The Lincoln Lawyer

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Amazon Review

This #1 bestselling legal thriller from Michael Connelly is a stunning display of novelistic mastery - as human, as gripping, and as whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called "today's Dostoevsky of crime literature."

Mickey Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers - they're all on Mickey Haller's client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence, it's about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney's dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career. Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal - this time to save his own life.

Customer Review
by michael a. draper (Guilford, CT)

Mickey Haller seems to be a good man. Like anyone, he has his flaws and he does what he can to make a living as a defense attorney. He confides that his father, who was also an attorney, had a place in his heart for helping the less fortunate. Many of these clients were women who resorted to prostitution as a desperate choice to survive. Mickey tries to follow his father's example.

Mickey does much of his work from the back seat of his Lincoln. His driver, Earl, is working off his fee for Mickey's successful defense in a case against him.

As the story progresses, Mickey is asked to defend wealthy real estate agent Louis Roulet from the accusation of aggravated assault and attempted rape against Reggie Campo, a woman Roulet met in a bar.

From the start, Mickey is skeptical of Roulet when he catches him in a number of lies about his past. Then, when Mickey sees a photo of Reggie, she bears a close resemblance to a young woman that Mickey's former client Jesus Mendez, was sent to prison for killing.

Mendez maintained his innocence and now Mickey wonders if Mendez could really be innocent. Mickey visits Mendez in jail and brings a number of photos, one of which is Rolet. What Mickey learns is that he's now dealing with a truly evil person.

The novel proceeds as the author, Michael Connelly, sets the parts in motion as if he is directing a play. Roulet is able to create a special reason for Mickey to win the case and set him free but he also admits to things in his past. Since there is an attorney-client privilege, Mickey cannot use this against Roulet.

To say that the award winning novel was well done is an understatement. The reader becomes involved in the story as if the reader was sitting in the front row of the jury box. We observe Mickey and wonder how he will provide justice for Roulet, a man he is defending.

Keywords:
michael connelly
book recommendations
character driven
courtroom drama
friendship
kennedy
lawyer
legal
legal drama
legal thriller