The Drop, Michael Connelly

A Harry Bosch story, the eleventh in the series, and one that continues the tone of the rest of the set. It's very different from the Mickey Haller novels but fans of Michael Connelly will like it.

Bosch is a detective, retired but brought back on a limited contract to work on cold cases. He's had a great deal of success in solving crimes but been far less successful in climbing the career ladder. Being kind, I'd call him a driven loner who lacks empathy. Being unkind, I'd say he was surly and arrogant. Be that as it may, there's a well-crafted book here.

Michael Connelly: Void Moon Review

An interesting change of focus by Connelly - Void Moon's hero is a crook and a female crook at that. Cassie Black is on probation after serving part of a sentence for robbery and felony murder. She and her now-dead partner Max used to specialise in stealing the winnings from high-rollers in Las Vegas, until their last caper ended in Max falling a couple of hundred feet through an interior window.

Cassie was pregnant at the time, else she'd have been the one trapped in a hotel room. Convicted and imprisoned, bereft of lover Max, depressed, she gives her baby up for adoption but keeps track of her. She wangles a probation in the child's home city and watches from afar - a glimpse at the school gates just feeding the ache. Now the adoptive family is planning a move abroad.

Michael Connelly: The Fifth Witness Review

Perhaps the best yet from Michael Connelly, with lawyer Mickey Haller defending his client from a charge of murder.

Haller has changed his clientele, working mainly fot those caught in the maelstrom of bad mortgage lending and ensuing foreclosures. It's not exciting, it's not pretty, but it pays his mortgage. It does get more interesting when someone puts a hammer through the skull of a bank official and one of Haller's clients, Lisa Trammel, is accused. Haller's adrenaline starts flowing as he prepares for a difficult case.

Michael Connelly: The Lincoln Lawyer Review

Mickey Haller is The Lincoln Lawyer, so called as he does his business from the back seat of a Lincoln. That business is ducking and diving to get clients, usually from the lowest levels of the criminal world, and to get them freed on technicalities or to get good plea bargains. Not particularly uplifting but Haller manages to sleep at night.