2012: #30 – The Lincoln Lawyer (Michael Connelly)

Title: The Lincoln Lawyer
Author: Michael Connelly
Series: Mickey Haller #01
Format: Audiobook
Audiobook length:  11hrs 35min
Release Date: October 2005
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Categories: legal thriller
Source: personal copy
Rating: 4 out of 5

Back of the book:

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.

My thoughts:

This wasn’t my first taste of Mickey Haller. I read the second book, The Brass Verdict, about three years ago, so I was already familiar with him and his unconventional ways. This book is a great introduction to Haller, who is a stark contrast to Connelly’s other leading man, Harry Bosch.

Haller believes in doing what he has do to get the job done, whether it’s negotiate with drug dealing bikers or arrange for a client to drive him around to work off his bill. When a big money client comes his way in this book, he soon finds out that some things are too good to be true. Even the best lawyer can be out-manipulated from time to time.

I really like Haller as a character. He’s entertaining and loyal and charmingly still hung up on his ex-wife. The audiobook was very well-done, and I’ll probably continue digesting the series that way.

Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | WorldCat

Other reviews:

• “The plot and pacing are the strong points in this one. I didn’t care for the main character, and some of the writing.” — Annette’s Book Spot
• “Connolly can write, and that makes this book worth reading.” — Peggy Blair – Getting Published
• ” The courtroom action had a more engaging pace and less objective pace than others I have read…” – Nightmares, Day Dreams, and Imagined Conversations

Past reviews:

2011: A Drop of the Hard Stuff (Lawrence Block)
2010: Desert Heat (J.A. Jance)
2009: The Chemist (Janson Mancheski)
2008: Grave Sight (Charlaine Harris)
2007: The Bone Collector (Jeffery Deaver)
2006: Visions in Death (J.D. Robb)
2005: Jackdaws (Ken Follett)