The Fifth Witness: Book summary and reviews of The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

The Fifth Witness Summary

Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home.

Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too - and he's certain he's on the right trail.

Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in. Connelly proves again why he "may very well be the best novelist working in the United States today" (San Francisco Chronicle).

The Fifth Witness Reviews

"Starred Review. While the prose may lack some of the poetic nuance of his early novels, the plot is worthy of a master storyteller." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Connelly shows once again that he will never simply ride the wave of past success. And, neither, apparently, will Mickey Haller, as he reveals a shocking change of direction in the novel's final pages." - Booklist

"When did Connelly become the best legal thriller writer in the business? The story line is compelling, intense, and terrifying while providing an in-depth look at the mortgage crisis that is surprisingly interesting." - Library Journal

"[G]rueling enough for the most exacting connoisseur of legal intrigue." - Kirkus Reviews

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Michael Connelly Author Biography

     Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.     

After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat.  In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They...

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