She Treads Softly: The Proving Ground

Friday, October 10, 2025

The Proving Ground

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly
10/21/25; 400 pages
Little, Brown and Company
Lincoln Lawyer Series #8

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly is an exceptional, very highly recommended legal thriller and the eighth installment of the Lincoln Lawyer series. The Proving Ground can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. This time Mickey Haller takes on artificial intelligence in a civil court case. This is one of the best books I've read this year.

Haller is representing Brenda Randolph, the mother of Rebecca, a teenager who was killed by Aaron Colton after his Clair chatbot, who he named Wren, told him it was okay to kill her for her disloyalty. They have a wrongful death lawsuit against Tidalwaiv, the AI company that created the AI chatbot program Clair, said to be for ages 13 and up. Brenda wants Tidalwaiv to admit their culpability, take accountability for wrongdoing and apologize rather than just a financial settlement.

The case involves the mostly unregulated AI business and the lack of guardrails. Guardrails ensure AI systems behave responsibly and safely to detect and mitigate risks. Journalist Jack McEvoy joins the team in hopes of writing a book about it and his work going through discovery materials uncovers a key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. Anyone involved with the case is also likely under some kind of surveillance, thus the team needs to work in a Faraday cage they made.

This exceptionally well-written, brilliant, gripping legal thriller is un-put-downable. I was completely engrossed in the story, especially as the plot felt like it was ripped straight from current headlines, and stayed up way-too-late reading. Following Haller's intelligent, strategic approach to expose the truth and obtain justice is engaging. The courtroom scenes are riveting and intriguing. Even the subplots are interesting. Readers following the series will know all the characters and their background, but those new to the series can easily follow who's who. Mickey Haller and those on his team are all great characters.

The Proving Ground is an extraordinary legal thriller. Everyone, read this book. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.