“You know what my father said about innocent clients? ... He said the scariest client a lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you fuck up and he goes to prison, it'll scar you for life ... He said there is no in-between with an innocent client. No negotiation, no plea bargain, no middle ground. There's only one verdict. You have to put an NG up on the scoreboard. There's no other verdict but not guilty."Levin nodded thoughtfully."The bottom line was my old man was a damn good lawyer and he didn't like having innocent clients," I said. "I'm not sure I do, either.”

American author of detective novels and crime fiction

Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and crime fiction. He is best known for creating LAPD Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller, characters who appear across much of his work. He has written 42 novels and one work of non-fiction, and his books have sold more than 74 million copies worldwide and been translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2003 and 2004, he served as president of the Mystery Writers of America, and several of his novels were adapted for film, including Blood Work and The Lincoln Lawyer.