When down-at-heel lawyer Mickey Haller gets the news that his old colleague Jerry Vincent has died, he also gets an unexpected windfall. Jerry had left instructions that Mickey should inherit all of his clients - putting Mickey's stalled career back on track at a stroke. Not only that, but Vincent was about to go to bat for Walter Elliott, the Hollywood mogul accused of brutally slaying his wife and her lover, in a trial that promises big fees and an even bigger place in the media spotlight. If Mickey could find the magic bullet and win that one against the odds, he'd really be back in the big leagues.

The only problem is that Vincent was murdered, shot at close range in his office garage. And the detective handling the case - a certain Harry Bosch - is convinced the killer must be one of Vincent's clients. Suddenly Jerry Vincent's legacy is beginning to look more like a poisoned chalice, and Mickey is faced with the biggest challenge of his career: how to defend a client successfully who might just be planning to murder him.