the law of innocence by michael connelly

On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. It’s probably my favorite Mickey Haller novel to date and one of my favorite books this year. While a work of fiction, this Connelly gem considers complex issues and draws on important themes around innocence and guilt, around law and order, as well as the imperfections and strengths of our justice system.

Even I could summon a little sympathy for Haller this time around when the cops find a body in the trunk of his Lincoln after a pretext stop and then arrest and charge him with a murder he didn’t commit. Does anyone really believe Charles Mason deserved a vigorous defense? How about a man in a jealous rage that the evidence showed brutally stabbed to death his ex-wife and her boyfriend? Maybe the maxim should be, “Every innocent defendant deserves a vigorous defense.” Still, I understand that under our system, we presume everyone innocent until proving them guilty, so I know why that can’t be so.Īnyway, I admit it.

I get it on some level when defense attorneys use the shopworn saying, “Every defendant deserves a vigorous defense.” But that’s hard to reconcile with reality sometimes. So, I’m hard pressed to see a defense attorney protagonist as anything more than an antihero, at best-a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. After twenty-five years of law enforcement experience, I’m not a fan of criminal defense attorneys, even fictional ones. And there is a reason for that, good or not. While I can’t get enough of Michael Connelly’s crime fiction, the Mickey Haller Lincoln Lawyer novels aren’t my favorites.

The law of innocence by michael connelly