Ticket 2 Ride

The hottest mystery writer, Michael Connelly, releases the latest in his Lincoln Lawyer series, book #8. I say hottest, because Connelly also write the Bosch series, Renée Ballard series, and some standalone character novels. Bosch inspired a 10 season Amazon series, Ballard just completed its rookie season, and the Lincoln Lawyer is ready for season number four. Connelly serves as an executive producer on each series. Successful and busy.

“And it would be when I laid the foundation I would build my case on. I would make this stand directly in front of the jury, and that was why they called that spot where there was nothing between you and the jurors the proving ground. It was where you put up or shut up.”

The Proving Ground visits Mickey Haller as he has moved from criminal law cases to civil cases, although the case he’s working on has a decidedly evil underpinning, especially lawsuit against a large technology company responsible for an AI chatbot that is alleged to have convinced a teenage boy to kill his girlfriend. This tech company is also alleged to intimidate witnesses among other illegal acts. The story elements regarding AI are quite fascinating, and scary. With Connelly, the line between fiction and reality is sometimes blurry.

The Proving Ground is among Connelly’s best plotted novels. The pacing is sharp, the revealing of the story is built up in careful steps, building the tension at each turn. The power and fear of Artificial Intelligence is real, and timely. The wildfires of Southern California are also real and serve as a background element that drives the story between Haller and his ex-wife, the new district attorney of Los Angeles.

Haller gets a bad rep for being money-centric and getting bad people off, success will do that. In this book, Haller is more reflective than usual and willing to face mistakes. This story is about more than court maneuvering in a high profile case. Maggie McFierce, his first ex-wife is dealing with more than a new job, and finds herself back with Haller, who realizes it is an opportunity to correct a mistake. He’s also visited by the daughter of a former client whose case Haller lost. Can he find new evidence?

There is a lot going on in this book. Maybe down the road, The Proving Ground could be the basis for a season of TV’s Lincoln Lawyer?