JUSTICE SERVED THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY
Having just finished Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer a month ago, I was eager to read this next book featuring defense attorney, Mickey Haller. As if another Haller book wasn't enough of a gift to his readers, the author further rewards us by injecting Harry Bosch into the mix. Be still my heart!!! Haller and Bosch together!!! It's a dream come true for Connelly's avid fans. If you're not familiar with Connelly's previous books, Harry Bosch is the homicide detective who has appeared in more than ten of them and is greatly loved by all of Connelly's readers.
One might say that each of these characters is cut from the same cloth. But almost everything about them is the flip side of the other. One serves the prosecution while the other serves the defense; one lives on one side of the mountain while the other lives on the other side; one has one view of the city while the other has a different view. But this book will show how much they are truly alike and the words "cut from the same cloth" can perhaps be taken literally. I think the thing I enjoyed most was seeing Harry Bosch through someone else's eyes and being able to get a new take on an old and much beloved character. At one point, Harry is standing outside of police headquarters listening to an Ipod. Mickey Haller is as surprised by this as is the reader who has followed Harry for years. There's no way I can picture Bosch standing on the street listening to music through an Ipod. We actually find out it wasn't music he was listening to which puts Harry back where he should be in the reader's mind.
In The Brass Verdict, Connelly dishes out my kind of justice...the brass kind....as Mickey Haller is defending an arrogant Hollywood bigshot charged with some serious murders. Prior to this, Mickey had been on leave for a year after the conclusion of The Lincoln Lawyer forced him to take some time off. The death of a former colleague brings him back to the defense table when he inherits that attorney's cases. Haller is great at picking apart the prosecution's case but, as with all of Connelly's books, it's more about the journey and not the destination. The things the reader learns along the way, about the characters Connelly so obviously loves, makes each and every one of Connelly books something to be greatly appreciated.
When I read The Lincoln Lawyer, I loved it but had no idea that The Brass Verdict would be as good, if not better, than the first book in this series. It's obvious that Connelly has the desire to make all of his books connect in some way. Pairing Bosch and Haller was the greatest of all connections for this reader. When I read books that are part of a series, I keep notes on each main character so I can go back and reference them from time to time. There was a note I made in The Black Ice that told me this connection would come one day. I didn't know who the character would be but I knew it would happen. If this doesn't make you loyal Connelly fans read this book, I don't know what else will.
1 comment:
I haven't read this one yet, but one of my very favorite (if not a little disturbing) Connelly books in "The Poet" and he has most of his main characters woven into that one. And it's a early one, before many of his characters develop real story lines of their own.
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