The Brass Verdict: A Novel (Mickey Haller)
by Michael Connelly
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Book Reviews of The Brass Verdict: A Novel (Mickey Haller)
Book Review: Haller and Bosch Together: Literary Dynamite!
Summary: 5 Stars
Haller and Bosch Together: Literary Dynamite!
Absolutely outstanding read. Michael Connelly is the best mystery writer today. His energetic style and pointed prose makes for both a dynamic and informative story. What makes Mr. Connelly so enjoyable is that he teaches as he writes. One learns how both the legal and police fit into the overall judicial system. Both adversarial and symbiotic in nature, each feeds on the other to make our justice system work. Mr. Connelly takes the reader through the complexities of both while telling a complex mystery story of murder, lies, intrigue, deception, and personal loss. He shows how the system can work to successfully bring about justice. It is both ugly and messy but in the end the system does work-most of the time.
The story is also about 2 men, Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch, who fight their own demons and eventually come to an understanding of just who they are. This realization is multi-faceted and makes the story a swirling cauldron of doubt and self-actualization. I won't give away the dramatic conclusion but the literary road to get there is well worth the journey. Mr. Connelly in his wonderful story telling way presents a mystery that has many possibilities but only one reality. Nope, you can't guess the ending. Several times I thought I figured it out only to be fooled. Bravo Mr. Connelly, you done good real good.
As always Mr. Connelly character development was superb and the forte of this book. He has a way to keep developing his characters and flesh them out in such a way that they are the story. No superficiality here, depth and more depth piled on mystery.
No gratuitous sex, language, or violence.
I heartily recommend The Brass Verdict. A must buy. I eagerly await Mr. Connelly's next novel. The Mickey Haller character is wonderful and should provide many new mysteries. Just don't forget my good friend Harry Bosch-He may be getting older but there stories in them legs yet!!
Book Review: Another home run for Mickey Haller
Summary: 4 Stars
First Line: Everybody lies.
Mickey Haller is just about to make his courtroom conduct when fellow defense attorney and friend Jerry Vincent is murdered. Vincent names Haller as the attorney he wants to take over any open cases he may have, and Vincent has one case that could put Mickey on Easy Street: the defense of Walter Elliott, a Hollywood studio head accused of murdering his wife and her lover.
As Haller prepares for this case, he learns that certain facts aren't adding up, and Vincent's killer may be after him, too. The person determined to find Vincent's killer is one LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, who has to fight his natural distrust of lawyers when dealing with Mickey. Bosch thinks nothing of using Haller as bait, but it doesn't take long for the two of them to realize that they are going to have to work together.
"That's my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies."
Haller's belief that "everybody lies" has the same ring to it as Bosch's "Everybody counts, or nobody counts." For years Haller has wanted just one thing: to defend a client who is really innocent. Walter Elliott may be that innocent client.
I enjoyed Connelly's intricate plotting of the book, of the way Haller took over a dead man's cases, made sense of everything, and began putting together his defense for his new clients. His handling of the egomaniacal studio head was classic at times, since Elliott was used to being the one who called all the shots. Haller didn't let him get away with anything.
I always have been-- and always will be-- a Harry Bosch fan, and there just wasn't enough of Harry in this book. He seemed to be brought in more for the shock value at the end than anything else. But setting aside the insufficient time with one of my favorite characters, The Brass Verdict is a smooth, brilliant legal thriller that shouldn't be missed.
Book Review: Connelly tips hat to McBain/Why Grisham wouldn't approve
Summary: 4 Stars
Connelly's novels are anticipated, enjoyed, and often collected. The Brass Verdict goes on the list, and there are plenty of reviewers' opinions here to assist the buyer. I simply add two comments that collectors might appreciate.
First, we all miss Evan Hunter/Ed McBain. So let's be sure to credit him with the idea of bringing together his two best characters from separate serial novels to work a case together. Before Bosch and Haller and The Lincoln Lawyer, Matthew Hope in Calusa contacts Steve Carella at the 87th Precinct in the 1998 novel The The Last Best Hope. It excited fans of both series.
Second, typos bother most collectors when they appear in First Editions, and some perennial best-seller authors have books riddled with the typos that spell checkers miss. However, Connelly (once a crime beat reporter) and the editors of The Brass Verdict repeat a word choice error that should be fundamental to court room fiction. Haller keeps referring to his "preemptory" challenges during jury selection. Now if Bosch had used the word it would play as a cop's fractured syntax, but prosecutors and defense attorneys would always keep track of their "peremptory" challenges. As preemptory is also a word, the spell checker misses this error and it's repeated about 15 times. Grammar checkers can't recognize context yet, so they miss it too. How about highly paid editors? Do other collectors find this as disappointing as I do? As in, "it doesn't make me nauseous, but it nauseates me," exemplifies the most unedited word error in all of noveldom. Yet, it continues misused in book after book.
Michael Connelly's books are hugely important to readers and should get better support. The author's "any errors are mine" aside; didn't attorneys proof this novel?
Book Review: Very good, and fun
Summary: 5 Stars
I've liked Michael Connelly's series of Harry Bosch novels since it started. I like Connelly so much that I've followed him into territory that I normally don't like, namely business crime, a book with a burglar for a protagonist, and even a book with a lawyer for a protagonist. Personally I'm more likely to root for the burglar than the lawyer. The lawyer, anyway, starred in the very successful novel "The Lincoln Lawyer", titled after the car he uses instead of an office, moving from courthouse to courthouse. His name is Mickey Haller, and he's the son of a famous defense attorney from the 50s and 60s. Apparently Mickey senior had a wandering eye, to the extent that he even fooled around with a prostitute, and that liaison resulted in Connelly's main character in most of his books, Harry Bosch.
In the current book, Haller is called one morning and informed that a friend of his, another defense attorney, has been murdered. Haller has been retired from practicing law since the events at the end of "The Lincoln Lawyer", but he's about ready to resume his practice and sees this as an opportunity. The interesting thing is that the lawyer in question had a very high-profile case on his front burner, a murder case where a very well-known studio head has been accused of killing his soon-to-be-ex-wife and her interior decorator boyfriend. The prosecution case looks shaky, and Haller thinks he can poke holes in it at will, so he leaps at the chance to take over. There is one catch, however: whoever killed his predecessor is still out there, and the police don't have any serious leads.
Michael Connelly is one of the best mystery writers in the country right now. While this mystery doesn't rank up there with his best (The Concrete Blonde and Angel's Flight, to my mind, along with Blood Work and perhaps The Poet) it's still a very good mystery. I would recommend it to anyone, especially those traveling somewhere: it's about the right length for a plane flight.
Book Review: Solid Sequel to The Lincoln Lawyer
Summary: 4 Stars
I think you can make a strong argument that Michael Connelly is the best crime writer in the business. Year after year, he produces a novel that usually ranks in my top 5 annual reads. I've read all nineteen of his novels, and nearly all of them have been exceptionally good. Some of them even qualify as classics, like THE CONCRETE BLONDE, THE LAST COYOTE, THE POET, and BLOOD WORK.
THE BRASS VERDICT is a direct sequel to THE LINCOLN LAWYER, a 2005 novel which I personally consider Connelly's last great book. While THE BRASS VERDICT doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor, it's still very much worth your time.
As usual, Connelly does everything well in this novel -- character, plot and setting. The book's protagonist, defense attorney Mickey Haller, is an incredibly likable and complex human being. The murder plot is tightly constructed and it's plain that Connelly has done a tremendous amount of research in how lawyers do their jobs. The trial scenes in the second half of THE BRASS VERDICT are second to none, and there's a plot twist involving gunpowder residue that I found quite ingenious.
Still, this novel is more good than great Connelly. For whatever reason, THE BRASS VERDICT contains an overly large number of subplots, which largely serves to hurt the momentum of the main storyline. While I enjoyed seeing police detective Harry Bosch play a part in the story, his role is ultimately small and underdeveloped. Further, the ending of this book, which features a rather remarkable (and unbelievable) plot twist, seemed rather silly and rushed.
Still, THE BRASS VERDICT is a fun book overall, and one of the best legal procedurals I've read in recent years. I think long-time Connelly fans will not be disappointed in this one. My only warning to new readers is to read THE LINCOLN LAWYER first, in order to maximize your enjoyment of this sequel.