacal homeless person nicknamed Rebel who later on nicknames him Shep (from Shepherd). David’s objectives include legal representation of the underserved homeless suspects.

However, David soon realizes that he has a two-way vested interest in the dangerous litigation because: one, the murder victim is a long-lost friend-and-law schoolmate who worked as an assistant state prosecutor named Luke Murphy in the run-up to his killing; and, two, the murdered Benjamin Dugan—he trusted Rebel—was a mutual friend of both suspect Rebel and David who feels indebted to Benjamin. The David-led defense team includes homeless Texans collectively called the Camp that helps exonerate the forgetful and potentially death row inmate Rebel—he cannot disprove his involvement at the crime scene, an alley where he usually slept—amid the entrusting defendant’s allegation of a CIA setup despite being found red-handed holding and seen firing the murder weapon, a gun, dressed in others’ clothes, and beside the murdered Luke.

First dated February 23, 2021; Runaway Justice is book three in his David Adams series. Their landlord nearly evicted their firm for associating themselves with homeless people, including his employee and Camp founder Doc. A homeless named Skater prompts Adams (now living in a garage apartment) to offer his legal services to an adoptive child called Parker Barnes (arrested alongside Skater while pickpocketing), whom the FBI is hunting for allegedly murdering their protected witness.

The orphaned Parker, aged 12 and who has had several nightmarish adoptive parents, is also being trailed by an assassin for witnessing—while escaping from his adoptive parents—the nightly parking lot execution of a protected witness. David—alongside a volunteering private detective and his other homeless friends—is rushing to legally protect the fleeing Parker before he is assassinated. The protective team is also trying tracing Parker who has since disappeared from foster care.

Awards for David Adams Series
In May 2020, University of Alabama School of Law included Chad’s 2019 book An Equal Justice among its three finalists in the legal fiction category of the 2020 edition of the Harper Lee Prize.

Other Books You May Like
Lee Goldberg’s January 2020 novel Lost Hill is the first book in his Eve Ronin series. The protagonist is a Los Angeles undersheriff called Eve Ronin whose trending heroic deed—arresting a violent film star—prompts her PR-friendly superior to promote her to the demanding homicide investigations, where she proves her irked colleagues wrong.

Robert Bailey’s June 2020 book Legacy of Lies is the first one in his Bocephus Haynes series. The protagonist is a Black American criminal defense lawyer-and-widower Bocephus Haynes who is representing state attorney Helen Lewis, the suspected murderer of her former spouse who had wanted to disclose an old secret.
Michael Stagg’s March 2020 novel Lethal Defense is the first book in his serialized Nate Shepherd Legal Thrillers. The protagonist is Nate Shepherd, a former associate attorney who goes solo; he is a criminal defense lawyer in—and justifying—a hometown homicide case, where he is personally connected.