For nearly 35 years Michael Connelly has been entertaining readers (and viewers) with top-notch storytelling that manages to be both timeless, and timely. He’s unafraid to delve into societal and other changes, and show the impact of cases on his characters.

He delivers once more in The Proving Ground. In search of a new direction, Mickey Haller, aka ‘the Lincoln Lawyer’, is taking on civil rather than criminal cases, and has an AI company in his sights: the creators of a chatbot that may have played a role in a 16-year-old boy killing his ex. Delving into unfamiliar technological ground, Haller joins forces with relentless journalist Jack McEvoy (from The Poet etc) as they take on a pioneering lawsuit. With billions at stake, and powerful forces in the tech industry not keen to have progress or profits slowed in any way, it’s an extremely dangerous case.

A master storyteller, Connelly delivers a hugely compelling tale that delves into cutting-edge technology while also delivering timeless intrigue and thrills. It’s great to be riding with the Lincoln Lawyer again on the page, and teaming McEvoy and Haller brings a fresh twist to the ‘Bosch universe’ that Connelly has built. AI technology – not to mention the legal system itself – is a hugely complex subject matter, but Connelly deftly draws readers in and provides enough information and background while still maintaining narrative drive and excitement. Another very enjoyable read.

Book review by Craig Sisterson

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 89 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 45 foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today.

He is also the executive producer of both ‘Bosch’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’ TV series, and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’.

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.

Visit Michael Connolly’s website