Connelly has risen to the challenge of reinvigorating the legal thriller in this, probably his best book since The Poet. Mickey Haller is a a third-division lawyer who works out of his car, picking up clients through his network of contacts among bail bondsmen and bribed court officials. The people he defends are invariably guilty; his job is to seek out the chinks in the legal system that might get them off. Nonetheless, he's a mostly likable guy, with ex-wives still on talking terms and a very elastic conscience. Then comes the big-money case, in which a rich man is accused of battering a woman, and Haller is confronted by genuine evil. How he wriggles his way through the system makes for a gripping and sadly believable tale.
Guardian Unlimited, guardian.co.uk