Connelly, M. (2006) The Lincoln Lawyer. London: Orion Books. (Original 2005)

 

Connelly, M. (2006) The Lincoln Lawyer. London: Orion Books. (Original 2005)

 

Summary

Mickey Haller is a criminal defence lawyer, taking whatever cases the system throws his way. When Louis Ross Roulet - a Beverley Hills rich boy - is arrested for brutally beating a woman, Haller has his first high-paying client in years. What's more, he might even be innocent! But, of course, neither victim nor accused is who they seem to be and Haller finds himself under threat of legal - and physical - action.

 

My comments

I started by dismissing this as a formula law 'n' order novel, complete with gritty detectives, cynical attorneys, corrupt cops and angel saviours. (Connelly has, after all, written a dozen or so crime novels, often one a year.) But then, of course, I got involved and found it compelling reading!

 

The power of the book is the narrative, not the characterisation. Many of the characters were obvious clichés and/or stereotypes. However, Connelly appears to have substantive knowledge of the US legal system (he was a crime reporter), which he uses to create substantive backdrops to the characters, making them less the focus of the action than, in a sense, mere puppets of that legal system.

 

Connelly also uses his background in crime writing to build such a very complex web of plot and counter-plot that I ended up losing the plot of who was doing what to whom. I think that if I read it again, all would become clear; but I fear that I would find the easy bits - the characters - so easy that re-reading the book wouldn't be satisfying, after all. 7/10