Series: Book 1 in the Mickey Haller series
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Michael Connelly, Attorney and client, Legal, General, Thrillers, Legal stories, Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
Best-selling author Michael Connelly, whose
character-driven literary mysteries have earned him a wide
following, breaks from the gate in the over-crowded field of
legal thrillers and leaves every other contender from Grisham
to Turow in the dust with this tightly plotted, brilliantly
paced, impossible-to-put-down novel. Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller's father was a
legendary lawyer whose clients included gangster Mickey Cohen
(in a nice twist, Cohen's gun, given to Dad then bequeathed
to his son, plays a key role in the plot). But Dad also
passed on an important piece of advice that's especially
relevant when Mickey takes the case of a wealthy Los Angeles
realtor accused of attempted murder: "The scariest client a
lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you
[screw] up and he goes to prison, it'll scar you for
life." Louis Roulet, Mickey's "franchise client" (so-called
becaue he's able and willing to pay whatever his defense
costs) seems to be the one his father warned him against, as
well as being a few rungs higher on the socio-economic ladder
than the drug dealers, homeboys, and motorcycle thugs who
comprise Mickey's regular case load. But as the holes in
Roulet's story tear Mickey's theory of the case to shreds,
his thoughts turn more to Jesus Menendez, a former client
convicted of a similar crime who's now languishing in San
Quentin. Connelly tellingly delineates the code of legal
ethics Mickey lives by: "It didn't matter...whether the
defendant 'did it' or not. What mattered was the evidence
against him--the proof--and if and how it could be
neutralized. My job was to bury the proof, to color the proof
a shade of gray. Gray was the color of reasonable doubt." But
by the time his client goes to trial, Mickey's feeling a few
very reasonable doubts of his own. While Mickey's courtroom pyrotechnics dazzle, his
behind-the-scenes machinations and manipulations are even
more incendiary in this taut, gripping novel, which showcases
all of Connelly's literary gifts. There's not an excess
sentence or padded paragraph in it--what there is, happily,
is a character who, like Harry Bosch, deserves a franchise
series of his own.
--Jane Adams
Starred Review. Veteran bestseller Connelly enters
the crowded legal thriller field with flash and panache. Los
Angeles criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller regularly
represents lowlifes, but he's no slickster trolling for
loopholes in the ethics laws. He's haunted by how he
mishandled the case of (probably innocent) Jesus Menendez,
and, though twice divorced, he's on good terms with his
ex-wives; one of them manages his office, and the other, an
ambitious assistant DA, occasionally tumbles back into bed
with him. When Mickey signs on to defend young real estate
agent Louis Roulet against charges of assault, he can't help
seeing dollar signs: Roulet's imperious mother will spend any
amount to prove her beloved son's innocence. But probing the
details of the case, Mickey and private investigator Raul
Levin dig up a far darker picture of Roulet's personality and
his past. Levin's murder and a new connection to the Menendez
case make Mickey wonder if he's in over his head, and his
defense of Roulet becomes a question of morality as well as a
test of his own survival. After Connelly spends the book's
first half involving the reader in Mickey's complex world, he
thrusts his hero in the middle of two high-stakes duels,
against the state and his own client, for heart-stopping
twists and topflight storytelling.
(Oct.)
Amazon.com Review
From Publishers Weekly
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