The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

 

First Line: To some it's a stage.

Needing a new direction, Mickey Haller has turned to public interest litigation. He's filed a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend.

As Mickey explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and its lack of training guardrails, he joins up with investigative journalist Jack McEvoy. McEvoy wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial so he can write a book about it. Haller puts McEvoy to work wading through the mountains of printed discovery materials in the case, and McEvoy's digging delivers the reluctant key witness. The witness has every reason to be reluctant. This is a very dangerous case because billions of dollars are at stake, and Mickey Haller will have to come up with a brilliant strategy to defeat the forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.

~

Michael Connelly has done it again-- and with a subject that concerns me more with each passing day. While readers get an update on Harry Bosch as well as being able to see what happened in the Los Angeles area during Covid and the wildfires, Mickey Haller's battle against the artificial intelligence industry takes front and center stage in The Proving Ground.

While Mickey hoped that his switch from criminal law to civil law would be less fraught, this lawsuit soon shows him that civil law is every bit as grimy and dangerous. McEvoy's expertise in digging through endless reams of facts is invaluable, and I enjoyed his inclusion as well as watching the rest of the team do everything they could to bring a heartless business to justice. 

The plot of The Proving Ground is filled with twists and turns, even bringing in a case that Mickey lost years ago. The Lincoln Lawyer anticipates some of those twists and turns, but he gets blindsided by others, and this really keeps readers on their toes. 

As much as I enjoyed the plot and the characters, I think what I learned about artificial intelligence meant even more to me. When I think of AI, I'm often reminded of Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park when he says, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." Michael Connelly's The Proving Ground is not only excellent entertainment, but it also warns us of a clear and present danger.

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

eISBN: 9780316563840

Little, Brown & Company © 2025

eBook, 400 pages

Legal Thriller, #9 Mickey Haller

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

 

First Line: The family gathered in the visitor lot: Jorge Ochoa's mother and brother and me.

 

After getting a wrongfully convicted man out of prison, lawyer Mickey Haller is inundated with requests from incarcerated people who claim they're innocent. He recruits his half-brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch to weed through the letters. Both men know that most of them will be false.

 

When Bosch reads the letter of a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff's deputy, he reviews the case and sees that some things just don't add up.

 

Now Haller has an uphill battle to fight in court. He and Bosch are both in danger from people who don't want the case reopened and will do anything to keep the truth from coming to light.

 

~

 

Reading one of Michael Connelly's books featuring Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch is a sure thing. Readers are guaranteed a roller coaster ride story showcasing how brilliant these two men are at ferreting out the truth and successfully getting justice. I also like how Connelly has dealt with the aging Harry Bosch. Yes, his advancing years are affecting him, but he's still more than capable of playing a vital role in any pursuit of truth. And as far as Mickey Haller is concerned, by the book's end, he's reached a crossroads, and I'm looking forward to seeing which road he takes.

 

I don't care what format I choose to read Connelly's books. Still, after having enjoyed Amazon's TV series, Bosch, I have to admit that I have a bit of a preference for the audiobook version so I can listen to Titus Welliver. (Love his voice!) 

Are you in the mood for a compelling investigation and riveting courtroom drama? Get your hands on Resurrection Walk.

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

Narrated by Peter Giles, Titus Welliver, and Christine Lakin

ASIN: B0BT24RVJH

Little, Brown & Company © 2023

Audiobook. 10 hours and 30 minutes.

 

Legal Thriller, #7 Lincoln Lawyer thriller

Rating: A

Source: Audible.

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

Title: The Brass Verdict
Author: Michael Connelly
ISBN: 9780316166294
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2008
Hardcover, 432 pages
Genre: Legal Thriller, #2 Mickey Haller
Rating: A
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: Everybody lies.

Mickey Haller is just about to make his courtroom conduct when fellow defense attorney and friend Jerry Vincent is murdered. Vincent names Haller as the attorney he wants to take over any open cases he may have, and Vincent has one case that could put Mickey on Easy Street: the defense of Walter Elliott, a Hollywood studio head accused of murdering his wife and her lover.

As Haller prepares for this case, he learns that certain facts aren't adding up, and Vincent's killer may be after him, too. The person determined to find Vincent's killer is one LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, who has to fight his natural distrust of lawyers when dealing with Mickey. Bosch thinks nothing of using Haller as bait, but it doesn't take long for the two of them to realize that they are going to have to work together.

That's my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.

Haller's belief that "everybody lies" has the same ring to it as Bosch's "Everybody counts, or nobody counts." For years Haller has wanted just one thing: to defend a client who is really innocent. Walter Elliott may be that innocent client.

I enjoyed Connelly's intricate plotting of the book, of the way Haller took over a dead man's cases, made sense of everything, and began putting together his defense for his new clients. His handling of the egomaniacal studio head was classic at times, since Elliott was used to being the one who called all the shots. Haller didn't let him get away with anything.

I always have been-- and always will be-- a Harry Bosch fan, and there just wasn't enough of Harry in this book. He seemed to be brought in more for the shock value at the end than anything else. But setting aside the insufficient time with one of my favorite characters, The Brass Verdict is a smooth, brilliant legal thriller that shouldn't be missed.

Buy from Amazon.
Buy from The Book Depository.
Buy from an Indie Bookseller.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

Title: The Lincoln Lawyer
Author: Michael Connelly
ISBN: 0-316-73493-4, Little, Brown and Company, 2005
Genre: Legal Thriller
Rating: A

First Line: The morning air off the Mojave in late winter is as clean and crisp as you'll ever breathe in Los Angeles County.

I overdosed on legal thrillers years ago, when John Grisham and Scott Turow were at the very top of their game. Although the plots were still complex and dazzling, I'd begun to feel claustrophobic for some reason, and I stopped reading them. I needed to get out of the courtroom.

If there's one author whom I can't ignore, it's Michael Connelly. When The Lincoln Lawyer came out, I couldn't believe it. One of my favorite authors had written a legal thriller! I studiously ignored the book until The Brass Verdict appeared. Once I realized that Mickey Haller, the Lincoln lawyer himself, was going to be appearing with my beloved Harry Bosch, I knew I'd have to bite the bullet and read up on what makes Mickey Haller tick.

I should've bitten that bullet a long time ago.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller does a lot of his business from the back of his Lincoln. In fact, he has a whole fleet of the automobiles. By the time I met Mickey, he had all the appearance of a completely jaded legal hack:

I didn't deal in guilt and innocence, because everybody was guilty. Of something. But it didn't matter, because every case I took on was a house built on a foundation poured by overworked and underpaid laborers. They cut corners. They made mistakes. And then they painted over the mistakes with lies. My job was to peel away the paint and find the cracks. To work my fingers and tools into those cracks and widen them. To make them so big that either the house fell down or, failing that, my client slipped through.

For all his world-weary talk of everyone being guilty of something, Haller is also pointing the finger at himself. He feels that he didn't do everything possible when he defended Jesus Menendez, who's now looking life without parole straight in the eyes from the "comfort" of San Quentin. Regardless of how he may be perceived outwardly, Haller is a good guy who remains on very good terms with both ex-wives, and who secretly longs to be presented with a truly innocent man to defend. (He worries that, after all this time, he won't be able to recognize innocence when he sees it.)

Then Louis Roulet is charged with assault and attempted murder. This is what Haller calls a "franchise case" because Roulet's mother will pay any amount of money to see her son declared innocent. But the more Haller and his investigator Raul Levin work on this case, the more things don't add up. Haller finds himself caught in a deadly web, and it's going to take every speck of his smarts to work his way out of it intact.

Connelly worked his magic on me once again. Within a few pages, I was fascinated with the character of Mickey Haller. For all his quiet, matter-of-fact posturing and pronouncements, he still retains a remarkable degree of gullibility. The pacing is perfect throughout the book, gathering speed with each successive chapter. When Haller realizes the trap he's fallen into, the plan he puts together to extricate himself is brilliant and almost guaranteed to keep readers glued to the page.

Since I had such a great reading experience with Lawyer Haller, am I going to add legal thrillers to my reading diet once more? No, but I certainly am ready for The Brass Verdict!


[Source: Purchased through the Mystery Guild.]