🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 4.3/5 | Steam: 🔥
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Resurrection Walk yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
I came to these books through the TV show, and if you’re a fan of the Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix, do yourself a favor and pick up the books — they are very close, but still different enough that I don’t feel like I’m reading and watching the same thing. Mickey Haller is such an interesting lawyer because he sincerely cares about his clients, but he is also absolutely there to win. He is ready for whatever fight it takes and is beyond creative in his tactics to get people to finally see what he sees. This book is a great example of exactly that.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
The Setup
Mickey Haller is riding high after proving Jorge Ochoa innocent and watching him walk out of prison after years of wrongful incarceration — one that Mickey personally felt responsible for. That moment, the resurrection walk, stays with him. It is a moment of pride. Now that the word is out he is flooded with letters from people in jail claiming innocence, so he brings on his half brother Harry Bosch as his unofficial lead investigator to work through them.
Harry has one rule: he will only take a case if he finds a genuine unicorn. Someone who was truly wronged by the system. He is adamant about this. He is also a former LAPD detective who is deeply uncomfortable being seen as having gone against the police. He makes this known repeatedly — he is ill and needs the health insurance, so he took a job for his half-brother to get it. He is not interested in his name being attached to anything that could make him seem to be working against law enforcement.
Harry finds his unicorn in Lucinda Sanz.
Lucinda is in prison after pleading no contest — NOLO, as they call it — to the manslaughter of her ex-husband Roberto Sanz, a deputy with the LA County Sheriff’s Department. She took the plea deal not because she was guilty but because the system was stacked against her and she had no idea how to fight it. She was told a no contest plea would get her home to her son faster than losing a case she was likely to lose anyway. She insists she didn’t pull the trigger. Harry believes her. She is more desperate than ever to get out because her son is on the cusp of falling into the wrong crowd.
The Strategy
Mickey knows that taking this case through local state courts would be a dead end. The LA County Sheriff’s Department is protecting its own and has too much influence over that process. So he skillfully maneuvers the case into federal court in front of a judge known for being tough and fair, files a writ of habeas corpus challenging Lucinda’s conviction, and starts building his case.
While Mickey handles the legal side, Harry does the street work. Despite his own significant health struggles, he tracks down hidden evidence, buried forensic reports that no one else would think to look for, and witnesses who had no interest in talking. What they uncover is that Roberto Sanz was not the heroic deputy he was portrayed as. He was part of a corrupt ring within law enforcement, involved in an illegal money-stealing scheme with other officers. He wasn’t killed by his ex-wife. He was killed by people within his own corrupt circle — either to silence him or to cut him out of the money. Lucinda was a convenient scapegoat who made the whole thing go away cleanly for them.
The Crossover
Renée Ballard appears in this book and I genuinely did not see that coming. I watch both the Ballard and Lincoln Lawyer TV shows and had no idea there was a crossover in the books. Seeing it all come together here was genuinely exciting — the nerd in me loved every single second of it, and now I need more.
The Courtroom
Mickey takes everything Harry has uncovered and slowly, bit by bit dismantles the original case in federal court. The hidden evidence. Forced testimony. Internal corruption. All of it laid out in front of a judge who is actually willing to look at it clearly. And Lucinda’s conviction gets vacated. She walks out a free woman and gets to go home to her son.
Mickey, however, gets held in contempt during the proceedings and misses the press conference afterward. That was Lucinda’s moment and the judge took that support from her, after she spent years wrongfully imprisoned. He fought so hard for this moment and couldn’t be there for it.
The ending twist that it was fellow law enforcement who killed Roberto Sanz was not something I saw coming, and it made everything that came before it even more interesting.
Best Part of This Book
The Ballard crossover. Completely unexpected, genuinely exciting, and exactly the kind of thing that makes you want to go back and read every book in both series to catch every thread you might have missed.
Worst Part of This Book
Mickey being held in contempt and missing the press conference. He earned that moment. Lucinda earned that support. Not being able to stand there and watch her walk out freely after everything he did to get her there was a frustrating note to end on, even if it’s realistic.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥 — Zero romance, zero heat. This is a legal thriller through and through.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
I would say mostly satisfied. The twist about law enforcement being behind the murder was a great surprise and I would say, well set up. The whole, being held in contempt situation stings but I assume it’s a realistic consequence. This makes Mickey feel like an actual person rather than an untouchable hero.
Would I Reread It?
No.
A Note on Reading Order
This is book seven in the Lincoln Lawyer series and I am only reviewing this one, but if the TV show has you curious about the books, I would recommend starting from the beginning. The character development always makes more sense — but these books can be read individually and out of order if you prefer.
Where to Get
📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop.org
📱 Ebook
Amazon
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