The Lincoln Lawyer

For those of you who, like me, saw the movie first and read the Lincoln Lawyer series books by Michael Connelly afterwards, it is hard to picture criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller as anyone other than Matthew McConaughey. But that's OK with me :-) I just read the 6th book in this series, The Gods of Guilt, and it made me want to go back and read the whole series, which I am doing in order.  Mickey's "office" is a Lincoln Town Car, which allows him to be available to his clients at the widely dispersed prisons and court houses in the LosAngeles area. Mickey's father was a famous attorney, and although he died when Mickey was young, he left a powerful impression and an admonition that the most dangerous client was an innocent person. Mickey does not usually deal in these abstract concepts of innocence and guilt, focusing rather on manipulating the "system" to the benefit of his clients, and occasionally justice is served. But now he is confronted with a truly evil person, a manipulator as skilled as Mickey, and who will stop at nothing to stay free, including threatening Mickey's daughter. At first this rich young man looked like a golden ticket--a full-paying client--and Mickey is thrilled, if somewhat puzzled about being asked to take the case to defend him against a charge of attempted homicide. In the course of things, Mickey finds that this client may also have committed a brutal murder several years ago, a murder for which an earlier client of Mickey's was sent to jail for life.