Not going to lie, the first 30 percent of this book dragged. I just plugged away but honestly I just felt a bit deflated by the entire premise and the ending. Especially since it seems a client we get introduced to in this one, will take up the next The Lincoln Lawyer book in this series.
The Proving Ground follows Mickey Haller, now strictly a civil attorney. His daughter is surfing in Hawaii and his ex-wife Maggie is now the new DA. Mickey feels content. He’s going up against a tech company which focused on AI for teens. Only problem is, is that AI may have caused a teen boy to shot and kill someone else. The book follows Mickey as he does what he can to take down a tech giant and get justice for his client.
I get why Connelly focused on AI, especially with some of the lawsuits going on right now because of it, but this story just felt very messy until you get to the actual, we are going to go to trial pieces. And even that was slow and not very good.
I was also not happy to see the return of Jack McEvoy. The last book that followed him was not very good and honestly I just felt exhausted by his never learning anything from anyone. It didn’t help that he just seemed to be there to make asides once every few chapters or so. If you were hoping to learn where he has been since the last book, apparently writing substack articles. We also get a mention of Bosch (heard and not seen) and there are the usual characters we get in The Lincoln Lawyer books.
I thought the premise was interesting honestly, but I think Connelly tossed too much in here. We get this huge tech one and then of course a case from Mickey’s past. His back and forth with his one ex-wife.
