They're called Lincoln Lawyers: the bottom of the legal food chain, the criminal defence attorneys who operate out of the back of a Lincoln car, travelling between the courthouses of Los Angeles county to take whatever cases the system throws in their path.

Mickey Haller has been in the business a long time, and when a Beverly Hills rich boy is arrested for brutally beating a woman, he gets his first high-paying client in years. The evidence begins to mount on the defence's side and things look as if they can't go wrong.

But as Haller knows, criminal cases can turn on a dime; when his case starts to fall apart and neither the suspect nor the victim are quite who they seem, Haller quickly discovers that when you swim with the sharks, it's easy to wind up as prey.

This story contains strong language

Connelly is writing the best detective fiction out there'
- Spectator