LA lawyer Mickey Haller barely has time to take in the news that his former colleague, Jerry Vincent, has been murdered before he receives an unexpected bequest: Vincent has nominated him the beneficiary of his practice. Most prominent on his list of clients is Walter Elliot, a mega-rich Hollywood studio executive about to be tried for the murder of his wife and her lover. Haller is perturbed by the case; though the circumstantial evidence is stacked against Elliot, he seems to have no fear of being convicted of the crime he insists he did not commit. Just before his death, Jerry Vincent insisted he had a ‘magic bullet’ that would destroy the prosecution’s case, and though Haller has no idea what it was, he begins to suspect it could be linked to Vincent’s violent end. But the case proves more complex than even Haller was beginning to realise, propelling him into a world of jury-tampering, FBI investigations, and every last dirty trick the justice game can turn up.