Random Review of the Week: The Lincoln Lawyer

Over the last week, I have been reading an exceptional book by author Michael Connelly.  The Lincoln Lawyer is part of the Mickey Haller series, about a defense attorney with questionable morals and ethics who defends his clients, not by presenting their innocence, but by putting the legal focus on the cracks in the case and making it fall apart.

Cover for the Michael Connelly novel The Lincoln Lawyer

This is the book that starts off the Mickey Haller series, with him getting what he calls a 'franchise' case.  A case that will pay him big money and allow him to maintain a higher lifestyle, giving him more publicity and making more money.  Mickey is a character that is all about the paycheck and whatever he has to do to get it.  To be reading about such an anti-hero persona as a main character is refreshing, since he is not overtly evil like some characters, but he isn't a overly great person to be with.

This case is a man named Louis Roulet (roolay), who is accused of battery, attempted rape and attempted murder of Regina Campos.  As the novel starts, it jumps around to show you the personality of Mickey, keeping Louis shrouded more and more until a surprising middle of the book reveal, where all the cards are laid down.

The characters are excellently written.  Everyone from Mickey, to Raul Levin, to Louis Roulet, Ted Minton, even Mickey's first ex-wife, Maggie McPhearson.  They're all incredibly well written characters with dialogue that stays on point with who they are.  What makes it even better is after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation, with a decent imagination, you can see the actors fitting the parts perfectly.

Maggie McPhearson (Marisa Tomei) and Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) in Four Green Fields Bar in The Lincoln Lawyer

The book has an great plot, written in a way to keep you intrigued by what Mickey will do next, not showing the reader the entire plan until it actually unfolds.  The story is told from Mickey's perspective, but at the same time doesn't allow the narrative to become completely omniscient, allowing the reader to take guesses and potshots at what is coming next.

Another good thing Connelly does is using current events of the period as a place in order to allow the reader to establish a time frame in which the story takes place, and intertwining locations around Los Angeles with both the Blake trial and the novel's story make the city seem like a minor character in the story, albeit indirectly.

The only complaint that I had with the story is that once we get to the trial, and everything is moving along in intensity, the book suddenly comes to a halt.  Not to say the conclusion was in any way bad, it worked.  It just came way too fast.  It's like the reader is going down a highway at 60 miles an hour and their speed is steadily climbing, then they floor the pedal and their car shoots to 200.  The story concluded well, but I just felt that the story could've taken a little more time to get there, built up the suspense and mystery behind things.

All in all, this is a wonderful book and a great start to a series.  With killer twists in the story, a nice shake-up in routine novel structure, and witty, interesting dialogue, readers won't be able to put it down until the final page has been read.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and others will as well.

Review:
4/5 stars.