The Proving Ground

A Lincoln Lawyer Novel

By: Michael Connelly

Narrated by: Peter Giles

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, the Lincoln Lawyer is back with a case against an AI company whose product may have been responsible for the murder of a young girl.

Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty.

Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.

It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in 1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with a gambit called “the knight’s sacrifice.” Haller will take a similar gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.

Mickey Haller...

I’ve been waiting for The Proving Ground for months, and it’s everything I hoped for. Michael Connelly continues to elevate the Lincoln Lawyer series with sharp dialogue, layered moral questions and the ever-charismatic Mickey Haller.

I’ve never managed to connect with Bosch, though I’ve tried. Haller, on the other hand, is magnetic—a man who walks the line between cynicism and integrity with unsteady grace. Mickey's courtroom will always be one of the most captivating arenas where justice and humanity collide.

Disclosure: This review was written in part by A.I., which I use every day in my job as a legal editor. ;)

the best

Michael connelly is my favorite author. I've read every thing he's ever written. I think it's incredible after all these years the quality is still excellent. this may be the best out of all the lincoln lawyer books. if you've never read any books from this series. don't wait. start now. you won't be disappointed.

Current and insightful storytelling by Michael Connelly. Enjoying the Lincoln Lawyers character development.

I enjoy the personal interactions between the Mickey Maggie Lorna and Cisco. Adding in a great character like McEvoy from another Connelly book series is fun! This is a great legal case and all the elements of discovery makes a story I will listen to a couple of times to make sure I didn’t miss a thing! The narration by Peter Giles is excellent 😀. He has so many voices and is one of my favorite narrators. Michael Connelly accurately weaves factual events into the story with his description of the recent devastating fire storm. Can’t wait for the next one.

New reality

This is probably my favorite book in the series. Great story line and evolution of the main character. Although it's a work of fiction, one can't help but see it's very real future.

AI Development Guardrails Importance

Interesting story line, interesting characters and liked the reader. He made the story flow well.