|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Crime writer Michael Connelly has staked out a solid claim as one of America’s bestselling and leading practitioners of the art. With nearly three dozen novels collected into three series, a deftly-produced television series based on his character LAPD detective Harry Bosch, and a feature film starring Matthew McConaughey as the Lincoln Lawyer, Connelly has everything going for him short of action figures in the toy stores.
But in his latest outing lawyer Mickey Haller has everything stacked against him, and it seems inevitable that he has finally met his match. Leaving a bar after celebrating a big courtroom win with his team, Haller returns to his car and sets out for home. Always wary of the cops – a defense attorney is hardly their favourite friend – Haller has been abstemious during the party, never wanting to give the police an excuse to hassle him. So he's surprised when he spots blue flashing lights in his rearview mirror.
He pulls over and hands the uniformed officer his license and registration, wondering about the reason for the stop. When the officer says his rear number plate is missing Haller gets out to have a look. Sure enough, it's not there.
A bad situation turns worse when the officer spots a pool of something on the ground dripping from the trunk of the Lincoln Town Car. It looks awfully like blood.
So begins a cat-and-mouse game between Mickey Haller and the assembled legal forces of Los Angeles. But it is no game; Haller's life is on the line, for the trunk of Haller's car contains the body of a deadbeat ex-client of his, shot the night before, while he was in the trunk, while the car was in Haller's garage. Haller claims he didn't shoot the man, and that he didn't hear any gunshots that night.
Yeah, right.
The guardians of the law in the State of California waste no time in building a damning case against Haller. Facing formidable foe "Death Row Dana" Berg, Haller finds an unsympathetic judge has set his bail at five million dollars. Even the 10% bond would come to $500,000, and being non-refundable would wipe out the entire college fund Haller's set aside for his daughter's education. Better to remain in jail, he reasons, even risk an attack by an irate inmate, than to throw away that kind of money for a few months of freedom; so Haller elects to stay in jail and conduct his defense from there. Hobbled in what he can do from his cell, and limited to seeing members of his defense team for only a brief period of time each day, Haller finds himself fighting an uphill battle.
Complicating things even further, Haller knows it's not enough to get a verdict of Not Guilty, for everyone in town – cops and potential clients – would figure he simply found a loophole to get an acquittal. No, what Haller needs is to be found innocent. In short, the only way for him to prove he didn't kill Sam Scales is to find the person who did. That's the law of innocence.
Michael Connelly has upped the ante with this, the latest in his Lincoln Lawyer series. Readers will be treated to a revealing inside look at the justice system, both on an abstract level, where the defense is systematically disadvantaged by legal procedures, and on a grassroots level, where persons jailed pending their trial find themselves in an uncertain and violent world, where their personal safety is constantly on the line. If it sometimes reads like a legal primer for budding trial lawyers, that is only because Connelly has spared no effort in accurately portraying the legal system, warts and all. The result is a compelling tale that will keep readers glued to their chairs until the final pages. It should be required reading, both for budding lawyers and for the public at large.
§ Since 2005 Jim Napier's reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on various crime fiction and literary websites, including his own award-winning review site, Deadly Diversions. His debut crime novel Legacy was published in the Spring of 2017, and the second in the series, Ridley's War, was released in November of 2020.
Reviewed by Jim Napier, November 2015
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
