THE BRASS VERDICT by Michael Connelly

I started THE BRASS VERDICT yesterday and finished it this morning. Yes, it's that good. This is the second in the Mickey Haller, Lincoln lawyer, series. I'll give you the run down in a moment but I have to say something. There is a thing called "voice" in writing. In this instance, I will use the image of acting to convey what I'm going say. When watching someone act you can tell if they actor is just going through the motions. Sometimes reading a book is like that. I just doesn't have the zing of voice. Michael Connelly has *voice.* It is similar to knowing you are watching a great performance by actor who is command of his skills. It just sings. I'm not saying it is great literature; I'm saying the words just come together *right.* And when the writing is good, you do actually make more time to read the book. I was up until a little after 11 last night reading and at it again this morning until I was done.

Here's the blurb from the Library Journal:

Mickey Haller, last seen in The Lincoln Lawyer, returns to the courtroom in an unusual way here. Former colleague Jerry Vincent is murdered, and his caseload is dropped in Haller's lap. One of Vincent's high-profile cases involved a movie mogul accused of killing his wife and her lover in a jealous rage. As Haller prepares the mogul's defense, he discovers that Vincent's killer might have chosen him as the next target. Haller must trust Harry Bosch, the police officer investigating Vincent's murder, if he is going to survive and trust his instincts if he is going to succeed in convincing a jury of his client's innocence.

Just published; it has 432 pages. Here's the first chapter:

Everybody lies.

Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.

A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.

The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not for just any lie. But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts out on the
floor.

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.

Michael Connelly's website can be found at http://www.michaelconnelly.com/ where he has book trailers for THE BRASS VERDICT and other goodies like interviews and signing up for his newsletter.

For mystery readers, this is a must read.

Happy reading,

PK the Bookeemonster