The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly (2009, Paperback, Reprint)

Mickey Haller is introduced in the the 2005 Lincoln Lawyer. Haller is the “Lincoln lawyer” in that first book because he conducts his criminal defense law practice out of the back of one or more of his chauffeured Lincolns. His professional integrity is just slightly on the plus side of marginal. On the other hand, he is trying to be a good dad to his young daughter, who wants her parents to get back together.

Haller’s “chauffeur” in The Brass Verdict (2008) is a homeless surfer out on probation. In this latest adventure, Haller unexpectedly inherits a law practice when another leading defense attorney is murdered. One of Haller’s new clients is a wealthy Hollywood producer who is charged with killing his wife and her German lover. Not merely asserting his innocence, the producer is almost bizarrely confident that Mickey Haller can get him off. It doesn’t quite work out the way anyone expects.