#BlogTour ‘The Law Of Innocence’ by Michael Connelly

About the book…

Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller is back in the heartstopping new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.

Defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is charged with murder and can’t make the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge.

Mickey elects to defend himself and must strategize and build his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles, all the while looking over his shoulder–as an officer of the court he is an instant target.

Mickey knows he’s been framed. Now, with the help of his trusted team, he has to figure out who has plotted to destroy his life and why. Then he has to go before a judge and jury and prove his innocence.

In his highest stakes case yet, Mickey Haller fights for his life and shows why he is “a worthy colleague of Atticus Finch…in the front of the pack in the legal thriller game” (Los Angeles Times)

Published on November the 10th by Orion Books in hardback and ebook formats, ‘The Law Of Innocence’ is the 7th in the Mickey Haller series (aka ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’)

Huge thanks go to Tracy , blog tour organiser supreme of Compuslive Readers for the invite and gifted e-arc of this hugely anticipated novel!

If there is one line which could sum up the current times, it is this one-

”This year proves that anything can happen.”

And who should know this better than J.Michael Haller, or Mickey as he is known to friends and family. Stopped by police on his way back from an alcohol free celebration of his latest case, because his licence plate is missing,he finds himself both his own client and defence attorney when a dead body is found in the boot of his Lincoln.

First appearing in ‘The Lincoln Laywer’ and with several cameos in the Harry Bosch canon, this latest novel takes us from the original stop and arrest in October 2019, through to late Spring 2020. This is not a police procedural or court room drama as you or I might know it, this is about a man’s reputation and attempts to prove the law of innocence. In order to be proved innocent, Mickey has to find and prove who murdered Sam Scales and set him up.

This is about right and wrong in the current climate of police injustice,the right of trial by jury and what happens when you find yourself on the wrong side of the law and the only person you can trust to step up to the bat is yourself. Or so Mickey thinks…

Marking a welcome return to characters from past novels, they are greeted like old friends as they step onto the page and into the action. And, most thrilling of all, Bosch appoints himself as an investigator into who, what, where and why. Sometimes Haller comes across as morally grey but if Bosch is in his corner, then his strict code of right and wrong is enough to have the reader place all their bets on Haller getting acquitted.

The symbolism of his missing licence plate (customised to read ‘not guilty’) , his being seen as one step short of a con man by the justice system and the sense of right versus wrong is just how you argue a case, is not lost on the reader. And creeping into the background, I think in the first novel I have read which has touched on this, is the impending corona virus.

It really made me think, after almost a whole year of working in a hospital, our sense of ‘normal’ has been eroded by the onslaught of the pandemic. And going back to a time when it was whispered about online, mentioned in passing as a problem specific to an area a million miles away from our own, feels like a lifetime away. What this will mean, for a world which is waiting in bated breathe for facts, figures and science to prove right and wrong, especially in light of the recent election, reflects on our sense of justice, responsibility and morality. As Haller gears up for the fight of his life against a system he knows inside and out, except from the other side of the courtroom, he needs a two pronged attack-find out the culprit and clear his name.

He is given a perspective that has not ben afforded him in other novels, he acknowledges his own weakness and misjudgements in a way that Harry, his literary counterpart constantly holds himself to. It’s surprising to see the ever confident Haller keep his public face plastered over his worries and it is only when we, the readers, see him through the lens of his acquaintances that we realise he lost a shocking amount of weight, skin tone and his bravado .Though he would like to think he has not been affected by his time in prison, and has kept his mind sharp, being incarcerated has had an effect which is notable. As he moves forward to the his trial and his day on the stand, the words he says early on in ‘The Law Of Innocence’ carry a significant weighting-

”You know,” I said,”being innocent is no guarentee of a not-guilty verdict.Anything can happen in trial.”

Michael Connelly is not just good, he is brilliant, a conoisseur of current affairs and societal issues filtered through the gaze of his characters, he simply is one of the very best at what he does. And I defy readers not to visualise Matthew McConnaughy (who Haller in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer)and Titus Welliver  (Prime’s Harry Bosch) as you flip the pages…now there is a on screen duo I would love to see one day!

About the author…

Having sold – to date – more than seventy-four million copies of his novels worldwide, Philadelphia-born author Michael Connelly is one of the most successful crime writers working today. A lifelong fan of Raymond Chandler, Connelly worked as a journalist, co-authoring a magazine story that was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.

His first novel, The Black Echo, won the prominent Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992 and launched the phenomenally popular Harry Bosch series. He is also the author of the Mickey Haller series as well as several stand-alone novels and other mini-series. His novels ‘‘Blood Work’ and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ have both been successfully adapted for screen.

Links-https://www.michaelconnelly.com/

          https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter @Connellybooks @orionbooks @Tr4cyF3n0n