Listened to: "Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly

Listened to: Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly, 2005, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

Above average, I stayed entertained and was interested in hearing about the legal process from the defense side. The narrator did pretty well but a couple character voices were annoying.

Mickey Haller is a defense lawyer in Los Angeles County. He bought four Town Cars a few years ago to get the fleet price. With a client working as a driver to pay off his legal fees Haller spends a lot of time in his car going from location to location. His second ex-wife works his phone lines and determines if prospective clients will be paying clients. Haller is a successful attorney and but has to a lot of expenses and is always worried about money. He advertises far and wide and has a lot of fixed, monthly expenses he has to take care of. But, he believes in what he is doing and feels his unenvied and looked-down on job is essential to keep the legal machine working.

A bail bondsman who -unethically - forwards clients to Haller - who unethically accepts them - lets Haller know about a "Franchise" client. A Franchise is not just a paying client but a well-off client who will pay the A Level fees Mickey wants to charge. With invoices for pre-trial, trial and appeal work Mickey can make a strong and steady living off that kind of client. Turns out the guy did tried to rob the woman who accused him, the guy is a serial rapist, the guy did murder the woman one of Mickey's older cleints took a murder plea for, and the guy is a sociopath who threatens Mickey and his first ex-wife and the daughter. Nothing new there.

The character of Mickey is neat. He talks a lot about the legal process and methods used to defend a client. Connelly does a great job of setting up and slowly unveiling Mickey's grand plan to ethically defend the bad guy for the rape but also set him up to be caught for the previous murder. A surprise twist of the client's crazy mother is also well set-up. Connelly gives the bail bondsman as a red herring in the search for bad-guys but I did not bite on that.