michael connelly the law of innocence review

As guns are fired indiscriminately during the New Year celebrations, the challenge for the police is to work out whether Raffa was shot accidentally or intentionally. Ballard is on duty and gets called into the case. He is a former gang member, who bought his way out of gang membership with a one-off payment many years earlier. The first relates to the shooting of Javier Raffa during the New Year celebrations. There are two story threads in The Dark Hours.

She carries some disillusionment with her life and job, however, and is pondering a return to Hawaii. This novel instead primarily showcases Renée Ballard, who, generally speaking, works nightshift at the police department. With this one, however, Harry Bosch very much plays second fiddle, arriving on the scene a little way into the book and not featuring too prominently thereafter.

He remains a favourite author of mine, having drawn me into the fold with his Bosch series long ago. 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.īruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.I read many Michael Connelly novels, including Fair Warning and The Law of Innocence last year. Sheriff’s Department, an undercover FBI investigation, and an organized crime scheme to defraud the United States government.Ĭonnelly’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. The byzantine plot includes corruption in the L.A. With the trial date looming, the defense team gradually discovers that the conspiracy to frame Mickey runs deep. Although he is determined to represent himself, reinforcements arrive in the form of his ex-wife, a lawyer affectionately known as Maggie McFierce, and his half-brother, retired LAPD detective Harry Bosch, who is also the main character in another series of crime novels by the author. When a crusading prosecutor persuades a judge to set bail at $5 million, Mickey finds himself trying to formulate a defense strategy from behind prison walls. Worse, police soon uncover a motive: the victim had stiffed Mickey on a big legal bill. Forensic evidence proves that the victim was shot after being placed in the trunk and that the crime occurred inside Mickey’s garage. Inside the trunk, the cop finds the corpse of a conman who was once Mickey’s client, so the character first introduced in “The Lincoln Lawyer” in 2005 is promptly charged with first degree murder.įans who know Mickey will immediately recognize that he’s being set up, but the frame is exquisite. So begins “The Law of Innocence,” the sixth novel in Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller series.

Michael connelly the law of innocence review