- The Ultimate Series: Summary
- Ultimate Verdict: Book Summary
- Ultimate Deception: Book Summary
- Ultimate Truth: Book Summary
- Ella’s Wings: Book Summary
- The China Play: Coming February 2026
- The Whore’s Bath: Coming Spring 2026
The Ultimate Series from author Michael Winstead
The Ultimate Series follows Federal Judge Raleigh Westlake as he wrestles with how to achieve justice in a flawed system. Criminals who escape punishment meet their match in Westlake’s mobile courtroom, where secret trials are conducted and the ultimate verdict is delivered. The Judge is joined in vigilante justice by a federal prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney, and two US Marshals, all of whom have their secret agendas.
In book one, Ultimate Verdict, Judge Westlake avenges the senseless death of a young woman whose confessed killer goes free on a technicality. With one criminal dispatched, the Judge targets other heinous criminals who have escaped punishment. When one of the Judge’s trusted associates cracks and informs the US Attorney about the cabal, the FBI moves in. Is the pursuit of justice worth their lives?
In book two, Ultimate Deception, the Judge battles his own demons and strife within the cabal. When the team’s new prosecutor goes rogue during a secret trial, an innocent man is murdered. Someone has been watching and records evidence to blackmail the Judge and his team. With the threat of exposure, the blackmailer demands the Judge execute a prisoner who has been framed for a Christmas massacre. For Judge Westlake, this is the conflict that will define him: execute an innocent man or stand trial himself.
The third book, Ultimate Truth, introduces a Russian sleeper agent posing as a plastic surgeon. The spy has master-minded the second worst terrorist attack on American soil–the bombing of an arena during a music concert. He framed a dead man for the crime, but Judge Westlake uncovers the truth. The Judge uncovers the identity of the terrorist, also their blackmailer, from a survivor who recognized him. The Judge faces off with the terrorist in a battle between good and evil that tests everything justice stands for.
A companion novel, Ella’s Wings, follows the bombing survivor who helped identify the terrorist responsible for the tragedy. With the FBI reporting him dead, Ella Winslow is trying to rebuild her life despite severe disabilities. Then they lock eyes for the first time after the bombing. He is still alive. She knows him, and he will come for her. She must overcome her deepest terror to ensure the other victims did not perish without justice. This novel can be read stand-alone or as part of Michael Winstead’s Ultimate Series. A reader’s guide shows how their timelines intermesh.
THANK YOU to everyone who has purchased and reviewed my books. If you have not yet read the full series or left a review on Amazon, please consider doing so. In today’s publishing environment, feedback and reviews are an author’s lifeblood. Your help is much appreciated. -Michael Winstead, author
Ultimate Verdict: Book Summary
Book 1 of the Ultimate Legal Thrillers Series
Michael Winstead’s first novel, Ultimate Verdict is available on Amazon.
Author’s Note: Our system of justice is broken. More than one third of all murders are never solved. Mass killings are on the rise. Predatory criminals and companies victimize millions of people and are never brought to justice. I wrote the Ultimate Series for everyone who has envisioned a different outcome.
–Michael Winstead
In the first installment of Michael Winstead’s Ultimate trilogy, readers meet Raleigh Westlake, a Federal Judge who has dedicated his career to the pursuit of justice. Then the murder of a young woman lands in Westlake’s court.
The murderer confesses and is sentenced to death. But an appellate court reverses the conviction on a technicality, and the confessed killer goes free. This miscarriage of justice launches Judge Westlake and four colleagues on a quest for true justice. Westlake creates his own mobile courtroom where the most perverse and arrogant criminals are tried secretly and given the ultimate verdict.
One of the team informs the US Attorney, and the FBI closes in. With US Attorney Caroline Bannister in pursuit, Westlake is forced to confront his lawless actions and test his dedication to justice.
This book is available now on Amazon.
From the Author: Our system of justice is broken. More than one third of all murders are never solved. Mass killings are on the rise. Predatory criminals and companies victimize millions of people and are never brought to justice. I wrote the Ultimate Series for everyone who has envisioned a different outcome.–Michael Winstead
If Michael Winstead’s works have resonated with you, please take a moment to submit a review on Amazon or leave your comments on this site’s Contacts page. Thank you.
Ultimate Deception: Book Summary
Book 2 of the Ultimate Legal Thrillers Series
Michael Winstead’s second novel, Ultimate Deception is available on Amazon.
This second installment of Michael Winstead’s Ultimate Series continues the story of Federal Judge Raleigh Westlake. He and his trusted team hold clandestine trials in a mobile courtroom, seeking justice for innocent victims the legal system has failed.
Judge Westlake and his loyalists must confront enemies from within and without. The cabal is being blackmailed. A fatal mistake during a secret trial casts them into the path of a Russian spy with the motivation and means to carry out unthinkable acts of terrorism.
As they become targets, the cabal faces their most difficult dilemma. Do they save an innocent man, or themselves?
This book is available now on Amazon.
From the Author: Judge Raleigh Westlake is far too complex to be confined to just one book. In this second installment of the Ultimate trilogy, Westlake is confronted with turmoil from within and a rogue prosecutor who nearly dooms them all. This story depicts how human beings with no magical powers can achieve justice for helpless victims, even when our legal system is seriously flawed. The novel also exposes what can happen when revenge goes too far. –Michael Winstead
If Michael Winstead’s works have resonated with you, please take a moment to submit a review on Amazon or leave your comments on this site’s Contacts page. Thank you.
Ultimate Truth: Book Summary
Book 3 of the Ultimate Legal Thrillers Series
Michael Winstead’s third novel, Ultimate Truth is available on Amazon.
This final installment of Michael Winstead’s Ultimate Series chronicles the exploits of Federal Judge Raleigh Westlake and his trusted team. As they conduct clandestine trials in a mobile courtroom, they are boiling with internal strife.
Good and evil battle on a larger stage. A Russian terrorist, hiding in plain sight, eludes the FBI and frames a dead man for his crimes. While the authorities are looking for the spy in the wrong place, the KGB plans a vicious biological strike against the United States.
An epic confrontation with the terrorist forces Westlake to admit his deepest secret. To combat the most evil among us, he must become like them. Ultimate justice demands everything.
This book is available now on Amazon.
From the Author: In writing this book, I wanted to explore in depth the conflicting impulses that a warrior for justice might endure. Judge Raleigh Westlake discovers within himself a primal trait that enables him to deal with the most vicious criminals on their own level. The battle between good and evil rages within most of us, and the Judge must control his internal wolves or lose himself. –Michael Winstead
If Michael Winstead’s works have resonated with you, please take a moment to submit a review on Amazon or leave your comments on this site’s Contacts page. Thank you.
Ella’s Wings: Book Summary
A Companion Novel to the Ultimate Legal Thrillers Series
Michael Winstead’s fourth novel, Ella’s Wings is available on Amazon.
This unique novel gives the reader an opportunity to experience the story in two distinct ways. The story can be read stand-alone or as companion to the third book of Michael Winstead’s Ultimate Series. A reader’s guide shows how their timelines intermesh.
A terrorist’s bomb leaves Ella Winslow with devastating injuries and lasting physical disabilities. As she battles to rebuild her life, she struggles with trauma and amnesia left by the explosion. After an extensive investigation, the FBI announces the bomber died in the explosion. Ella knows this is untrue. She has seen the terrorist. She knows him, and he will come for her.
In the midst of her struggle, Ella is forced to flee. She hides in her childhood home, which harbors its own dangerous secrets. As she waits for the terrorist to come, she discovers a strength she never thought she had. A strength she must use to catch the man who killed so many.
Author’s Note: I wrote Ella’s story many years ago. I did not fully understand her then, or the life she had to confront after the terrorist’s bomb exploded, so I put the novel aside. As I was writing the Ultimate trilogy, I realized the victims needed a voice. Ella would not leave me alone. She convinced me her story was theirs and must be told. So I gave readers a choice. They can either follow Ella’s tragedy as it is woven into the Ultimate series or experience her journey in her own voice. I do not know of any story that can be read contemporaneously with another book, or as a stand-alone novel, to such effect. Only my readers can tell me if the experiment has been successful.–Michael Winstead
This book is available now on Amazon.
If Michael Winstead’s works have resonated with you, please take a moment to submit a review on Amazon or leave your comments on this site’s Contacts page. Thank you.
The China Play: Coming February 2026
A Legal Thriller from Author Michael Winstead
Watch for Michael Winstead’s fifth novel, The China Play, on Amazon in February 2026.
In The China Play, Author Michael Winstead chronicles a foreign power’s secret scheme to acquire valuable farmland. The perpetrators, embedded in America for decades, and abetted by an Atlanta law firm, are wiilling to do anything to get it.
Attorney Oakley Hitchcock, suspended from practicing law for one year, returns to his family’s farm in south Georgia to wait out his suspension. “Hitch” soon discovers a reverse mortgage scheme has entrapped his parents and dozens of other landowners.
As they begin to probe, Hitch and legal assistant Natalie Anderson find themselves targets of a faceless force determined to keep its secret. If they can’t unravel the scheme quickly, lives will be lost, and American land will fall into the hands of a ruthless enemy. When they file a class-action lawsuit, the clandestine conspiracy explodes into desperation and bloodshed.
The China Play delivers a chilling glimpse of the battle for rare resources and world supremacy, examining what will happen if a foreign country exploits the very legal system designed to protect us.
Watch for this book on Amazon in February 2026.
The Whore’s Bath: Coming Soon
A Legal Thriller from Author Michael Winstead
Krystal became a prostitute at fifteen. Her mother was her pimp. The Life is brutal, and more so once Krystal is kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring. New pimps keep her captive for years, along with four other teenagers, in a sleazy motel in Atlanta. It happens to thousands of kids in America every year. But not all victims are equal, and Krystal musters the courage to engineer their escape.
Years later, Krystal is a lawyer, representing juveniles the world has mostly forgotten. Trying to prevent her fate from becoming theirs. But inside she knows she will never feel clean until she finds the four teenagers she went through hell with. To do that, she must track down the men who held them captive. The kingpin, whom she knows only as The Ghost, is nothing more than an anonymous shadow. That’s all she has to go on, but she will not relent until justice is served.
Watch for this book on Amazon in spring 2026.
MICHAEL WINSTEAD 