The Lincoln lawyer may have ditched his gas guzzler for an EV and eschewed the criminal courts in favour of civil law, but in Michael Connelly’s latest courtroom novel Mickey Haller is still the same resourceful jury-charmer.
Connelly has sold more than 80 million copies of his 39 novels. The Proving Ground is the eighth in his legal crime series, which has spawned a movie and four seasons on Netflix.
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Connelly says the TV version of Haller, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, has infiltrated his imagination. Matthew McConaughey did “a great job” in the 2011 movie version, but he never got into Connelly’s head because of his Texas accent.
“I mean, I love that movie, so I’m not slighting him in any way. He just didn’t invade my imagination.”
Garcia-Rulfo is closer to the book version of Haller, a Mexican-American.
“I think he could sell burnt matches,” Connelly says of the actor. “And that’s one of the things I’ve always wanted about Mickey, because he has to stand in the proving ground and sell himself as well as this case, and Manuel does that so well.”
The novel centres on a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a 16-year-old boy it was okay to ki
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