It has been seven years since Michael Connelly has paid an extended visit to Mickey Haller, better known as the Lincoln Lawyer. Haller runs his criminal defense attorney practice literally out of the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car, hence his nickname. It is not so much due to an eccentricity as a practicality (well, maybe a bit of both), but it attracts attention, as we learn almost immediately in THE LAW OF INNOCENCE, the sixth installment in the series and one of Connelly’s best thus far.

The beginning of the book is a good one, setting the level of suspense at a high mark that cranks upward with not a single dip throughout the story. Haller has just left a celebratory party that he had been hosting when he is subjected to what appears to be an ordinary traffic stop. That is, until a dead body is discovered in the trunk of his car. It is truly a what-the-heck moment, made even more so by the fact that the corpse is a former client of Haller’s who owed him a significant amount of past-due legal fees.

"Harry Bosch fans who have been disappointed with that character’s slow fade into the background of his own series will find much to love here as there are a number of appearances by Haller’s older, more straight-arrow half-brother."

Haller finds himself on the wrong side of jailhouse bars, where he spends some time dispensing legal advice to inmates but more time preparing to represent himself in the trial of his life. Being a defense attorney, he has not exactly endeared himself to law enforcement, so he is in as much danger from prison guards as he is from prisoners. Haller has some help from places both expected (a certain former LAPD homicide investigator) and unexpected (you will have to read THE LAW OF INNOCENCE to find out who, but it will be worth it).

However, the real meat of the book is in the courtroom, where Haller is up against an extremely aggressive and vengeful adversary. Trial procedure is only half of the equation, though. It is not enough for him to establish that he is “not guilty,” as that term is used in jurisprudence. Haller also must show that he is innocent; to do that, he needs to discover why he was set up and by whom. He instinctively reaches back into his past cases for an answer and finds a few of them, but knowing and proving are two different things. Even establishing both may not be enough as the novel makes clear.

THE LAW OF INNOCENCE is a continuation of a return to form for Connelly, which was initiated earlier this year in FAIR WARNING. Harry Bosch fans who have been disappointed with that character’s slow fade into the background of his own series will find much to love here as there are a number of appearances by Haller’s older, more straight-arrow half-brother. The plot and its trimmings also provide a sobering look at the criminal justice system, warts and all, that will cause you to add a lawyer’s telephone number to your speed dial every time you leave home.