The Brass Verdict: A Novel

Michael Connelly
Little, Brown and Company (2008)
ISBN 9780316166294
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (11/08) 


When you start any of Michael Connelly’s books, you better make sure that the rest of your schedule has been cleared for the day. Once you start, there is little – with the exception of a hurricane, fire or an earthquake – that will persuade you to put it down. From the first sentence to the last, the book pulls you like a strong undercurrent. The tension is palpable. You hold your breath till it hurts. Every sentence hits. Most of them hit hard.  The story doesn’t just move you, it sucks you in. The characters are brilliantly drawn. The situations – no matter how outrageous – are still believable. Every word matters. When a book is written by a master story teller, it shows.

Take these two short excerpts, which are very high on my list of totally brilliant lines:

“Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies.”

“Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Clients lie. Even jurors lie.”

There you have it in a nutshell. When you forget about all of the fantastic twists and turns – of which there truly are many – those five lines, those twenty-nine words condense the essence of the book better than any drawn-out description ever could. But if you are really curious about the story, I’ll give you a brief description. Mickey Haller, a defense attorney, inherited all of his deceased colleague’s cases. Jerry Vincent met an untimely demise, and the authorities, represented by detective Hieronymus Bosch, are pretty certain one of his clients had him killed. Mickey Haller, together with his investigator Cisco and office manager Lorna, tries to reconstruct Jerry’s agenda, since some of his files as well as his laptop are missing. Mickey starts meeting the potential clients, of which the most famous – and maybe the riskiest one – is a movie mogul, Walter Elliot. Walter has been accused of killing his wife, Mitzi, and her lover, Johan Rilz; but he refuses to admit his guilt. The trial gets under way, and surprises never cease. 

For those readers who have read any of the Michael Connelly’s books featuring Mickey Haller or Hieronymus Bosch, “The Brass Verdict” brings in an extra bonus twist. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. If this is your first time “meeting” Michael Connelly, get ready for a superbly written mystery, with a tight and super swift plot, engaging characters and flawless language.

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