‘The Gods of Guilt’ by Michael Connelly

Published by Orion,
21 November 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-4091-3434-3

The Gods of Guilt is the fifth outing for Michael Connellys’s hero, Mickey Haller, ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, half-brother of Connelly’s other hero, Harry Bosche.
            

Mentored by veteran David ‘Legal’ Segal’, a lawyer willing to use any dubious tactic to win a case, and supported by his house team, Mickey becomes involved in the death of a prostitute, Gisselle Dallinger, whom he has successfully represented in the past.
             

Accused of murder is her pimp, Andre Lacusse, who claims his innocence throughout the proceedings.
              

The scene is thus set for a roller coaster ride through the California justice system whereupon Mickey gets caught up with a drugs cartel, corrupt DEA officers and law enforcement personnel who Are determined to convict Mickey’s client by any method, even if it means subverting the law.
               

With the death of his driver, Earl, and serious injuries to himself in a hit and run, Mickey is forced to evaluate his past life, especially with reference to his teenage daughter and the deaths of previous clients.
               

As the trial pregresses, the chips begin to fall Mickey’s way and the author skilfully builds up the tension between the prosecutor judge and jury – the ‘gods of guilt’.    
               

Hi-tech gadgetry plays a part throughout the proceedings of a well-crafted and fast-paced thriller. Another best-seller in the offing for this master storyteller.

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Reviewer: Ron Ellis 

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 specializing 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. After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.  Fifty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into thirty-nine foreign languages. Michael lives with his family in Florida.

http://www.michaelconnelly.com/

Ron Ellis. Writer, Broadcaster and Photographer, Ron is the author of the popular series of crime novels set on Merseyside featuring Liverpool radio D.J./Private Eye, Johnny Ace.
He also writes the D.C.I. Glass mystery series. As well as his fiction titles, Ron has written 'Southport Faces' a social history of the town seen through the eyes of 48 of its best-known residents. His 'Journal of a Coffin Dodger', the hilarious adventures of an 84 year old playboy, has been serialised on BBC Radio and poems from his collection of poetry, 'Last of the Lake Poets', have won several nationwide competitions. During the 1980's, he conducted over 192 interviews with friends and relatives of John Lennon for Albert Goldman's biography, 'The Lives of John Lennon'.
Ron writes the football reports for the Southport Champion and is also their theatre and arts reviewer as well as being a regular contributor to magazines such as Lancashire Life.
He runs his own publishing company, Nirvana Books.