Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Review by Gerti

I have read more Michael Connelly books than I can count now, but always love it when they “star” one of my favorite protagonists. This book is one of those, since it’s hero is Mickey Haller, the infamous “Lincoln Lawyer,” so named because he is a criminal defense attorney who does his business in the back of a Lincoln Town Car. In this book, he is estranged from his former wife, who works as an LA County prosecuting attorney, and their child together. He is constantly trying to re-establish contact with daughter Hayley, but she resents her dad for working as a defense attorney because the girl believes that the State is always on the side of justice, and that he only defends the guilty.

In this book, Haller is asked to defend a “Cadillac client”, one who has the money to pay, and whose case is going to trial. This case is going to make Haller rich, and he is initially happy with it since he believes his client, Louis Roulet, is innocent. But his investigator soon learns that this case is tied to that of one of Haller’s previous clients, Jesus Menendez, who is serving a life sentence in San Quentin for raping and murdering a woman after beating her up. Haller had asked the man to plead guilty, despite his protests of innocence, because there was DNA evidence that proved he was in the woman’s apartment. However, the similarities to the rich playboy case are just too strong to pass up. Soon Haller suspects that the man serving life in prison is innocent, and the rich, successful Roulet he is currently defending may have committed both crimes. Haller knows he can win the case, but should he?

The book twists and turns around Haller, and the moral questions of law and justice. Haller is handling other cases at the same time, including those of a friendly prostitute who calls herself Glory Days, who appears in another “Lincoln Lawyer” book, and the case of some drug dealer bikers, who occasionally work as Haller’s muscle, but ALWAYS pay in cash. But it is the rich playboy realtor who is the creepiest of them all. Turns out, Roulet had the keys to Haller’s home from when the property was last sold, and although he discovers the kid there, Haller doesn’t realize that his one-of-a-kind gun has been stolen from his house until the gun is used to kill his investigator. The man had been getting too close to solving the Roulet case, but the gun is Roulet’s trump card. If it’s linked to Haller, the lawyer will go to jail for the murder of his investigator, so Roulet holds on to it to make sure Haller defends him successfully. It has all been a set-up, and Haller has fallen deep into Roulet’s trap before he figures it out. Will he still save the guilty man from jail? The moral/ethical dilemma is not resolved to the reader’s satisfaction until the final chapter.