Ali Karim conducted a wide-ranging interview with Michael Connelly for The Rap Sheet.While much of the interview is understandably about Harry Bosch and The Overlook, I especially enjoyed this back-and-forth about The Lincoln Lawyer, whose principal character, I was delighted to learn, will resurface in another book:
AK: I loved protagonist Mickey Haller and The Lincoln Lawyer. Where did that legal thriller come from?Read the entire interview.
MC: It was a long time coming. First of all, I love the legal thriller as a subgenre and had been looking for years for something that could become a story that could get me into that field. There are some great big titans of publishing involved in legal thrillers, so I wanted something that would be unique and be mine. It sort of fell into my lap, when I met a real “Lincoln lawyer” at a baseball game in Los Angeles. He told me how he operates as an attorney, and before the conversation was over I knew that this was my way in. It, however, took me a few years before I had the confidence to give it a go, as I was not so confident in that world as I am, say, with that of the LAPD and Harry Bosch.
I needed to do a huge amount of research and spend time with lawyers, sitting in courtrooms and so forth ... When it finally came time to write the book, it came very quickly, as (a) I had been researching it for so long, and (b) I was excited by this new character -- a clean slate. Whereas, say, with Harry Bosch I’m dragging around 12 books of back story, with Mickey Haller -- he was brand new with no baggage. When I go with a new character, I can usually write much faster, so in that particular year I squeezed out two books -- the Haller book, as well as a Bosch novel [The Closers].
AK: I heard you’re doing a follow-up to The Lincoln Lawyer. True?
MC: Yes -- but it’s not really a follow-up, it’s a Haller book and even Bosch makes a small appearance. But at this stage I haven’t a title.
--Marshal Zeringue