The Gods of Guilt is the sixth in Michael Connelly’s bestselling legal series featuring the shrewd criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Known as “the Lincoln Lawyer” because his law office is the backseat of a Lincoln Town Car, Haller instills both ire and admiration in his opponents for his nearly unbeatable defense strategies.

A defense attorney’s job is to give his client the best possible defense. Sometimes that means the guilty go free. As the book opens Haller is haunted by the deaths of two women who were killed by a man he defended and got off. They’ve became members of his personal jury, his constant judges, his gods of guilt.

When Haller takes on a new case, he believes he is representing another person from what his disillusioned daughter calls the dregs of society, Andre La Cosse, a digital pimp accused of killing one of his business partners. However, the evidence is circumstantial and many things trouble Haller about the murder, including the appearance of a “mystery man.”

Haller recognizes the murdered woman as a former client, one he brokered a deal for years earlier that kept her out of jail and sent a notorious drug dealer away for life. As he reviews the facts and the players in that courthouse agreement, Haller discovers a startling connection to another lawsuit involving the victim. As Haller investigates, he becomes convinced that La Cosse was set up, that he is that one-in-a-hundred client who is actually innocent. With this knowledge, he builds the perfect defense, but can he and his client survive a sequence of vicious attacks long enough for him to present it?

Suspenseful, intense, and intellectually stimulating, The Gods of Guilt draws the reader behind the scenes and into the courtroom to witness a complicated battle to redeem an innocent man’s life and to expose corruption deep in the system.

Connelly’s complex interweaving of plots and attention to the details of the law make The Gods of Guilt an exciting and satisfying legal thriller. Readers will applaud his protagonist, despite Haller’s penchant for manipulating the law to suit his own purposes. Knowing he can feel guilt goes a long way in making him likable.