The Proving Ground (2025)
- Author:
- Michael Connelly
- Pages:
- 398
- Series:
- Lincoln Lawyer
- Series Order:
- 8
Michael Connelly is one of my favorite novel writers. I've been reading the Bosch novels for years now, and I've enjoyed seeing the changes to the character over time. Mickey Haller has become the same, to me: Someone who was introduced as a certain type of person, and has continued to grow and change from each book to the next.
This book, focussing on AI, with a subplot about a wrongly-convicted man, continues to show that Connelly avoids being simply a formulaic writer. In this latest book Haller has moved to doing civil cases, and is no longer a criminal defense attorney. The case focuses on a powerful technology company that has created an AI companion that may or may not have encouraged a teenage boy to murder his ex-girlfriend.
I won't get too far into everything that is brought up in the book, at the risk of spoiling it for anyone who has not read it yet. But it's clear that a lot of research was done for this book. Speaking as someone who, while not an expert in AI, is definitely well-versed in software development, I was pretty impressed with how much he got right.
Some of these books are better than others, naturally. But this one is definitely one of the better ones.