The start of a two-man Innocence Project

Michael Connelly has published 38 novels. "Ideas come to me in dreams and wake me up. Sometimes, I'll get up in the middle of the night and write them down. I always have a laptop next to my bed. It helps that I don't need a lot of sleep." 

Connelly is best known for his Harry Bosch series, which stars a LAPD detective, now retired after forty years and plagued by a form of bone cancer. He also has a Renèe Ballard series, the first of his female characters to lead her own series and based on a real-life detective he's known for more than fifteen years. And he has the Micky Haller (aka "the Lincoln Lawyer") series; Micky is Harry's half brother and, until the most recent book, Resurrection Walk, they have been on opposite sides. Harry has been trying to put the bad guys in prison; Micky has been trying to keep the unjustly accused out.

In Resurrection Walk Harry is working for Micky as his driver and investigator. While working the other side of the law bothers Harry, he's taken the arrangement so that he is under Micky's medical insurance and is able to participate in a clinical trial that may cure or put his cancer into remission. 

The previous Bosch mystery ended with Harry siccing Micky on the state for convicting an innocent man. By the time this one opens, Micky has obtained the guy's freedom and because of the publicity is knee-deep in letters from prisons in three states from prisoners who want Micky to work his magic for them. He has hired Harry to screen the letters to see if there are any likely candidates for release. 

One of the many elements that makes Connelly such an extraordinary writer is that you do not have to have read any of his earlier novels to understand and enjoy Resurrection Walk. The story grows out of the earlier book but it also stands by itself. Interestingly, it is the first book in which the point of view shifts from Harry's third-person chapters as he investigates to Micky's first-person chapters in court. 

One of the letters Micky has received is from a female prisoner who took a plea bargain to a murder she now claims she did not commit. It raises questions, and Harry and Micky set off after, not just the truth, but for a case that will withstand the state's best efforts to show the woman was always guilty. With the elements of police procedure and courtroom drama, Resurrection Walk has elements to please fans of both.

I have not read every one of Connelly's novels, and taste is subjective anyway, but I believe he gets better with every book. Part of it may be because "Michael does an enormous amount if ressearch to make sure he gets things right," says Asya Muchnick, his editor at Little, Brown. "He holds himself to a high standard. As a reader you feel like you can trust him/" His manager Heather Rizzo adds, "He's tireless. He makes a point of having a lot of breakfasts with cops and detectives, and he listens to everyone at the table, and it comes out in his writing."

At the end of Resurrection Walk Micky has spent a night in jail that has given him time to evaluate his life. He's discovered that helping the incarcerated innocent is in some important ways more rewarding than by using the law to help the possibly guilty evade conviction. I'm looking forward to following Micky and Harry through their next case.