The Brass Verdict: A Novel

Connelly's last episode of the Harry Bosch series was a bit lame. I recommended that Connelly should phase out good old Harry, who didn't seem to find new cases for himself any more, just repetitions of the same old. I suggested to follow up on the Lincoln Lawyer, the hero of the stand alone book of the same title, defense attorney Mickey Haller.
That's what Connelly has done. He does listen to advice! But being also a little stubborn, Harry shows up in the story, which is told by Mickey.

Mickey has been out of work for a year, a 'sabbatical' following drug (pain killer) addiction and rehab and family disintegration. Now he feels ready to go back, and right away he has a windfall: a colleague has been murdered and Mickey inherits his cases. Harry is the investigating cop on the case of the murdered lawyer.

Biggest case among the inheritance is a great double murder with a Hollywood producer as defendant. Mickey jumps into action, the biggest challenge being that his 'predecessor's' computer and calendar were stolen by the killer.
Though the case against his client looks strong, Mickey manages to find the 'magic bullet' and create reasonable doubt. All seems to be set for a great comeback by the Lincoln Lawyer...

The novel is great entertainment, if you like cop stories and court stories. Here you have two for the price of one.
The book has four main suspense drivers: the murder case of the lawyer whose cases M takes over; the murder case where M is the defense lawyer; his hunt for the magic bullet (ie the tool that cracks the prosecution's solid case); and our growing suspicion that somehow things are quite different in the end.
The magic bullet thing is a bit of a cheap trick by Connelly. The narrator keeps us in the dark for several chapters. That is unfair as narrative device.

The book descriptions here and on the cover of the book make much about the Haller/Bosch relation. I would say: overstated. Just a normal distrustful cooperation, nothing special.
And by the way, Johan Rilz is absolutely not a normal German name. Neither is Malcolm Pepin a normal French name.

Throughly methodically meticulously boring. This guy should write medical journals because he painstakingly hits every point. Even the twist at the end can't save this from the tedious pacing of the story. Read to the end because I was out of books. Get this if you have trouble falling alseep.

This story captured me from the first page and I didn't put it down till I finished it. Absolutely one of his best.

Criminal defense lawyer (excuse the redundancy!), Jerry Vincent, is shot to death in his car late one night, just outside his office. Mickey Haller, inherits -- literally -- Vincent's clients, including Hollywood movie mogul Walter Elliot, accused of murdering his wife and her lover. The trial, with all of its attendant publicity, is scheduled to begin in just a week, and Elliot demands that Haller proceed to trial without asking for a continuance.

Rushing to prepare for trial, Haller begins to wonder if Elliot's case involves more than just a double-murder. Why won't Elliot allow him to ask for a continuance? Was Vincent's murder connected to Elliot's case? Are any of Vincent's other cases linked either to Vincent's murder or to Elliot's case? Despite the strength of the prosecution's case against Elliot, both Elliot and Vincent seemed highly confident of winning, but Haller finds nothing in Vincent's files to justify such confidence, and Elliot himself seems to be withholding information from Haller for some reason. Is there something missing from Vincent's files? And one of the police detectives investigating Vincent's murder, Harry Bosch, seems to be running a con game of his own, perhaps in conjunction with the FBI, who may or may not be investigating alleged corruption in the local court system. If the FBI was conducting such an investigation, was Vincent involved in it at all, either as a target, or as a confidential informant, or as a lawyer for one of the targets? Maybe that's why he was killed.

There are plenty of interesting characters, plenty of interesting observations about how the criminal justice system works, and the plot twists and turns are so devious, I bet the ending surprised even Connelley himself.

A terrific story by a terrific writer. Ranks right up there with "Blood Work" and "Trunk Music."

Gift for my husband....he's lovin' it. I'll read it after he finishes!
I'm a huge Connelly fan....read everything he's written.