Connelly’s novels have long been distinguished by his mastery of the complexities of the justice system including an ability to get police and courtroom procedures exactly right. Combine this with a cast of well-drawn characters, writing as precise as a Patek Philippe watch, and a propulsive plot, and the result is one of the finest legal thrillers of the last decade.
Connelly has always displayed great ability to write courtroom scenes, combining thrust-and-parry exchanges between defense and prosecution with a look at the personal motives driving all the players (including the judge). He does all that here, too, but the extended focus on the pretrial discovery process ... This is a fine legal thriller and a revealing character study, as we watch Haller lose a little bluster at the prospect of life behind bars; there’s also the matter of a strange virus in Wuhan, China, just starting to make headlines as Haller’s case goes to trial.
The law of innocence is simple — and complicated — as Michael Connelly shows in his 35th novel.The Law of Innocence moves at a brisk clip, working as a legal thriller, a police procedural and a character study of Mickey ... The action never lags, even though the majority of scenes take place either in the prison or the courtroom, two claustrophobic settings ... Connelly invests deeply in his characters, using each novel to explore their psyches.With the story taking place primarily in early 2020, The Law of Innocence offers a new challenge to Connelly’s affinity for zeroing in on contemporary issues. As Connelly builds tension, he weaves in rumors of a spreading virus; people begin wearing masks and chaos erupts at the supermarket.
Intelligently plotted, The Law of Innocence again proves Connelly is a master storyteller.
Nobody writing today has more range than Michael Connelly, who is in top form here, delivering not only the best legal thriller of the year, but perhaps the best legal thriller to hit bookstores in the last decade. Far better than anything Grisham and Turow—two godfathers of the genre—have written in quite some time, Connelly treats readers to a deliciously suspenseful, twisting, unputdownable thriller that begs to be read in a single sitting ... Few authors have the ability to write with such authority on matters of which they haven’t actually accumulated any first-hand experience, and yet he makes it look almost effortless ... Masterfully plotted and impossible to put down, Law of Innocence is everything readers have come to expect from Michael Connelly, a once-in-a-lifetime talent who continues to show why he’s one of the greatest writers the genre has ever known.
Connelly spins this series as a first-person narrative, which slows the pace. There are plenty of action scenes, but also a lot more inner conversation than in the Harry Bosch books ... Passionate followers of the Bosch series may not find much to enjoy in The Law of Innocence: Bosch’s appearances are brief and not very interesting, compared to the character himself ... That said, Connelly carries out what he’s endlessly powerful in doing: He spins a story in which the risk is life itself, and the collateral damage may be integrity. Watching Mickey Haller work out how to balance the two makes this a compelling crime novel that lingers in value long after the last page.
The Law of Innocence takes place from October 2019 to March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic gradually makes its presence felt. As in his Bosch stories, Mr. Connelly keeps his L.A. references up-to-date: The Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard is still hanging on in its 101st year, but Du-Par’s diner in Studio City, co-counsel Maggie laments, 'isn’t there anymore.' The book is full of knowing info about how jurors are researched ('Sometimes you want the Mercedes on the jury. Sometimes you want the Prius.') and how to seed doubt during testimony ('It’ll be about the questions we ask, not the answers') ... Mickey and his loyal crew fight every inch of the way towards the freedom he craves and the exoneration he demands.
L.A. defense attorney Mickey Haller takes on the hardest case of his career in bestseller Connelly’s superlative sixth Lincoln Lawyer novel ... This is a supremely intelligent, well-paced courtroom thriller by a modern master.
