As I write this reflection of book #1 for 2012, I am feeling a bit saddened and very duped. Gullible, even. I will clearly believe anything and will put my trust in anyone. It's a damn good thing that I am not a lawyer. I would totally suck at it.
The Fifth Witness is the fourth Mickey Haller/Lincoln Laywer novel. I adore these books, books that are quite out of my usual romance genre. I typically leave the lawyer books to Rob, but after watching The Lincoln Lawyer and seeing Matthew McConaughey in action as Mickey Haller, I was hooked. But, as I said in my blog about The Reversal, these books require thought and are draining. They are not light reads and I usually can't read more than one in a row. Not this time. I couldn't pick up The Fifth Witness fast enough after finishing The Reversal.
Truth be told, I was sceptical of everything that happened in the book. Every event, every conversation, every everything, I was thinking about who was telling the truth, who was lying, and what really happened. And, sadly, I thought that I had it all figured out. I thought that had read enough of Connelly's books to be able to figure out ol' Mickey Haller and to know where he was headed. I was wrong. Dead Wrong.
But, here's the good news. Mickey didn't see it either. We were both blindsided by the truth. Right when my adrenaline was coming down from it's peak...wham! There it is...the real truth smacking you in the face, making you realize that you were not as smart as you thought you were. Right there in the very last chapter. Right when you thought the book was over, another twist turns the plot upside down.
Here's another truth. That entire idea of the plot being turned upside down less than 10 pages before the end is what makes this book such a page turner. Rob warned me not to read this book until I was able to devote an entire day to reading because it's the sort of book that you are not going to want to put down once you start. He was right (again).
So, I do feel duped and dumb and gullible. I believed things that I shouldn't have believed, but Mickey believed them, too. For that reason, Mickey made a HUGE change at the end of this novel. He's not going to be duped again. I can't say the same for me. I'm just too trusting.
Looks like I am going to have a wait a while for another Mickey haller book. Connelly's newest book The Drop is centered around his other famous character Harry Bosch, who happens to be Mickey's half-brother. He doesn't have the same sort of draw for me that Mickey has, so I am going to sit tight until Mickey returns.
Bottom line: if you like lawyer books, if you like page turners, and if you like a book that keeps you on your toes until the last page, The Fifth Witness is for you. (You don't need to have read the other three books either. You can start with this one and work backwards if you want to. The order doesn't matter. )
Read it. You'll love it. I promise.
:) Dodie
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