From No. 1 bestselling author Michael Connelly: Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller is back, and he’s taken on another long-shot case. The chance of winning is one in a million …
Good Reading caught up with Michael Connelly to talk about his new book, Resurrection Walk.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Defence attorney Mickey Haller has agreed to represent a woman who is in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff’s deputy. Haller enlists his half-brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, as investigator. Even after four years in prison, his new client maintains her innocence.
Reviewing the case, Bosch sees something that doesn’t add up and senses the sheriff’s department close ranks as he pursues the truth.
The path to true justice is, for both the lawyer and his investigator, fraught with danger from those who don’t want the case reopened. And their opponents will stop at nothing to keep the Haller–Bosch dream team from uncovering what the deputy’s killing was really about.
Q&A with Michael Connelly
‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ series is well known to readers, movie goers, and has been adapted for Netflix. Did you ever expect the success that Lincoln Lawyer brought you?
No way. I think it’s a rarity to see something like that happen. But it all starts with the written word. I always feel that if I keep my head down, concentrate on writing the best story I can write, the rest will take care of itself. In the case of The Lincoln Lawyer I remain amazed at what has happened.
What was the inspiration behind the character, Mickey Haller?
I met a man at baseball game who was sitting next to me. We started talking and he told me he was a defense attorney. When I asked him where his office was he said he worked out of his car. Sitting in the back while a client worked off his legal fees by driving him. A lightbulb went off and I guess the rest is history.
Do you see yourself in the character of Mickey Haller and how much of yourself do you bring into the characters you create?
For the most part I try to explore characters that are pretty different from me. But there is always leakage. Both Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch have daughters who are the same age as my daughter. So can’t really get away with a whole book without some crossover.
How much research went into the story of Resurrection Walk?
The book required a lot of research because it centers on what is called a habeas case. Rather than defend a client against charges, his client is already convicted. This requires a different approach to the case and so I spent a lot of time with a couple attorneys researching how this would be done. In the United States a basic tenet of the justice system is that you are innocent until proven guilty. In a habeas case that is flipped because Mickey’s client is convicted and in prison. So she is guilty until proven innocent and that’s quite a challenge for the Lincoln Lawyer.
When you get a new idea while in the process of writing a book do you follow it up?
Yes. I sometimes will open a file on my laptop and write stream of conscious notes. And then it’s there when one book is finished and it’s time to start work on another.
In your books you always expose some of the flaws in the legal system. Do you consult with legal experts before you delve into the details of the case?
Yes, I have to. I’m not a lawyer so the last thing I want is to have people who actually are lawyers and do the work of defending the accuse to tell me I got something wrong. Don’t get me wrong; a lot of the practice of law is subjective. One lawyer will try one tactic while another tries another. But I try to research all the tactics. I spend time with defense lawyers and I have two lawyers who read my manuscripts with a mission to make them bulletproof in terms of legal strategy, tactics and practice.
Do you have any other writing projects in the works?
Always. As I write this I am involved in the writing rooms for the TV shows ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’. I will be writing a script for ‘Legacy’ soon. I’m also doing preliminary research for my next book, which I will start writing in December 2023.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 21, 1956. He moved to Florida with his family when he was 12 years old. Michael decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing. A curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Primarily specialising in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars.
In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism. Landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
Michael is the bestselling author of over 40 novels. With over 85 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 45 foreign languages. He is one of the most successful writers working today.
His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work.
In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller.
His most recent #1 New York Times bestsellers include Desert Star, The Dark Hours, The Law Of Innocence, The Night Fire, and Dark Sacred Night. Michael’s crime fiction career was honored with the Diamond Dagger from the CWA in 2018, and the Outstanding Contribution To Crime Writing Award at the 2022 Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, and the Grand Master title from the Mystery Writers of America in 2023.
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