The Fifth Witness

I really like this series by Michael Connelly featuring itinerant lawyer, Mickey Haller (aka The Lincoln Lawyer). Fifth Witness is the 4th major book for this character series--there are posts for 4 other books in the series (Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict,  The Reversal, The Gods of Guilt). Crime has been slow during the Great Recession (as it came to be known) and Mickey has put himself in the business of helping those whose homes are being foreclosed. There are plenty of clients, some more legitimately victims than others, and then there is Lisa. She is always inserting herself in Mickey's efforts to keep the bank from foreclosing on the house where she is living with her son. When the head of the mortgage department at the bank is murdered, Lisa is arrested. Mickey is convinced that she is being railroaded by the police department, and also that the whole thing may have been a set up by the CEO of the company that contracts with the bank to do foreclosures. It appears he has ties to organized crime and does not want that disclosed in an upcoming merger with a public company that will bring him millions of dollars. There is the usual push to get his client off with whatever strategies work--discrediting witnesses, creating a "straw man" to put reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors, and always trying to stay at least one step ahead of the prosecution. Mickey and ex-wife Maggie continue to dance an approach-avoidance two-step that is complicated by their mutual love for teenage daughter., Hayley. Maggie, as a prosecutor for the county, still considers Mickey's tactics reprehensible. Even his new associate, fresh out of a department store law program, has her doubts. But Mickey wears his blinders so he can live with himself and defend his clients to the best of his ability. In this case, the enemies may be much closer than he thinks.

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.

The Reversal

This book continues the development of the relationship between half-brothers Michael Haller, well-know defense attorney (aka The Lincoln Lawyer) in the LA area, and Harry (Hieronymous) Bosch, veteran homicide detective for the LAPD. Both of these characters have their own series by Michael Connelly. Mickey has been solicited by the DA's office to take on the job of special prosecutor for the re-trial of Jason Jessup, who has spent 24 years in prison for the murder of a 12-year old girl in 1986. His conviction has been overturned on the basis of new DNA evidence, although the DA is still convinced the other evidence in the original investigation stands. Mickey hesitates to "cross the line" from defense to prosecution, but extracts a high price; if he wins in court, the DA will move Mickey's ex-wife Maggie from the backwater Van Nuys office to the main office. Also, she is to be Mickey's 2nd chair on the case, and he gets to choose his own investigator, enter Harry Bosch. Maggie is an experienced and highly successful prosecution attorney with the DA's office, Harry is one of the most seasoned and intuitive homicide detectives on the force, and Mickey knows all the moves a good defense attorney can make--so they form an impressive team. But it is no small feat to prosecute someone for a 25-year-old crime and they are up against one of the best defense attorneys in town. Jessup has energized a whole host of supporters from his cell, and so Mickey makes the strategic decision to ask for no bail;  Jessup is released on his own recognizance--and the police and prosecution can only hope he will screw up and that the LAPD surveillance team will catch him in the act. The plot moves briskly along and Connelly does a good job of keeping all the balls in the air for the various characters. Well worth the read if you are fan of either series. I have previous posts on The Lincoln Lawyer, The Gods of Guilt, The Brass Verdict.

The Gods of Guilt

This is the 6th entry in Michael Connelly's series featuring attorney, Mickey Haller--aka "The Lincoln Lawyer," which became a movie starring Matthew McConaughey. Mickey is still doing business out of his Lincoln Towncar, and being driven around by Earl as an exchange for some legal work Mickey did to help him out. In this story, Mickey is currently estranged from his ex-wife and 16-year old daughter. His daughter holds Mickey responsible for the death of a woman and daughter killed by a drunken driver. Mickey previously got the drunken driver off on a technicality. The widely publicized case also lost Mickey the race for the DA's position. Here, Mickey is contacted by a digital pimp--a man who publishes the web sites for prostitutes and takes a cut of their earnings. He has been charged with murdering one of his clients. The victim, it turns out, was a woman Mickey had been close to; in fact, he thought he had helped her escape "the life" seven years earlier. Still, Mickey thinks this particular client is actually innocent and has been set up by an unscrupulous and ruthless DEA agent. The dead prostitute had helped the DEA agent convict a drug dealer by planting a gun under the mattress before the dealer was busted. The gun allowed the feds to put the dealer in jail for life instead of just a few months or years. The fact that the case is being re-opened means that several people might have had a motive to kill "Glory Days."
This is really well written as are all the Michael Connelly books that I have ever read, and I am actually now interested in going back to read earlier installments in this particular series, as most of what I have read are the Harry Bosch novels. There are a couple of videos about this book on Connelly's web site.

The Crossing

Hoo boy, I am WAY behind in posting recently-read books. I have read a lot of books by Michael Connelly, both the Harry Bosch series and the Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) series. He never seems to make a false step with his writing--at least IMHO, he is a craftsman, and I like this genre. Bosch in this book decides to take on a case for his defence attorney half-brother, Mickey, thus crossing over to the dark side. After decades of putting the bad guys away as a LAPD detective,  Bosch knows that he is going to be seen as a traitor and take a lot of heat from his former colleagues. Nevertheless, he talks to the defendant and thinks he is innocent, but gets an agreement from Mickey that he will follow where the clues lead--whether it be to innocence or guilt.
Harry is still able to get a little help from his last partner, Lucy Soto, because Bosch always treated her fairly; as a female detective Lucy experienced a lot of harassment and discrimination in the job. Unfortunately, the clues Harry starts turning up suggest that it is dirty cops that have staged not only the murder for which Mickey's client has been jailed, but other deaths as well. When Bosch gets too close, the corrupt detectives make arrangements to have Haller arrested on a trumped-up charge, and they start stalking Bosch, even threatening his daughter Maddie.
As usual, things are not easy with Maddie as she is getting ready to go off to college, where she will be roommates with Mickey's daughter, Hayley. Harry will never win "father of the year" award, but it is obvious he is trying his best and just hanging in there.
Harry comes through in the end, but not without first making some high-stakes plays to lure in the killers. As always, an engrossing read with fully developed characters and credible dialog. If you are a fan of detective novels, don't miss this series.

Brass Verdict

This is the 2nd installment in the Mickey Haller series by Michael Connelly and it continues to develop the character first met in The Lincoln Lawyer. After being shot in the first book, Mickey becomes addicted to pain medications and his law practice goes on hold. Following a stint in rehab, he is feeling ready to get back to work, but is surprised by inheriting the entire caseload of a fellow criminal defenses attorney who has just been murdered, Jerry Vincent. Apparently, these two lawyers occasionally covered cases for one another and wrote each other into their client contracts as 2nd counsel, but Mickey had no idea that Vincent left the entire practice to him. The team swings into high gear to get up to speed and find that two detectives, including Harry Bosch (Connelly's first and most developed series protagonist), are rummaging through Vincent's files in their pursuit of leads to find his killer. Although Mickey wants to help, he goes head to head with Bosch over client confidentiality.
One of the inherited clients is a high profile and very rich movie studio exec who is charged with a double homicide. Key information is missing in Vincent's stolen computer, calendar and some hard files, but Mickey puts Cisco to work and manages to put together what he considers to be a solid defense. Mickey tries to help the police with enough information, even making himself a target, to help track down Vincent's killer. But as Mickey reminds himself in the end, after discovering he has been played by cops, judges and clients, everyone lies. Mickey occasionally has crises of conscience about defending bad people, especially in trying to keep the good opinion of his daughter, and this particular client sends him in the direction of wanting to call it quits.
The really surprising revelation at the very end of the story is that Mickey figures out Bosch is an illegitimate half-brother, progeny of his famed father, Michael Haller, Sr., and a prostitute.

Dark Sacred Night

I have been a long-time fan of Michael Connelly's "Harry Bosch" and "Lincoln Lawyer" books (see several posts in my blog); although I haven't come close to reading all 34 of his novels. This is the 21st book in the Harry Bosch series and the 2nd to feature Renée Ballard. In this book, Harry Bosch, to Renée Ballard, a detective who has been banished to the "Late Show" (night shift) at the Hollywood station after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a commanding officer. Harry is investigating a very cold case on his own dime--the murder of a 15-year-old street prostitute, Daisy Clayton, nine years ago. Harry is semi-retired but "consulting" for San Fernando police department on their cold cases. This one is personal for Harry who has helped Daisy's mother, Elizabeth, get off drugs and is currently letting her live in his spare room to support her in staying clean. She is tormented by her failure as a mother and Harry hopes to solve the murder and give her some closure.
Renée comes back from supervising a death scene one night and finds Harry going through old files in the squad room. After he leaves, she realizes he has broken into the file cabinet containing the murder book for Daisy, and begins to investigate on her own. They eventually combine forces after some lengthy dancing around over whether or not to trust one another. They are both loners with a strong sense of justice and a particular investment in abused women. We get a fair amount of what seems to be peripheral digression into other cases that each of the detectives are working on, although some of them do eventually tie back into the main case. 
A review from NPR's Maureen Corrigan in The Washington Post calls the book "darkly brilliant" because neither Harry nor Renée are ever going to win "the glass half-full" contest, but they make a really good team. A favorable review from Kirkus,  and the New York Journal of Books says, "Michael Connelly remains the reigning heavyweight champion of police procedurals, and Dark Sacred Night is another knockout victory."We are currently watching Amazon Prime's TV version of the Harry Bosch novels (called just "Bosch") and they are well cast and well done.