Header Image Source: Netflix

Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, much like Prime Video’s Bosch, has actually turned me onto the Michael Connelly novels on which they are based (rather than the other way around). Connelly is the quintessential legal thriller writer (and leagues better than the later works of John Grisham). His books are perfectly suited for Netflix adaptations: fast-paced and plot-heavy, and while the cases are often weighty, the characters are incredibly likable. They’re smartly written but Suitsian in tone.

The show is also insanely binge-able. I devoured the third season, which premiered last week, in just two days—and that’s only because I exercised some restraint. This season adapts Connelly’s fifth Mickey Haller book, Gods of Guilt, where Haller defends Andre La Cosse, an online pimp accused of murdering a prostitute named Gloria Dayton, aka Glory Days. Dayton, a former client of Haller’s, is at the center of a decade-long conspiracy involving a former detective, a DEA agent, a drug cartel, and a DEA informant.

Yaya DaCosta’s Andrea Freeman, a prosecutor, returns in a more significant role, briefly becoming a love interest for Haller while also tackling a case of her own. Her case involves prosecuting Scott Glass, an abusive ex-husband who killed his wife while out on bail. Freeman rightfully feels guilty because she failed to warn Scott’s ex-wife, Deborah, that he was released, which could have given her a chance to protect herself.

In the novel, Freeman and Haller are not romantically linked, and this subplot primarily highlights the frustrating limitations of the legal system. After Deborah’s murder in the book, Scott Glass is prosecuted and jailed. However, in the series, writer David E. Kelley uses this subplot not just to give Haller a romantic arc but also to set up the next season.

Spoilers

The final sequence of this season of The Lincoln Lawyer mirrors the opening scene of the next Michael Connelly novel, The Law of Innocence, where Mickey Haller defends himself from prison (during COVID) for the murder of an ex-client, found in the trunk of his car. In the series, when Haller is pulled over for a missing license plate, the body in the trunk is revealed to be Scott Glass.

You don’t need to have read The Law of Innocence to guess that Haller is being set up. The next season is less about Scott Glass, however, and more about uncovering who—and why—someone is framing Haller for murder.