The Fifth Witness

The economic downturn has hit Los Angeles hard, and even Mickey Haller is struggling to find enough traditional criminal-defense work.

To keep his practice alive, Mickey begins taking on foreclosure-defense cases, helping homeowners who are fighting to keep their houses.

One of his clients is Lisa Trammel, a woman who has been battling her bank for months after falling behind on her mortgage. Lisa is furious about the bank's foreclosure practices and has become a vocal activist against them.

Then everything changes.

Mitchell Bondurant, a senior executive at the bank responsible for Lisa's foreclosure case, is found murdered in the bank's parking lot.

Lisa quickly becomes the prime suspect.

The evidence appears damaging, and her outspoken campaign against the bank gives prosecutors an obvious motive.

Mickey takes on Lisa's murder defense—but the deeper he investigates, the more complicated the case becomes.

He begins discovering that Bondurant had secrets of his own, and that the bank's business practices may be connected to a much darker story.