The Lincoln Lawyer

Mickey Haller is a Los Angeles defense lawyer who conducts business out of his Lincoln Town Car. His practices sometimes bend the rules of ethics, and his clients are often unsavory. However, when a bail bondsman calls Mickey to hook him up with a "franchise" client - someone who will pay top dollar for his services - Mickey thinks he may actually have an innocent client. His fear has always been that he wouldn't recognize innocence when he saw it. Maybe Louis Roulette will be the client that answers that question for him.

There is a reason Michael Connelly is as well-respected in the genre of crime fiction as he is. He consistently publishes fresh plots, dynamic characters, and excellent suspense. The Lincoln Lawyer is no different.

Mickey Haller is the type of character who completely baffles me. He's a despicable lawyer. He epitomizes all the stereotypes and lawyer jokes. There is no doubt he's in this business for the money. But, this book is told from the first person point of view and you get insight into Haller's thoughts, which aren't always despicable. It's almost as if there's a disconnect in his character. He adores his daughter; he doesn't think twice about agreeing to take her to the mall for the Build-A-Bear store. He still loves his ex-wife and goes to bat for her when a fellow prosecutor tries to feed her to the wolves when she isn't around. In the end, I don't think there's actually a disconnect in his character, so much as he's part of a spectrum of good and evil. He's a human...an America, after the America dream; he's competitive and driven. Maggie, his ex-wife, may be a little closer to the good end of the continuum. Whereas the bikers, maybe they're a little closer to the evil end of the continuum. And then there's the far end of the continuum, pure evil.

Connelly is true to form with his signature plot twists. I can't say every part of it was jaw-dropping surprises, but at the same time, I wasn't predicting much. There was an element of the plot that bothered me at the end, but I don't want to give away anything to anyone who is further behind in their reading than me and hasn't already devoured this book. It is a bit of a knit-picky thing anyway; nothing that ruins that book as a whole.

While I haven't read Connellly's entire bibliography, he hasn't let me down, yet. Another great crime caper.

I listened to this book on audio, so I'll mention briefly that Adam Grupper read this book. I'm familiar with him from television. He was decent, but he's a person who puts a lot of stress on ending consonant sounds and consonant blends. That tends to bother me; the sound is just one of those fingernails on the chalkboard type irritations for me. But overall he did a very nice job with the reading.