The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly: Book Review

It’s been two years since the events of The Lincoln Lawyer and Mickey Haller is not on his game. His…medical problems… at the end of the first book have left him addicted to painkillers. He’s done a stint in rehab, he’s taken time off work to get himself together, and he’s starting to think about taking on a case or two. He wakes up one day to find that 30+ have landed in his lap.

Haller and a colleague, Jerry Vincent, have backed each other up a few times in court. Now that Vincent’s been murdered, Mickey finds out that he’s inherited the man’s law practice. In the mix of all these new cases is another franchise case, L.A.’s “Murder of the Decade.”

Movie studio mogul Walter Elliot is accused of shooting his wife and her lover in a fit of rage. Everyone agrees that he probably did it; isn’t it usually the husband? But it’s still Mickey’s job to get him off, while protecting attorney/client privileges and helping the cops, including Harry Bosch, solve Vincent’s murder. So much for easing back into things.

It’s not The Lincoln Lawyer, I’ll just say it up front. It is still good though. I kept hoping for that twist that made me sit up and say, “Holy shit!” but it never came. There were twists alright, but nothing like what I hoped for.

I haven’t read any of the Harry Bosch novels and if that left me in the dark a little here, I wasn’t aware of it. I’ve actually been putting off reading this for that very reason, but I don’t think it matters. This is Mickey Haller’s story, not Bosch’s. If you’ve been hesitating like me, stop waiting and go for it.

Now that that’s all out of the way, let’s get on to this book.

I still like Mickey Haller. He is what he is. It’s easy to blame defense lawyers for getting criminals off, but he does have a point when he says that he plays his part in the justice system. By keeping law enforcement and the prosecution on their toes with the constant threat of letting someone walk on a technicality, Mickey and others like him help ensure that every step made in a case is done legally. At least in theory.

I was worried about him at first. He’s obviously coming up from rock bottom. He’s had a rough couple of years and it sounds like he was almost down and out there for a while. That’s not the Haller I liked. But as the story goes on, he starts to get his mojo back. I enjoyed seeing it happen.

I tore through this pretty quickly. I started it on a Monday night and had read about 80 pages before I looked up. I had to go ahead and put it in my car to read at lunch the next day because I knew if I didn’t, I would be up all night finishing the darn thing!

As I mentioned before, there were twists and turns, they just weren’t as mind-blowing as I found them to be in the first book. I knew where the case was going as soon as Haller did. Maybe I was supposed to, I don’t know. I was surprised to find out who was behind everything but that was over and done with so fast, I almost felt like it was a footnote. There was one last thing at the end that might have been a bigger deal if I had read the Bosch books as well, but coming from the Haller side of things, I was just kind of lukewarm about it.

If you go into this expecting a solid mystery with a great main character, you won’t be disappointed. It was a page turner and I will be continuing with any future Mickey Haller books. I’ll be very curious to see what he does next.

Read an excerpt.

My review of The Lincoln Lawyer, the first book in the Mickey Haller series

Find author Michael Connelly on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Buy The Brass Verdict at

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.