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Plot Summary
The fifth novel in the Lincoln Lawyer series follows Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of a Lincoln Town Car. The story opens with Haller engineering a mistrial for a carjacking client by staging a courtroom assault, a scheme devised with his elderly mentor, David "Legal" Siegel, his late father's law partner. Haller's personal life is in ruins: a failed run for district attorney, a drinking problem, and estrangement from his teenage daughter Hayley, who blames him after a client he freed on a DUI technicality killed a mother and daughter she knew.
Haller's case manager, Lorna Taylor, calls with news that Andre La Cosse has been arrested for murder. La Cosse, a website programmer who manages online platforms for escorts, is accused of strangling a woman named Giselle Dallinger, whose body was found burned in her apartment. At Men's Central Jail, La Cosse explains that Giselle recommended Haller by calling him "Mickey Mantle," a nickname that reminds Haller of Gloria Dayton, a former client he believed he had helped start a new life seven years earlier with $25,000 of his own money. La Cosse admits he grabbed Gloria by the throat during an argument over money the night of her death but insists she was alive when he left. After viewing Giselle's escort website and recognizing Gloria despite altered hair and plastic surgery, Haller confirms the victim's identity and takes the case.
Haller's investigator, Cisco Wojciechowski, obtains security footage from the Beverly Wilshire hotel showing Gloria visiting an empty room the night she died. The video reveals a man in a fedora who tracked her movements and followed her out, keeping his face hidden from every camera. The team suspects the man set up the fake hotel appointment as a lure. The medical examiner's finding that Gloria's hyoid bone, a small bone protecting the windpipe, was fractured in two places confirms she was strangled, converting an accidental death ruling into a homicide investigation.
A parallel case intrudes when Haller is served with a subpoena in a habeas corpus petition, a legal challenge seeking to overturn a conviction based on newly discovered evidence. The petition, filed on behalf of Hector Arrande Moya, a drug dealer serving a life sentence at FCI Victorville, a federal correctional institution in the Mojave Desert, alleges that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent James Marco used a confidential informant to plant a firearm in Moya's hotel room before his arrest, triggering the sentencing enhancement that produced the life term. That informant was Gloria Dayton. The filing was prepared by Sylvester Fulgoni Jr., a young lawyer working under the direction of his disbarred father, who is incarcerated at the same prison.
Haller visits Kendall Roberts, a former escort turned yoga studio owner, who reveals that she, Gloria, and a third woman named Trina Rafferty once worked together and obtained cocaine through Moya. In a late-night interview, Trina confirms that Marco arrested her and turned her into an informant, and that Gloria told her Marco ordered Gloria to hide a gun under Moya's mattress while he slept.
Cisco traces the license plate of a car that followed Gloria from the hotel the night of her murder to Lee Lankford, a former Glendale homicide detective now working as a district attorney investigator and already suspiciously assigned to the La Cosse prosecution. A GPS tracker is also discovered on Haller's Lincoln. Jennifer Aronson, Haller's young associate, makes the critical observation: Moya needed Gloria alive to win his habeas petition, so the question becomes who needed her dead. The answer points to Marco, who would be exposed if Gloria testified about planting the gun at his direction.
Legal Siegel helps Haller see the broader pattern. Fulgoni Jr. had subpoenaed Gloria about a week before her murder. Gloria likely called Marco after receiving the subpoena, and Marco had her killed before she could testify. Haller confronts Fulgoni Sr. at Victorville, who confirms the timeline and reveals he used an irregular, unsealed subpoena to avoid tipping off Marco through a possible court insider. Haller also meets Moya, who agrees to cooperate and provide protection for La Cosse in jail.
On the return drive, a stolen tow truck rams the Lincoln off the freeway. Haller's driver, Earl Briggs, is killed. Haller survives with serious injuries. He carries the guilt of having cut back on surveillance to save costs, a decision that left them exposed on the highway. During his hospital recovery, Hayley comes to his bedside, beginning a tentative reconciliation.
The trial, delayed a month for Haller's recovery, opens in June with La Cosse physically deteriorating and his partner having fled with his remaining gold, leaving the defense unfunded. Haller's strategy, dubbed "Marco Polo," aims to prove Marco killed Gloria and framed La Cosse. The team plants the name Stratton Sterghos, a retiree living across from a Glendale house connected to an unsolved double murder, on the amended witness list. When Lankford investigates the name and brings Marco along, hidden cameras capture them breaking into the empty house and planting heroin in the freezer.
During the defense phase, Haller calls Fernando Valenzuela, the process server who delivered the Moya subpoena to Gloria, to introduce a photograph capturing her fear upon reading Moya's name. He elicits from Detective Mark Whitten that Gloria's phone records show a call to the DEA's main number 41 minutes after she was served, a lead Whitten never investigated. The night before critical testimony, La Cosse is stabbed seven times in the courthouse basement by another inmate. Haller obtains a signed waiver allowing the trial to continue, and Judge Nancy Leggoe denies the prosecution's motion for mistrial.
Before Lankford takes the stand, Haller places an iPad with the Sterghos house video beside him. After viewing the footage of himself and Marco breaking in and planting drugs, Lankford cooperates. He testifies that Marco asked him to find Gloria, that he followed her from the hotel and gave Marco her address the night she was murdered, and that Marco had controlled him for years through a bribe connected to the unsolved double murder. When Lankford says he does not believe Marco's claim that Gloria was already dead when Marco arrived, he pauses, says his son will be okay, retrieves a concealed backup pistol, and shoots himself on the witness stand.
The judge declares a mistrial. The District Attorney's Office dismisses all charges against La Cosse, citing the "likelihood" of his innocence (423). In an epilogue set in December, La Cosse settles a wrongful-arrest claim for $2.4 million. Haller sends $100,000 to Earl Briggs's mother. Moya's habeas petition succeeds, but he is immediately deported to Mexico upon release. Marco vanishes; Haller later receives an anonymous video he believes shows Marco dead, though no body is ever recovered. Haller rebuilds his relationship with Hayley and grows closer to Kendall Roberts, but Earl's death and Gloria's murder remain officially unsolved. In the novel's final reflection, Haller acknowledges that Earl, Gloria, Sandy and Katie Patterson (the mother and daughter killed by the client he freed), his parents, and Legal Siegel all compose his internal jury, the personal gods of guilt before whom he argues his case every day.
Haller's case manager, Lorna Taylor, calls with news that Andre La Cosse has been arrested for murder. La Cosse, a website programmer who manages online platforms for escorts, is accused of strangling a woman named Giselle Dallinger, whose body was found burned in her apartment. At Men's Central Jail, La Cosse explains that Giselle recommended Haller by calling him "Mickey Mantle," a nickname that reminds Haller of Gloria Dayton, a former client he believed he had helped start a new life seven years earlier with $25,000 of his own money. La Cosse admits he grabbed Gloria by the throat during an argument over money the night of her death but insists she was alive when he left. After viewing Giselle's escort website and recognizing Gloria despite altered hair and plastic surgery, Haller confirms the victim's identity and takes the case.
Haller's investigator, Cisco Wojciechowski, obtains security footage from the Beverly Wilshire hotel showing Gloria visiting an empty room the night she died. The video reveals a man in a fedora who tracked her movements and followed her out, keeping his face hidden from every camera. The team suspects the man set up the fake hotel appointment as a lure. The medical examiner's finding that Gloria's hyoid bone, a small bone protecting the windpipe, was fractured in two places confirms she was strangled, converting an accidental death ruling into a homicide investigation.
A parallel case intrudes when Haller is served with a subpoena in a habeas corpus petition, a legal challenge seeking to overturn a conviction based on newly discovered evidence. The petition, filed on behalf of Hector Arrande Moya, a drug dealer serving a life sentence at FCI Victorville, a federal correctional institution in the Mojave Desert, alleges that Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent James Marco used a confidential informant to plant a firearm in Moya's hotel room before his arrest, triggering the sentencing enhancement that produced the life term. That informant was Gloria Dayton. The filing was prepared by Sylvester Fulgoni Jr., a young lawyer working under the direction of his disbarred father, who is incarcerated at the same prison.
Haller visits Kendall Roberts, a former escort turned yoga studio owner, who reveals that she, Gloria, and a third woman named Trina Rafferty once worked together and obtained cocaine through Moya. In a late-night interview, Trina confirms that Marco arrested her and turned her into an informant, and that Gloria told her Marco ordered Gloria to hide a gun under Moya's mattress while he slept.
Cisco traces the license plate of a car that followed Gloria from the hotel the night of her murder to Lee Lankford, a former Glendale homicide detective now working as a district attorney investigator and already suspiciously assigned to the La Cosse prosecution. A GPS tracker is also discovered on Haller's Lincoln. Jennifer Aronson, Haller's young associate, makes the critical observation: Moya needed Gloria alive to win his habeas petition, so the question becomes who needed her dead. The answer points to Marco, who would be exposed if Gloria testified about planting the gun at his direction.
Legal Siegel helps Haller see the broader pattern. Fulgoni Jr. had subpoenaed Gloria about a week before her murder. Gloria likely called Marco after receiving the subpoena, and Marco had her killed before she could testify. Haller confronts Fulgoni Sr. at Victorville, who confirms the timeline and reveals he used an irregular, unsealed subpoena to avoid tipping off Marco through a possible court insider. Haller also meets Moya, who agrees to cooperate and provide protection for La Cosse in jail.
On the return drive, a stolen tow truck rams the Lincoln off the freeway. Haller's driver, Earl Briggs, is killed. Haller survives with serious injuries. He carries the guilt of having cut back on surveillance to save costs, a decision that left them exposed on the highway. During his hospital recovery, Hayley comes to his bedside, beginning a tentative reconciliation.
The trial, delayed a month for Haller's recovery, opens in June with La Cosse physically deteriorating and his partner having fled with his remaining gold, leaving the defense unfunded. Haller's strategy, dubbed "Marco Polo," aims to prove Marco killed Gloria and framed La Cosse. The team plants the name Stratton Sterghos, a retiree living across from a Glendale house connected to an unsolved double murder, on the amended witness list. When Lankford investigates the name and brings Marco along, hidden cameras capture them breaking into the empty house and planting heroin in the freezer.
During the defense phase, Haller calls Fernando Valenzuela, the process server who delivered the Moya subpoena to Gloria, to introduce a photograph capturing her fear upon reading Moya's name. He elicits from Detective Mark Whitten that Gloria's phone records show a call to the DEA's main number 41 minutes after she was served, a lead Whitten never investigated. The night before critical testimony, La Cosse is stabbed seven times in the courthouse basement by another inmate. Haller obtains a signed waiver allowing the trial to continue, and Judge Nancy Leggoe denies the prosecution's motion for mistrial.
Before Lankford takes the stand, Haller places an iPad with the Sterghos house video beside him. After viewing the footage of himself and Marco breaking in and planting drugs, Lankford cooperates. He testifies that Marco asked him to find Gloria, that he followed her from the hotel and gave Marco her address the night she was murdered, and that Marco had controlled him for years through a bribe connected to the unsolved double murder. When Lankford says he does not believe Marco's claim that Gloria was already dead when Marco arrived, he pauses, says his son will be okay, retrieves a concealed backup pistol, and shoots himself on the witness stand.
The judge declares a mistrial. The District Attorney's Office dismisses all charges against La Cosse, citing the "likelihood" of his innocence (423). In an epilogue set in December, La Cosse settles a wrongful-arrest claim for $2.4 million. Haller sends $100,000 to Earl Briggs's mother. Moya's habeas petition succeeds, but he is immediately deported to Mexico upon release. Marco vanishes; Haller later receives an anonymous video he believes shows Marco dead, though no body is ever recovered. Haller rebuilds his relationship with Hayley and grows closer to Kendall Roberts, but Earl's death and Gloria's murder remain officially unsolved. In the novel's final reflection, Haller acknowledges that Earl, Gloria, Sandy and Katie Patterson (the mother and daughter killed by the client he freed), his parents, and Legal Siegel all compose his internal jury, the personal gods of guilt before whom he argues his case every day.
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