The Lincoln Lawyer

by Michael Connelly

Paperback, 2016

Call number

MYST CON

Collection

Genres

Publication

Grand Central Publishing (2016), Edition: Reissue, 592 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: INSPIRATION FOR THE ORIGINAL SERIES THE LINCOLN LAWYER â?? THE #1 TV SHOW ON NETFLIX The bestselling legal thriller has charismatic defense attorney Mickey Haller taking on a slam-dunk court case involving a Beverly Hills playboyâ??but as it spirals into a nightmare, he finds himself in a fight for his life. Mickey 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 dealersâ??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 arsenalâ??this time to save his ow… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member LaurieRKing
Michael has been steadily producing one intelligent and exciting book after another for years now, but this is something very special.
LibraryThing member christinejoseph
lawyers other lives out of car — takes all case to make $

Mickey 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
Show More
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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SpaceandSorcery
In my recent discovery of the works of Michael Connelly, through his Harry Bosch series, I became acquainted with his other successful saga featuring defense lawyer Mickey Haller: just like it happened with Bosch, I “met” Haller first in his cinematic version with the movie The Lincoln Lawyer
Show More
and then through the more recent Netflix series with the same title. Jumping from screen to book was indeed a given for me, and the narrative links between the two book series made me often think of another successful TV show, Law and Order, with Bosch representing the “Law” side of the story and Haller taking the “Order” role through the intriguing courtroom scenes which are the backbone of the story and that appeal to me even more than police procedurals.

Mickey Haller is a defense attorney nicknamed “The Lincoln Lawyer” because he prefers to do all his work aboard a Lincoln Town Car, while his driver shuttles him all over Los Angeles between the courtrooms and the prisons - yes because Mickey’s clientele mostly comes from the lower strata of society: biker gangs, small-time offenders, prostitutes and so on. He’s well-known in those circles for being the kind of lawyer who often manages to acquit his clients, or when that doesn’t work, to get them a reduced sentence. He works with quantity rather than quality, and is always looking for the “coup” that might present him with some financial stability, which he sorely needs given that he has two ex-wives - one of them a prosecutor he often meets while touring courtrooms and the other presently working as his case manager - and a hillside house with a great view, which he’s still paying for.

So, when one of his many contacts presents him with the potential for a “franchise client”, the kind of client who promises steady income over the years, he does not look too closely into this proverbial gift horse’s mouth, hardly wondering why affluent Louis Roulet wanted someone like Haller to defend him against the accusation of having savagely beaten a prostitute. Roulet looks and sounds innocent - something of a change given Haller’s usual clientele - but some inconsistencies in the course of the investigation compel the lawyer to look closely at the evidence and bring him to a devastating discovery, one that forces him to navigate the extremely narrow margin between his commitment as an attorney and his conscience.

By now I know that Michael Connelly’s writing never fails to engage me, but with this novel I was even more intrigued than usual, to the point that I did something I rarely - if ever - do: I read the first three books in the series back to back, and I not only avoided any kind of “story fatigue”, but I ended up feeling eager to continue with the series. Hook, line and sinker, indeed… What I found fascinating, besides the story itself, is the dichotomy between Haller’s outwardly sleazy persona and his own ethics, a divide that creates a multi-faceted, quite humanly believable character. He is a man very focused on his work and somehow haunted by the ghost of his father, a famous lawyer whose professional shadow he keenly feels, even though the man died when Mickey was still a child.

I’m indulging in a little spoiler here, because it’s not a major one: Haller and Bosch are half brothers from that father’s side (something that I already knew thanks to my searches about Connelly’s works, and that is revealed in the second novel), and it’s interesting here to look for the two men’s points of contact and differences - despite the opposing sides of the law in which they work, they are both quite committed to their profession, to the point that both of them have sacrificed emotional entanglements to pursue that drive, but where Bosch is his very own man, forced from early childhood to depend only on himself, Haller often feels the weight of that larger-than-life father and the unconscious need to be “worthy” of his legacy. In the end, both men are striving for justice, each in his own different way and through totally different means, and I’m certain that the juxtaposition of these two characters will offer many intriguing considerations down the road.

In this first Lincoln Lawyer novel, Michael Connelly fuses very successfully characterization and plot, creating an engrossing story that quite deserves the title of “page turner”: once again I came to the written word after experiencing the plot through the cinematic medium, and yet I was never bored or distracted by that knowledge because this is the kind of writer who knows how to capture his audience’s attention and keep it riveted from start to finish. Here the mix of courtroom debate, police investigation and unexpected twists and turns takes the readers through a story that is more than a simple legal thriller because it also explores, very compellingly, the nooks and crannies of the human soul while it showcases the intricacies of the legal system in a way that is everything but pedantic.

It’s true that my TBR hardly needed another book series to weigh it down, but this new addition promises to offer many hours of absorbing reading, so I will not complain…. ;-)
Show Less
LibraryThing member allureofbooks
I read The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly after watching the movie. I haven’t dipped into the mystery/crime thriller genre in a long while and thought it was about time! Both the book and movie impressed me both in characterization and plot organization.

So, Mickey Haller isn’t your typical
Show More
male hero that comes in to solve the crime or save the day. He is a defense attorney – he fights for the bad (*ahem* allegedly) guys. When the case of a wealthy realtor falls in his lap, he thinks things are finally going his way. He gets a case guaranteed to make him a big pile of money and he thinks – for once – his guy might even be innocent. Of course, as I’ve come to learn, in the worlds that Michael Connelly writes in things are never what they seem – you have to go through a constantly twisting and winding journey to see where Mickey’s case will eventually take him.

So, even though Mickey doesn’t come off as the type of guy you’d typically root for – I dare you not to fall under his spell just the same (and this isn’t just a Matthew McConaughey movie flashback either). He does have his own special set of ethical guidelines – and even when he is skating legal and moral corners you can’t help but be impressed by him. This man is wily. He is also a sucker for his daughter and ex-wife (sorry – make that ex-wives). He wants to be a family man but that role didn’t work out for him since his woman of choice is a prosecutor that ultimately couldn’t handle him fighting on the “wrong” side.

As for the plot – Michael Connelly certainly delivers on that front, y’all. Not only do his books keep you in a constant state of anticipation, but the mysteries are engaging. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, it would be pretty much impossible to foresee all of them. Impressive stuff.

So anyway, I read through the entire four book Mickey Haller series in a row – couldn’t get enough! Can’t wait to see where it goes next. I highly recommend both the movie and the book. I actually watched the movie first – which might have even made me appreciate the book’s intricacies (and different ending) more. Definitely worth checking out, even if it isn’t your normal genre!
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheBentley
A surprising page-turner that turns out to be a better _mystery_ than I ever expected. The weakness is Connelly's diction, especially in the dialog. While he does a pretty good job with the voice of his first-person narrator, he has some difficulty differentiating the voices of the other characters
Show More
in the book. Still, a book that kept me turning pages and looking forward to getting back to it when I had to put it down.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dailyplanit
You won’t find Harry Bosch in Michael Connelly’s latest book, “The Lincoln Lawyer.â€? But you won’t be disappointed as he introduces Mickey Haller, a lawyer who operates out of his Lincoln town car to represent clients who are usually unquestionably guilty. Mickey's father
Show More
warned him about the dangers of representing an innocent man, as failure can haunt you for life. This has never been a problem for Mickey until he signs on to defend young real estate agent Louis Roulet against charges of assault. Mickey’s initial belief that this is a “franchise caseâ€? or easy money, quickly transforms and soon it’s a battle for his soul and his life. He is forced to make some challenging choices and re-assess the principles he has lived by.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LizzySiddal
A hotshot lawyer’s ethics are turned upside down when he encounters innocence for the first time in his career. Tremendous legal thriller – don’t let the fact that it’s an R&J title put you off.
LibraryThing member Kathy89
Gritty legal storyline with underworld characters. Lawyer helps police catch career murderer. Ending was a surprise.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
This starts off as what appears to be a pretty ho-hum fairly regular court drama story about a lawyer, Mickey Haller, who has been corrupted by the system and his client, Louis Ross Roulet, who on the surface of things appears to be innocent. Making a bit of a change for Haller, he usually is the
Show More
defendant for known criminals. As the case progresses he appears to be less and less innocent and then he starts threatening Haller and his family, things start going downhill.
Filled with tension and some interesting moments musing about the role of the defence in legal trials.
Show Less
LibraryThing member txorig
A snippet "Darius McGinley had had only one profession since age eleven, drug dealer. He’d had only one true family, a a gang. He’d never gotten a driver’s license, though he drove a BMW. He’d never gotten married, thought he’d fathered three babies. It was the same old story and same old
Show More
cycle trotted out a dozen times a day in courtrooms across the county. McGinley lived in a society that intersected mainstream America only in the courtrooms. He was just fodder for the machine. The machine needed to eat and McGinley was on the plate." Just like watching old episodes of "The Practice" This was a great introduction for me to Michael Connelly. I will definitely read more.
Show Less
LibraryThing member swl
I keep trying to "get" MC and I keep failing. Finally while reading this, the novel which is widely acclaimed as his best yet, I think I understand why: he doesn't write for chicks.

I don't consider myself a "girlie" reader in the least. I think my list, if anything, skews male. I like tough, I
Show More
like gritty, I like dark, I like conflict.

BUT women readers (and, ahem, I would think, any thinking reader) require their heroes and heroines to be either 1)good or 2)more interesting - on their way to good, but with excellent motivation for all the reasons why they have been bad in the past.

We love flawed heroes! Give us a Greg Iles character, whose vices never let him rest. Or Elvis Cole, whose brooding solitude makes us want to comfort and fix him. Even Dexter (as in Darkly Dreaming): can't get much screwier than a killer hero, but we get *why* he does what he does, and move on.

BUT - in the Lincoln Lawyer, the hero has a 9year old daughter who he treats like a mildly-interesting pet, tossing a bit of kibble her way when the urge strikes him. And his ex, a woman with a demanding career of her own, is not only sort of okay with this but lets him into her bed and - incredibly - allows the child to crawl in and discover her daddy's sleeping over. HELLLLLLOOOO! I'm bellowing here! No mom I know is going to pick this book up and get past this scene with a shred of affection for the character.

Well, enough of my temper tantrum. That aside, I'm still trying to figure out the big draw. I find the dialog a little stilted (let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Contraction) and the cast of characters oddly unlikeable all the way around.

MC seems determined never to write a cliffhanging chapter ending. They're not compulsory, of course, but that doesn't mean they need to end in a crashing halt; lines like "I opened the car door and got out to go inside once again" just don't make me want to turn the page.

Fans of courtroom drama will be pleased - the court scenes are very nicely done, credible, and don't drag. However, the "shocking ending" seems anything but; rather it sort of putters out in a predictable denoument.

The theme seems to be roughly: good man worn down to mediocrity and moral ambivalence by events beyond his control, confronted with innocence and spurred to act. Well, no complaints there, it's juicy, and MC does a convincing job with his cast. I guess. Though it's hard to reconcile his occasional bursts of self-righteousness (shame in putting Jesus away; his "handshake rule"; the lunch-time lofty argument with the cop) with his determined indifference.

Also the "Dad I never knew" invisible guidepost seemed sort of silly. But now I'm looking for nits to pick, so I'll stop.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jmcclain19
A new addition to the Michael Connelly world of Southern California. Connelly does an excellent job in this book with his protagonist - Mickey Haller. How he makes this high powered defense attorney, who is essentially a dead beat dad and a lousy husband (thus him having an ex-wife who gives him
Show More
far too much slack) is quite impressive. It might not be too clear about the connection - but Haller shares a common bond with Harry Bosch - they both have the same father. The trial sections are as good if not better than anything Grisham has ever penned, and in typical Connelly fashion he sets you up seemingly forever on how you think the story will end only to have him flip it at the last moment. Connelly did state on his website that more Mickey Haller books are in the hopper so I'm looking forward to more in this series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mrtall
Michael Connelly's most recent foray into non-Harry Bosch novels is The Lincoln Lawyer, and it's a success. Mickey Haller is a defense lawyer who works out of the back seat of the eponymous automobile. He's pretty rough around the edges, and isn't a totally admirable sort of guy. But this adds to
Show More
the credibility and appeal of the story, which involves Haller's defense of his biggest nightmare: a totally innocent man. There's a nifty tie-in with the Harry Bosch series, too, for its fans.
Show Less
LibraryThing member grundoon
I like Michael Connelly in general, but the Harry Bosch books can be pretty sad and dark. This one, on the other hand, is a hoot. Almost as wacky as Carl Hiassen in his prime.
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
A new direction, a new hero, but Michael Connelly hasn't lost his touch with this superb legal thriller, as usual set in Los Angeles and peopled by very believable characters and authentic locations. Micky Haller is a criminal defence lawyer who works out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car and
Show More
thinks he has landed on his feet with a new rich Hollywood client, but as always, things aren't as clear-cut as they seem. Highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member OneMorePage
Mickey Haller is a criminal defense attorney who practices out of his car, one of a fleet of Lincolns he bought in flush times. Divorced twice and a negligent father to his 8-year-old daughter, he is now living on the edge of bankruptcy.

Then he lucks into a "franchise" case, defending the son of a
Show More
rich real estate women against charges of attempted rape and murder of a call girl. Thinking that he has finally found the illusive "innocent man," Mickey dives into research for the defense. But as he and his investigator research further, they begin to realize that they are not defending an innocent man at all - they are defending a serial killer. Mickey is ethically bound to not reveal what he knows, but eventually this knowledge leads to him being under suspicion of murder himself.

Great action, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member amodini
This is the first book by Connely that I have read, and it took me a few days. Not that the book was uninteresting, jut that time was scarce. The book actually is a top notch legal thriller, interesting enough to want one to finish the book even if you break the reading for a few days (and not many
Show More
books can do that).

I'd compare this to "The Street Lawyer" only it is very different (I enjoyed that one too). The Lincoln Lawyer, defense lawyer Michael Haller (so called because he conducts his business from the backseat of his Lincoln Towncar) is a streetsmart lawyer defending all types of criminals. Whether they are guilty or not doesn't matter to him. So, yeah, he is cynical and has no illusions about the "justice" of the law or about the world in general. He has 2 ex-wives, both of whom still love/have affection for him, because ofcourse underneath it all, the guy has a heart of gold. He also has a daughter, whom he'd like to give more time, living with his second wife.

Michael Haller in defending the run-of-the-mill client is starting to be over-powered by his conscience, and is worried that he may not recognise innocence when he sees it. And it looks like that is what has happened, when Michael is approached by a "franchise" (rich - the franchise that'll pay) client Louis Roulet to defend Roulet in an assault/attempt-to-murder charge . . .

The book moves fast, the characters are sketched well, well enough to elicit sympathy, especially for Haller. Lots of court scenes, private investigating etc. Nice, highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Georg.Miggel
To be fair: Every thriller you read after The Poet must be a disappointment. So this one met my expectations: It was better than most thrillers I have read, but still not extraordinarily good. The story was gripping, the writing was fast and good, and I do like my colleague Michael Haller who is as
Show More
greedy and indifferent as I am.

But there are some minor deficiencies which bothered me, especially at the end of the story. Why does Mickey have two ex-wives of which only one has a meaning for the plot? Why does he choose the most complicated way to get rid of his client? But there was one thing I absolutely don’t like. When the narrator (not the author) gives me the impression he knows the solution of the mystery but deliberately doesn’t want to tell me before the end of his story I feel cheated and like an object of a private game. Why doesn’t he tell me now? It would have been better to tell this story in the third person to avoid this standard problems of a crime novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Gary10
Above average who-done it that focuses on the life of a somewhat unscrupulous lawyer.
LibraryThing member JSJStein
A fast paced read. Connelly is among the best for this genre I think
LibraryThing member raizel
Note the last sentence of the paperback I read is different from the one quoted by two other LT contributors.

A modern mystery about a defense lawyer confronted with the innocence of a client---a new situation for him---and how he deals with it. Not quite a coming-of-age story, but the lawyer does
Show More
go on a journey and returns changed for the better. Lots of drinking, characters we care about. I guessed who done part of it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member she_climber
I loved this book. I read lots of lawyer/courtroom drama books, but it is so rare to get one from the other side of the aisle and this one moved along so fast that there wasn't time to put it down. The story just pulled me along and dared me to keep up.
LibraryThing member meghayden
Excellent characters, unique spin on the tired lawyer story
LibraryThing member marient
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 criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln.
LibraryThing member debavp
Michael Connelly writing for the defense? Harry Bosch must be having a fit somewhere :)! I was impressed withConnelly's take on the legal thriller. Fast moving, even if it was a bit predictable, but still enough twists and turns to keep you interested until the end. Mickey Haller is the funniest
Show More
character of Connelly's to date and I wouldn't mind reading a few more of his cases.
Show Less

Awards

Edgar Award (Nominee — Novel — 2006)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Mystery/Thriller — 2005)
Anthony Award (Nominee — Novel — 2006)
Macavity Award (Winner — Novel — 2006)
Shamus Award (Winner — 2006)
Gumshoe Award (Nominee — Thriller — 2006)

Pages

592

ISBN

1455567388 / 9781455567386
Page: 2.8687 seconds