The Brass Verdict

Review of Michael Connelly’s “The Brass Verdict”

Review by Gerti

Now I’m Michael Connelly’s biggest fan. And I love his protagonists Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch. But five-hundred and forty-seven pages is just too much for me to tell one story. And that’s the only problem I have with “The Brass Verdict.”

Connelly is a master storyteller, and this story combines his two favorite storylines – Haller defending a guilty man who claims to be innocent, and Bosch tracking down the truth behind a high profile LA crime. Perhaps Connelly and his editors felt that one-two punch justified the book’s length, as there were two stories that needed telling. But maybe it was just overly ambitious to try to combine two strong but flawed heroes in one colossal novel.

But here are some positives - I loved seeing Haller out of rehab and trying to get back into the law game. I also loved his interaction with Bosch, who is his half-brother, although Haller doesn’t realize it until the end of the book. But I did not like the tricks Bosch played on Haller in order to solve the headline-grabbing crime in this novel, the murder of a movie producer’s wife and her lover.

One attorney has already been killed trying to defend the Archway Studios exec who discovered the pair, and that’s before jury selection has ever started. Haller lucks into that attorney’s case load, but he’s playing catchup. His wealthy client, Walter Elliot, doesn’t want the trial delayed, even though his first defense attorney’s calendar and files on the case were stolen when he was murdered. Turns out, Elliot has bribed a juror, so he’s not worried about a guilty verdict. Haller just can’t work with a stacked deck like that, and he tells the judge about the ringer, but that sets a whole house of cards tumbling. Haller is almost killed himself until Bosch and the FBI come to his rescue.

I am however bothered by the last few chapters, which seem largely extraneous, and as the book is already running over 500 pages, I get a little restless about literary excesses. I’m glad to see Haller and Bosch becoming friends in the midst of this turmoil, but it does make me regret all the ink Connelly used to set up the relationship between Haller and his new driver. Don’t get me wrong. I love spending time with Haller and Bosch. I just don’t want to spend ALL my free time with them.

In short, while I love the characters, and am impressed by the intricate plot which involves several of Connelly’s characteristic twists and misdirection, I felt the book could have been tighter. A good editor could have cut at least 50 pages out of here and made it a more manageable 400ish pages. The title, “The Brass Verdict,” refers to street justice, where a gun is used to dispatch the guilty party. I almost wish this book had been as quick to reach its conclusion.