The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

Mickey Haller is a lawyer who helps clients with mortgage foreclosure lawsuits. He is contacted by former client Lisa Trammel, who has been charged with murder and takes on her case. The case evolves while he is defending her at trial. The Fifth Witness does go into detail about preparing for the trial and debating strategies for defense, which some may find boring. I found it quite interesting. However, Lisa Trammel is so thoroughly unlikeable, I got to the point I became ambivalent about whether or not Haller would succeed in her defense.

I was very surprised by the low ratings given on Amazon.com. Unfortunately, many of the one-star reviews are readers complaining about the kindle price of the book. I very much agree with their complaints. Charging the same or more for an e-Book as opposed to a hard-cover book is absolutely ridiculous price gouging. SHAME on the publishers. That aside…I listened to the Audible version of this novel narrated by Peter Giles. Interestingly, The Fifth Witness received much better ratings on Audible than Amazon…perhaps it’s better to listen to rather than read this one. The Fifth Witness is not one of Connelly’s best, but an enjoyable summer listen/read nevertheless. I, for one, will always prefer his Harry Bosch series.