THE LINCOLN LAWYER by Michael Connelly
One of my favorite series of books is the Harry Bosch collection by Michael Connelly. It is difficult to imagine him creating another lead character as impressive as Bosch - but he has. In THE LINCOLN LAWYER Connelly introduces readers to Michael Haller, a defense attorney in LA. It is a little early to call him Bosch's equal but Connelly is off to a promising start.
Haller is a lawyer who is always looking for the big client, or as he calls it "the franchise client." This is the person who will bring Haller big bucks on a continuing basis. Haller thinks he has found such a client when he is contacted to defend Louis Roulet who has been arrested on an attempted murder charge.
Haller thinks this is one of the luckiest days of his life but later he will regret the day ever occurring. The circumstances of the alleged crime with which Roulet is charged will change Haller's life forever.
In Haller, Connelly has created another brooding LA victim. He is a man with two ex-wives and an eight-year-old daughter by his first marriage. He is not the father he wants to be to her, and he is not the attorney he started out to be. He sees his life as a series of compromises and failures. Still he is man enough to hope he reaches a better place in his career, and becomes a better person as he ages.
Connelly is a writer who knows his characters inside and out. He tells us their ticks and idiosyncrasies. He also layers these portraits with enough details of their everyday lives to make them live and breathe in our imagination. It is masterful writing and he does it with assurance in each and every novel he creates. THE LINCOLN LAWYER is this kind of product.
Michael Connelly also creates the most inventive plots in literature today. He weaves his stories in such a way as to set up the twists and turns of the plot. He makes them as natural as possible but also still as surprising as can be. You are hooked on the attorney-client relationship in this novel and then reeled in by the stunning revelations that follow.
Reading a Michael Connelly novel is like indulging in an eight-course gourmet meal. It is fulfilling and satisfying but still leaves you anticipating the next time you are offered such a feast. So get ready to dig into THE LINCOLN LAWYER. It is Connelly at his best and it doesn't get any better than that!
THE LINCOLN LAWYER is published by Little, Brown. It contains 404 pages and sells for $26.95.