The Proving Ground - Michael Connelly

The Proving Ground

By Michael Connelly

  • Release Date: 2025-10-21
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 924 Ratings

Description

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.

Reviews

  • Love this book

    5
    By booksreviewer20244
    Great read.
  • Th Proving Ground

    5
    By First&foremost
    Excellent!
  • Excellant book

    5
    By grutfd
    Great book!! Exciting!!
  • Another great read

    5
    By P More 22
    Mickey always delivers.
  • Outstanding!

    5
    By Bill's Music
    Another Masterpiece from MC. My only disappointment is that now I have to wait for his next book.
  • Superb

    5
    By Avoiduntilfixed
    A great lawyer tale far beyond well-told.
  • Enjoyable and educarional

    5
    By Seamus Ahoc
    Topical story. A behind the curtain peek at the latest and most dangerous technology.
  • Another Great Story

    5
    By D1Denny
    I always expect the best from Mr Connelly and he has never disappointed me.
  • Decent

    3
    By AfraidOfPolice
    I love Bosch and Lincoln lawyer. This was the least of his haller books. Not bad but low stakes and few surprises. Meh.
  • One of his best…

    5
    By par4mc
    I believe Michael Connelly’s work Is the best when dealing with the character of Mickey Haller. As portrayed by Connelly, Mickey is both understandable and yet his vulnerabilities are also evident. The day-to-day courtroom dramas are well written and always the dialogue has a point. Bravo Mr. Connolly