Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant writing!
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2017
There is not much praise I can give Michael Connelly that has not already been heaped upon him by his readers and by critics. His crime writing is absolute genius. His series featuring Detective Harry Bosch is one of my favorite crime novel series. While I prefer Bosch to Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, the other main character of several Connelly novels, including the one I review here The Gods of Guilt, I find that Haller is almost as fascinating as Bosch. I think my prejudice for Bosch lies in the fact that he is solving a crime while Haller is presenting a defense—and yes, solving the crime in the process, but somehow the courtroom setting is not quite as appealing to me as all of LA, which the Bosch novels use. That being said, Connelly is a legal scholar. In this novel, his character Haller presents his case in a detailed propulsion of evidence until there is no doubt what the legal outcome will be. And yet, the final scene is a stunner. This is what great writing is about, and Connelly is a great writer. Telling the tale of a high-tech pimp accused of murdering one of his prostitute clients, we grow to love both of them, for we know, as is necessary in a novel like this (so I offer no spoilers) that the pimp is innocent. And we know that Haller will present an explosive defense, even as we know he may bend the law a bit to get the job done. Supporting him are some colorful characters indeed: his biker investigator, his ex-wife secretary, his mentor in the nursing home, his sometimes-con driver Earl, and the brilliant young lawyer Haller has hired to assist him in his firm, a firm that is run out of a Lincoln town car, hence the moniker Lincoln Lawyer. And Connelly doesn’t shy away from several mentions that Haller had been portrayed in a movie—said movie being The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey as Haller. Being not only a writer, but a prominent source of a Bosch TV series and a couple or more movies based on his books, Connelly embraces that with gusto, endearing his readers for he seems to be saying, “See. I know you saw the movie, so I’ll just use it in the plot.” What fun!
