The Lincoln Lawyer

There are two ways to look at this novel - as part of the long running Harry Bosch Universe or as a separate independent novel. Neither of these will be wrong - while some characters from the main sequence show up, the novel stands on its own - just like the earlier "Blood Work" or "The Poet" did. In some ways, these first novels in the peripheral series are actually more enjoyable than the police procedurals in the main one.

Mickey Haller is a lawyer in Los Angeles - jaded, not very well paid and ready to cross almost any line if it will help him (and peripherally his client - although that is almost never his priority). And out of the blue he gets his hands on a case which may be his meal ticket for awhile. Except that that meal show more ticket, Louis Roulet, seems to be a thoroughly unpleasant man. Which usually would not be an issue for Mickey - except that he had advised a previous client to plead guilty -- for a crime which now Louis looks good for.

At the start of the novel, Mickey looks almost the opposite of Bosch (and if you had read the earlier novels, that is very obvious - none of them perfect but Mickey seems to be too self-centered). But as the novel progresses, it turns out that there is a morality under all that jadedness - he has his own moral compass and even he has a breaking point. It is not a tale of redeeming a fallen lawyer or of a lawyer finding again why he went into the profession. While the Mickey of the end of the novel is different from the one at the start, the change is more of a normal human reconsideration of his choices than a full blown discovery of a new path.

Add to that a pretty decent thriller around the whole red herrings and more crime coming into it and the novel is a mix of a courtroom drama and a thriller that manages to find the correct ratio of the mix to keep it entertaining.

If you had never read Connelly before, this is not a bad novel to start with -- but it may give you a bad idea of what you usually get from one of his novels. There is a lot that is recognizable but the character arc of Mickey is very different from any others in his oeuvre up to this point.

Reading the novel almost 20 years after it came out means that I knew some things about it - including who Mickey Haller's half brother is. It is irrelevant to this novel and it will come into play in later novels but it was fun to see some elements from the older novels showing up in the periphery. show less

I have been so busy that no new books have grabbed me. I have tried a few and abandoned them all. I finally picked this book up in order to finally move off the BL space that I have been on for I think 3 weeks now. I am so glad that I read the first book in the Mickey Haller series. This book is fire. I loved every part of it and it was just what I needed right now.

Mickey Haller is a defense attorney in Los Angeles. He has not had much luck in getting what he calls a "franchise" case these days. Meaning he is trying to get a client that is going to mean big money to him down the line. When he is unexpectedly called to handle a very rich client who is accused of attempted rape and assault, he wonders if he finally found what he is show more looking for. However, not is all that it appears, and then Haller has to think about justice and what you would do to make sure the innocent don't pay for what others have done.

I loved Haller as a character. Very complicated and not similar to Harry Bosch at all. We find out that Haller's father died when he was five and was a world famous defense attorney. With two failed marriages behind him, and a nine year old daughter he wants to get close to, he is doing what he can to track down his white whale, his franchise client that will put him over the top.

I liked that Connelly took a look at defense attorneys. Haller has a lot of crap spewed his way by the prosecutors and cops he goes up against in this book. And honestly, I liked his point of view. He is there to do what he can for the best of his clients. Even though we may not like that people get defended for all matters of things, I like a book that made the point that everyone should be treated the same under the law, even if they are guilty as sin. If the prosecutor or cops mess up, there are repercussions to that. With many cases in the news right now that are disheartening to me as a citizen, it made me feel good that we just had Haller out there swinging away to make sure he did what he was supposed to do in his branch of the justice system.

We also get a look at some other characters that I managed to like in such a short time. Haller's two ex-wives are total opposites, but both definitely still care/love him. He doesn't have a terrible relationship with women at all it seems. He respects them and I loved how he was not here for his one ex and her disparaging going out of his way to keep helping a troubled prostitute that he saw sliding away into a life she was never going to get out of. There's a throw away line there about Haller doing what he can to help these women like his father did which is a nice callback to a Bosch novel. I won't spoil anything for readers who haven't read a Bosch book, but when I read "The Brass Verdict" I will happily spoil away.

We have a tightly constructed plot that I don't want to give too much away about, but ultimately Haller realizes that he is in between a rock and a hard place according to the law. And I loved how Connelly resolves the whole thing. I don't know if it would be true to life, but whatever, I loved the ending.

The writing was really good and I think the story being told from Haller's POV is what made the story pop for me. Also doesn't hurt that I kept imagining Matthew Mcconaughey talking the whole time in my head.

The flow was excellent from beginning to end. I loved how little legal tidbits got included in what Haller was saying to you the whole time. And a look at some of his cases was pretty great too.

Cannot wait for the next book!

Bank:
April 15: $20
April 17: $23. I read "The Wangs Vs the World", electronic pages 368.
April 24: $28. I read "Dream Wedding", electronic pages 512.
April 25: $28. Landed on BL and had to post a vacation photo or tell a story about a vacation.
April 29: $31. Read "Whitethorn Woods", 354 pages Kindle edition, $3.00
April 29: $34. Read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", 256 pages;$3.00.
May 4: $37. Read "The Ghost Brigades" Paperback, 346 pages; $3.00
May 8: $42. Read "American Gods" Hardcover, 465 pages; $5.00.
May 8: $45. Read "Moon Called" 298 pages Kindle edition; $3.00.
May 13: $50. Read "Solitude Creek" 434 pages electronic; $5.00.
May 14: $53. Read "No Country for Old Men" 320 pages Kindle edition; $3.00
May 19: $56. Read "The Witches: Salem, 1692" 384 ebook; $3.00
May 30: $59. Read "The Good Earth" 372 pages ebook: $3.00
June 4: $62. Read "The Wind in the Willows" paperback edition, 256 pages: $3.00
June 27: $67. Read "The Lincoln Lawyer" kindle edition, 528 pages: $5.00. show less

In my recent discovery of the works of Michael Connelly, through his Harry Bosch series, I became acquainted with his other successful saga featuring defense lawyer Mickey Haller: just like it happened with Bosch, I “met” Haller first in his cinematic version with the movie The Lincoln Lawyer and then through the more recent Netflix series with the same title. Jumping from screen to book was indeed a given for me, and the narrative links between the two book series made me often think of another successful TV show, Law and Order, with Bosch representing the “Law” side of the story and Haller taking the “Order” role through the intriguing courtroom scenes which are the backbone of the story and that appeal to me even more show more than police procedurals.

Mickey Haller is a defense attorney nicknamed “The Lincoln Lawyer” because he prefers to do all his work aboard a Lincoln Town Car, while his driver shuttles him all over Los Angeles between the courtrooms and the prisons - yes because Mickey’s clientele mostly comes from the lower strata of society: biker gangs, small-time offenders, prostitutes and so on. He’s well-known in those circles for being the kind of lawyer who often manages to acquit his clients, or when that doesn’t work, to get them a reduced sentence. He works with quantity rather than quality, and is always looking for the “coup” that might present him with some financial stability, which he sorely needs given that he has two ex-wives - one of them a prosecutor he often meets while touring courtrooms and the other presently working as his case manager - and a hillside house with a great view, which he’s still paying for.

So, when one of his many contacts presents him with the potential for a “franchise client”, the kind of client who promises steady income over the years, he does not look too closely into this proverbial gift horse’s mouth, hardly wondering why affluent Louis Roulet wanted someone like Haller to defend him against the accusation of having savagely beaten a prostitute. Roulet looks and sounds innocent - something of a change given Haller’s usual clientele - but some inconsistencies in the course of the investigation compel the lawyer to look closely at the evidence and bring him to a devastating discovery, one that forces him to navigate the extremely narrow margin between his commitment as an attorney and his conscience.

By now I know that Michael Connelly’s writing never fails to engage me, but with this novel I was even more intrigued than usual, to the point that I did something I rarely - if ever - do: I read the first three books in the series back to back, and I not only avoided any kind of “story fatigue”, but I ended up feeling eager to continue with the series. Hook, line and sinker, indeed… What I found fascinating, besides the story itself, is the dichotomy between Haller’s outwardly sleazy persona and his own ethics, a divide that creates a multi-faceted, quite humanly believable character. He is a man very focused on his work and somehow haunted by the ghost of his father, a famous lawyer whose professional shadow he keenly feels, even though the man died when Mickey was still a child.

I’m indulging in a little spoiler here, because it’s not a major one: Haller and Bosch are half brothers from that father’s side (something that I already knew thanks to my searches about Connelly’s works, and that is revealed in the second novel), and it’s interesting here to look for the two men’s points of contact and differences - despite the opposing sides of the law in which they work, they are both quite committed to their profession, to the point that both of them have sacrificed emotional entanglements to pursue that drive, but where Bosch is his very own man, forced from early childhood to depend only on himself, Haller often feels the weight of that larger-than-life father and the unconscious need to be “worthy” of his legacy. In the end, both men are striving for justice, each in his own different way and through totally different means, and I’m certain that the juxtaposition of these two characters will offer many intriguing considerations down the road.

In this first Lincoln Lawyer novel, Michael Connelly fuses very successfully characterization and plot, creating an engrossing story that quite deserves the title of “page turner”: once again I came to the written word after experiencing the plot through the cinematic medium, and yet I was never bored or distracted by that knowledge because this is the kind of writer who knows how to capture his audience’s attention and keep it riveted from start to finish. Here the mix of courtroom debate, police investigation and unexpected twists and turns takes the readers through a story that is more than a simple legal thriller because it also explores, very compellingly, the nooks and crannies of the human soul while it showcases the intricacies of the legal system in a way that is everything but pedantic.

It’s true that my TBR hardly needed another book series to weigh it down, but this new addition promises to offer many hours of absorbing reading, so I will not complain…. ;-) show less

I had no idea when I began reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly that it was such a highly regarded mystery novel. I had heard of the movie starring Matthew McMcConaughey, so when the ebook went on sale for $2.99 I figured it was a pretty safe bet to be entertaining. It was all that and more. It's no wonder that in 2006 it was awarded the Shamus Award and the Macavity Award for best mystery novel and, in 2010 was nominated for the Best Mystery Novel of the Decade.

The central character is defense attorney Mickey Haller, whose office is a Lincoln Town Car driven around L.A. by a former client who owes him legal fees. When Haller takes on a wealthy client who is accused of sexual assault and attempted murder, what begins as an show more easy case turns into something much more twisted and sinister.

The Lincoln Lawyer takes the reader into the morally complex world of the defense attorney, and Connelly does an admirable job of immersing the reader into Haller's life.

I enjoyed the book immensely and couldn't put it down. It's definitely gritty and dark, but it also has strong character development, compelling courtroom drama, and enough plot twists to keep you guessing until the very end.

Fans of Michael Connelly probably already know this, but Mickey Haller is related to Connelly's other major character, Harry Bosch. If The Lincoln Lawyer is representative of Connelly's other novels, then I'll definitely be looking to read more of his books. show less

I didn't know what to expect. I had never read a Connelly book before but struggled through the first episode of Bosch on Amazon Prime and came away from it only wanting to punch the main character in the throat. But I got into The Lincoln Lawyer immediately and struggled to stop listening when other things came up. I even subjected my son to it while driving to and from piano lessons because I wanted to take advantage of every moment I could.

I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the book: writing style, characters, and even the narrator. I did read some of it with my eyes but the narrator added a lot to the experience.

I've already gotten the sequel loaded up on the kindle.

Still not sure about Bosch but Mickey Haller is alright with me.

After about 15 books in which defence attorneys are vilified as evil greedy scumbags who use despicable tactics to free their evil guilty scumbag clients, Connelly has finally produced a story told from the perspective of one such evil greedy scumbag, Mickey Haller. Haller, a defence lawyer in LA, has long since given up any idealism of truth and justice in law that he might once have had. No longer able to see any innocence in his clients, he cynically manipulates the system, constantly focused on pride and money rather than justice or truth. When he receives a case of the attempted murder of a prostitute, he is jarred by his suspicion that his client may actually be innocent of the crime. As he begins to investigate, he is confronted show more with the face of both pure evil and total innocence and is thrown into a morass of moral and ethical questions and self-doubt.

One thing I've found problematic about most of Connelly's stories is that defence lawyers and IAD (Internal Affairs) are constantly vilified, portrayed as immoral bottom-feeders who maliciously inhibit the course of justice, and are literally called the "lowest of the low." At the same time, in every single story in the Bosch series I have read, the police have been guilty of unspeakable corruption. In fact, in all but one, a policeman has been guilty of the crime. This inconsistency has irritated me throughout. Given the corruption Connelly highlights in the police system, it would seem that defence and IAD are completely necessary to ensure justice. Series such as John Mortimer's Rumpole tend to characterize defence lawyers as those upholding justice and defence of the innocent against a corrupt police system. Rumpole truly sees himself as a crusader against a corrupt system, protecting those who are, if not innocent, undeserving of the punishments a corrupt police system wishes to force upon them. Haller on the other hand, is so jaded and cynical that while he may mouth the same platitudes as Rumpole, he repeats them without conviction or belief. The truth, of course, is something in between. This story gave Connelly the perfect opportunity to show the situation from the point of view of the defence. However, although he does highlight some prosecutorial corruption, it tends to be from a position similar to those in the Bosch stories: the prosecution using underhanded tactics to achieve a righteous result. I don't think he really made use of the opportunity to really show why the defence is important: to try to protect innocents unjustly accused of crimes they did not commit.

No matter what he tells himself, no matter how justified he thinks his actions are, I found Haller's actions immoral, self-centred, arrogant, and wrong. He repeatedly decides to avoid due process of law; he claims as narrator that his reasons are just, but they are clearly selfish. His actions cause an incredible amount of damage for those around him. The most striking instance for me was during his defence of his client.hover for spoiler I don't really understand him. I think he's manipulative and wrong and immoral and I think he's about as low down on the antihero scale as he can get. However, although I don't feel the sympathy, empathy, or connection to Haller that I feel to Bosch, I still find myself liking him against my will. I also found many of the characters around him--his two ex-wives in particular--engaging and sympathetic. Also, despite what I see as an impressively narrow-minded bias towards the side of the prosecution, I thought Connelly's description of the LA police system feels both authoritative and well-researched. The villain is incredibly creepy and several scenes made my pulse race. Most importantly, even though I could not approve of him, Connelly's brilliant characterization made Mickey Haller a sympathetic and very real person, torn and tortured by his own conflicting emotions and desires. show less

If you read my reviews, you'll know I'm skeptical about any book this long. But despite almost losing control of his story a couple of times, Connelly keeps you glued to the book until it is done. There's a lot going on here. The first person narrative by the less than scrupulous defense attorney Mickey Haller is riveting, as the main case he is working on starts spiraling into much more than the large payoff "franchise" case he was looking for. I can't say much about the twists, turns, and deepening of the plot without giving things away, but it is the soul-searching of Haller as he deals with his clients, his two ex-wives, and his daughter, that make this a book you won't be able to put down for long. The machinations of the show more prosecution and defense both before and during the trial are fascinating. Connelly is a good writer as well, telling a compelling story in a brisk manner despite the book's length -- there is no padding here. He avoids sinking into the trap of over-sentimentalizing the story or overwriting that a lot of authors, even some very good ones fall into. This is my first book by him, and on this evidence, I'll probably be back. show less