Another fine novel in Michael Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" series. But the LL, Mickey Haller, has undergone some drastic life changes: he's mothballed his big Lincoln, sold the others, let go his chauffeur, and now drives a Chevy Bolt. (To the discomfort of his large investigator Cisco Wojciechowski.) Whatever: Connelly has the knack of telling a compelling story that … well, I won't say I couldn't put it down, but I read it pretty fast.
The biggest change in Mickey's life is that he's dropped his previous criminal defense practice, and now finds himself suing "Tidalwaiv", a big AI company. One of their products, an AI "companion" named Clair, may have encouraged an impressionable teen to shoot his ex-girlfriend in the head. The victim's mother has engaged Mickey in order to receive a "triple-A" settlement: accountability, action, and apology. Page 35 spoiler: one of Mickey's key witnesses, an ex-employee of Tidalwaiv, turns up very dead. Everything points to suicide, but was it really?
In a nice crossover, the journalist Jack McEvoy, who's had his own Connelly series, appears here to help Mickey out with his diligent investigatory skills.
There's a brain-twisting aside: one of the book's characters mentions that she's watched The Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix. How many layers deep does Connelly's meta-fiction go?
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