The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
I’m not very fond of Mickey Haller – he’s a hard man to like. His daughter doesn’t even have much use for him. He makes his living, working out of the backseat of a Lincoln town car, defending the dredges of society – pimps, prostitutes, and the occasional killer. Sometimes his has no scruples, like when he has his new client strategically stage his business cards around the courthouse holding cell.
Mickey is a defense attorney, one without a friend on the prosecution side. Mickey has one moral compass though – he believes that everyone deserves a defense, even when the popular opinion is that his client should be locked up and the key thrown away.
Sometimes when he wins the release of the defendant it comes back to bite him, and that is just what happened when his just-freed client kills again. It couldn’t come at a worse time, causing Mickey to lose his bid to become LA District Attorney, and the resulting scandal causes a rift between him and his daughter. It didn’t help the latest victims are a friend of his daughter and the friend’s mother.
In The Gods of Guilt, Mickey’s new client is a cyber-pimp accused of killing one of the prostitutes that he manages. As it turns out the victim is one of Mickey’s former clients that he thought he had helped get free of the trade.
As Mickey maneuvers through the case he learns that he is deeply connected with the motives for this murder, and that people from his past were not what they appeared to be at the time. As the two cases converge Mickey is faced with a dilemma that strikes fear in the heart of the “Lincoln lawyer.” His client just may be innocent.
Michael Connelly is the master and he proves that you don’t have to like the main character to love the book. His wordsmith can get overlooked as you try to deal with unlikable characters, but don’t be fooled. There is no one better a spinning a yarn than Michael Connelly.
His courtroom scenes are top notch, building a true legal thriller with a murder mystery thrown in just to keep it interesting.
I may long to read more about Harry Bosch (I like him), but Mickey’s story is one that needs to be told and has to be read.
John
