Book Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

The Lincoln Lawyer     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Michael Connelly
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Legal Setting
Little, Brown, $36.95 hardcover, 408 pages

Criminal defense attorney Michael Haller has been worried all his professional life that he won’t recognize innocence when he sees it. What he should have been worried about is the opposite of innocence: pure evil.

Mickey, as he’s known to friends and associates, thinks he’s found the perfect franchise client in Louis Ross Roulet. A franchise client is one who can pay the Schedule A fees for the duration. Roulet is a Beverly Hills playboy type who sells high-end real estate to high-end clients. He swears up and down that he didn’t try to rape and kill Regina Campo, the prostitute he admits to hiring.

At first, Haller doesn’t care if his client is guilty or not. But then, he notices some similarities with a case he pleaded out some two years earlier, and he realizes that maybe his worst fear has already come true: an innocent man may be languishing in prison. As Haller digs deeper into the murder of Martha Renteria and the attempted rape and murder of Regina Campo, the more he’s convinced that Roulet is a killer, one he’s been hired to free. When his investigator and friend is shot dead in his own home, Haller is forced to go on the defensive and turn the tables on Roulet somehow.

I’m used to Michael Connelly’s police procedurals, following his detectives in pursuit of the bad guys. But with The Lincoln Lawyer, Connelly proves that he can cross the aisle and write a legal thriller from the defense perspective. This novel has the pacing and plotting readers have come to expect from this author: Connelly sweeps the reader along, then throws in a twist to keep her on her toes.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM