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The Brass Verdict | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
Buy New: £8.43
You Save: £10.56 (56%)
New (21) Used (4) from £6.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 132
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.6
ISBN: 0752875833
EAN: 9780752875835
ASIN: 0752875833
Publication Date: October 16, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 A good follow-on to 'The Lincoln Lawyer' November 20, 2008
I have loved almost all of Michael Connelly's books and couldn't wait to read this one, particularly as I really liked the character of Mickey Haller from 'The Lincoln Lawyer'. I was not disappointed and would have given the book 5 stars were it not for two small negatives. The first is the portrayal of Harry Bosch, who appears in the book in a supporting role. We see him through Haller's eyes and he comes across as a very different man to the Bosch we know and love. One of the reviewers has described him as 'shadowy' and I would go so far as to say he is almost one-dimensional in this book. If Connelly's audience didn't know him so well, this would not be such a problem so it is only a minor quibble, however, to anyone reading this book who loves Bosch, it is worth bearing in mind. Secondly, without giving a plot twist away, the final resolution is a little rushed and there is something cheesy in terms of how the Haller/Bosch relationship is resolved. Still, the master writes a cracking story and, while not up with his very best, it's still a lot better than much that's around in the crime fiction genre.
 Disappointing, Harry Bosch as a "cardboard cut-out" November 16, 2008
This is the first time I've been critical of a Michael Connelly book, but I just don't see the point of Bosch in this book, at all. The detective might just as well have been called Smith or Jones. I was hoping part of the book would have been devoted to Harry's side of the investigation, instead he is on the fringes and for a first time reader the question would be "What's all the fuss about this Bosch guy?"
Mickey Haller could have managed on his own, and why after being a defence lawyer for so many years does he gain a conscience all of a sudden, surely he's met worse guys than his client?
After reading all the wonderful reviews here it was if anything a BIG letdown reading the book.
Lincoln Lawyer 2 November 2, 2008
Another great story from Connelly. It is the second book featuring Mickey Haller, 'The Lincoln Lawyer' and defender of slime and crooks. It is not a Bosch novel as he only features intermittently and in minor roles. Haller defends an LA Movie mogul who is arreseted for killing his wife and her lover as he takes on the cases of a fellow lawyer who was also shot. The trial intrigue is excellent as is the overall plot and hence I recommend this thoroughly. I did not give 5 stars for 2 critisism's: i) It is too similar to the Lincoln Lawyer story,and ii) The ending with Bosch and Haller was a bit too sugary.
Another Great Book October 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is another great Connelly book. He's resurrected Michael Haller from The Lincoln Lawyer and written a good, well paced thriller.
The Overlook, Connelly's last book, was written as a Harry Bosch novel for the 24 generation. It was written to be read as it happens in real time, was fast paced and best read it that way. The Brass Verdict is a more conventionally based thriller and none the worst for that,
I would not recommend reading this too soon after the Lincoln Lawyer as there are a few minor plot devices common to both. However this makes Grisham look like the poor, pulp novelist he is. Connelly is able to draw you in and feel something about the characters.
You know that there will be a twist or two but they are perfectly formed and not that telegraphed compared to other such writers. He builds on his past successes and makes you want more as soon as you finish.
Bosch makes a cameo appearance and adds another aspect of his character to the story. He is there but not the central character. Michael Haller is another great character but you don't know if he can make a third appearance.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys legal thrillers and those who appreciate a well written, plotted and characterised novel. See why this guy is so well regarded.
 When Harry met Haller October 27, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mickey Haller is a 42-year-old Los Angeles defence attorney on his way back to the bar after about two years of physical recovery and rehabilitation. He is aided in no small way by the violent and brutal death of Jerry Vincent, another lawyer who had expressed a written wish that all of his active clients be passed on to Haller in the event of his death. Of the thirty-one in need of defence there are none bigger than Hollywood movie mogul Walter Elliot, accused of shooting and killing his wife and her male friend in the Elliot household some six months earlier, minutes before he called 9-1-1 from the murder scene. Haller has less than two weeks to prepare for trial because the defendant is anxious to proceed at that time and absolutely unwilling to delay proceedings. Meanwhile LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is investigating the recent murder of Jerry Vincent.
Expectations will be sky-high for this one, because not only does it represent the sequel to one of Connelly's most successful and widely-praised novels THE LINCOLN LAWYER, it even manages to include one of crime-fiction's best-loved characters too - the venerable Harry Bosch, although he plays a rather lower-profile role here than I had hoped or expected. It's very much a Haller story, told throughout from a first-person perspective. And although it's very good, hard to fault in truth, it's not quite as good as its one predecessor. I think my reason for saying that is because it's actually rather similar; Haller's personal life is much the same as it was, he's still just as brilliant in the courtroom, and despite representing a highly dislikeable character (as Louis Ross Roulet was in the previous Haller tale) and being capable of successfully defending people who seem to be guilty of their alleged crimes, he's still an attractive personality both within the context of the story and from the perspective of the reader. The only significant difference this time round is that while Haller still has a Lincoln - three identical ones actually - he now has a proper office, inherited from the late Jerry Vincent.
One of the frustrating elements to courtroom stories such as this is that they often begin after the crime has been committed and the central 'bad guy' is assumed to be guilty (or not guilty) from the outset, so the main unknown tends to be the verdict of the jury. This is the second half of a criminal investigation, the first half being the police and detective work that brings the suspect to trial. Thankfully it's a lot more interesting due to some really fascinating insights into the world of jury selection, a little bit depressing too when you think of the lengths that defence lawyers will go to in order to manipulate the system (at least, that in the USA) in order to get as many jurors likely to be sympathetic to, or at least open-minded enough for, a vote of not guilty to someone who may in fact be guilty. That's a little worrying if it represents real life, and from an early stage of this novel I kept on thinking of the trial (and the crime) of OJ Simpson in Los Angeles in 1995, a landmark event that I know shaped Connelly's attitude towards the American justice system. So whereas the Bosch novels tend to be all about Bosch with a story wrapped around him, with Haller it's the other way round in that the story takes precedence over him. All credit to the author for having the ability to write in such different ways, which we are reminded of on the few occasions that Haller and Harry Bosch meet; as soon as Bosch speaks, he increases the reader's pulse rate slightly, and I think this would be the case even for those reading Connelly for the first time. Bosch comes over as dark and dangerous, and it's an amusing experience to read the impressions he makes on Haller and the opinions expressed given that the sometimes negative words come from the same pen, from the creator of both characters.
One element of the tale that Connelly is right to address, I believe, is the ethics behind defending the guilty. It came late on in the novel but it was a relief when it came. Until that point it had been an issue that I can imagine many readers struggling to come to terms with, that a seemingly nice guy like Mickey Haller should have the ability to dismantle state's and prosecutor's evidence to the point that a seemingly nailed-on guilty verdict can be undone. It leaves you wondering if there is such a thing as true justice, at least within the criminal courts, because the outcome can often be based not on the evidence but the skill with which either the prosecutor or the defender presents that evidence and cross-examines witnesses. Issues such as this are raised right at the very beginning of this novel, in a small prologue that suggests that, ultimately, everybody lies. Cops, lawyers, witnesses and victims - they all lie, and the trial is a contest of lies. For lawyers like Mickey Haller, the task in preparing for trial often revolves around finding that magic bullet, that weakness in the prosecution's case that enables him to rip it all to pieces, to at the very least giving rise to reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt. Looking back through the story, the author addressed these issues very skilfully but perhaps felt he had a moral obligation to not only explain how and why a defence attorney works the way he does, but in addition to demonstrate that some of them - well, Mickey Haller at least - have a sense of humanity and moral conscience after all. It gives the reader an escape route for feeling guilty about liking Haller, to enable them to feel that their judgement in him wasn't misplaced even if they had questioned it for most of the tale.
The surprising and unexpected conclusion to the story proves that it was actually a lot more complex than just whether the defendant 'did it' or not, because there are numerous interwoven sub-plots that all come together to answer some of the questions that might have been lingering in the reader's mind. Just as we were warned at the outset, everybody lies, some people lie about their lies, but at least one conclusion can be drawn: Michael Connelly is still at the very top of his game, and that's the undisputed truth.
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