Reasonable Doubt: Beyond the Law
by Sable Noire
Released: Jun 20, 2025
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Why this book and why now?
I want to write a cop serial about a bad guy (gal) with a heart of gold. You know, the kind who will kill the bad guys if they hurt people. The kind of person who will toe the line of the law in order to see true justice done.
Jordan is a US Marshal who has a pretty shady background, and while she has a heart of gold, she doesn’t have anything to tether her at the beginning of this story. So while I’m planning to (mostly) write vigilante justice serials, Jordan needed a woman to ground her. Hence, Reasonable Doubt.
Would you and your main character(s) get along?
Catherine was a bit of a stick in the mud at first, but I would definitely get along with Jordan. She has a morally gray side to her, and there will be more books following her (with some of her shadow cases), and she will pull Catherine into some of it as the series goes on. I think I’d get along with Catherine better after she’s gone through her experiences in this book!
Do your character names have special significance or meaning?
Catherine’s last name Bellfort was deliberate. It means strong and beautiful in French, which reflects her inner strength and her polished exterior. Jordan’s name doesn’t have any specific significance for the story, but I wanted a unisex name because she presents herself, in some ways, as masculine.
What TV show would your main character(s) most likely binge watch and why?
Jordan would be into The Americans—a show about spies living undercover as a married couple, dealing with the moral complexity of their missions. Catherine would binge The Good Wife and then keep notes about all the legal inaccuracies while being completely invested in Alicia’s moral journey. She’d relate far too much to someone whose life implodes and has to rebuild their identity from scratch.
What’s your main character(s)’s favorite book and why?
Catherine’s favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. It shaped her entire understanding of law and justice as a child—with Atticus Finch as the model of moral integrity within a flawed system. The book represents everything she believed about the law’s power to create justice, though by the end of my book, she’d have more complicated feelings about procedural perfection.
What song does your character put on to start your book launch party?
Catherine would choose “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone—a song about new beginnings, about freedom, about shedding old skins and stepping into power. It’s sophisticated enough to match her aesthetic but has enough soul to show she’s not the ice queen everyone thinks she is. The lyrics are perfect. “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling good.” That’s her entire arc in the book—learning to feel, learning to trust herself, learning to be good with who she is.
If your book had a signature dessert, what would it be?
It would be Jordan’s blackberry pie—the one she baked for the potluck when they first had to sell their cover as a married couple. It’s made with wild blackberries she picked herself, the crust is perfectly flaky, and it’s both rustic and sophisticated.
Were there any books, movies, or personal experiences that influenced this story?
The Americans was a huge influence—its exploration of what happens when your cover identity starts feeling more real than your actual identity shaped how I thought about Jordan’s arc.
I’ve done research work on wrongful conviction cases, which gave me insight into how easy it is for confirmation bias to blind even well-intentioned prosecutors. Plus, my own experience with trust after betrayal influences the emotional core of everything I write. Not the specific, of course, but the feeling of questioning everything about a relationship once you discover one fundamental lie.
Do you have any writing rituals or habits?
I write best in the early morning, before the world intrudes. I grab myself a cup of coffee and light some candles. It’s a signal to my brain that we’re working now.
