When down-at-heels 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. 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 chali..ce, and Mickey is faced with the biggest challenge of his career: how to successfully defend a client who might just be planning to murder him.