Summary and Reviews of The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The Lincoln Lawyer

by Michael Connelly
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (3):
  • First Published:
  • Oct 3, 2005, 416 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2006, 528 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A stunning display of novelistic mastery - as human, as gripping, and as whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called "today's Dostoyevsky of crime literature.

Mickey Haller has spent all his professional life afraid that he wouldn't recognize innocence if it stood right in front of him. But what he should have been on the watch for was evil.

Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers - they're all on Mickey Haller's client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence - it's about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney's dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career.

Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal - this time to save his own life.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a stunning display of novelistic mastery - as human, as gripping, and as whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called "today';s Dostoyevsky of crime literature."

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Mickey Haller may represent lowlifes but, despite his clientele and his own facade of world-weariness, he maintains something of a conscience, triggered in part by a past case that he mishandled which landed a (probably) innocent man on Death Row. However, when he takes on the case of Louis Roulet, who is accused of beating a prostitute, the guilt or innocence of the man is secondary to the dollar signs that Haller sees in his future, because Roulet appears to be the ultimate prize for a lawyer - a 'franchise' client - i.e. one who will provide repeat business over the years; and as an added bonus there's a fighting chance that he's even telling the truth when he proclaims himself innocent!

Connelly spends about half the book introducing Haller's complex world, replete with a motley collection of ex-clients proficient in interesting and usually illegal areas of expertise, and a couple of ex-wives; and then launches him on a roller coaster ride complete with more than ample twists and turns.

With starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist this is a must for legal thriller aficionados and for fans of Michael Connelly.

Interesting note for fans of Connelly's Harry Bosch series: Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch are half-brothers, sharing the same father, J. Michael Haller - which begs the question whether we'll see Haller and Bosch together in a future book?..continued

Full Review (385 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing.  After graduating in 1980, he worked at newspapers in Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. The resulting magazine story was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and landed him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times.  After three years on the crime beat, he began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Lincoln Lawyer, try these:

  • Speak of the Devil jacket

    Speak of the Devil

    by Richard Hawke

    Published 2007

    About this book

    More by this author

    In his brilliantly paced and stunningly original debut, Richard Hawke delivers a tale of flawed and unforgettable people operating at the ends of their ropes. It's literary suspense that doesn't let go until the last page.

  • The Fallen jacket

    The Fallen

    by T Jefferson Parker

    Published 2007

    About this book

    More by this author

    Following an accident, homicide detective Robbie Brownlaw, develops synesthesia, a neurological condition where your senses get mixed up. Sometimes when people talk to him, he see their voices as colored shapes provoked by the emotions of the speakers, not by the words themselves. When a sergeant in the Professional Standards Unit is found dead, ...

We have 5 read-alikes for The Lincoln Lawyer, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Michael Connelly
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Jackal's Mistress
    by Chris Bohjalian
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Hour of the Witch, a Civil War love story of a Confederate wife and a wounded Yankee.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

Who Said...

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

T B S of T F

and be entered to win..