The Brass Verdict ***

*** The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly, 2008

We now have the answer to how Connelly handles a book with Haller and Bosch in it. It is all in Haller's POV, first person. Bosch doesn't show up much, and mainly in the last half of the book. It was great to see them interact, but I think this is the first time we've seen Bosch with an iPod and it seemed out of character to me. Bosch with an iPod? Even if he is listening to jazz, of course, it still seems weird.

By the way, Connelly pronounces Haller as Holler, which seems odd to me. I always pronouced it like Hal with an er on the end.

It's a great story but I felt it got a little heavy on the procedural side of things at times. Particularly during the 2 chapters (17 pages) of jury selection. It was important to the story, but it seemed tedious at the time. But things got back on track pretty quickly.

The end of the book has a real shocker that I won't spoil here, but it illustrates Connelly's penchant for cross-polinating characters.

SPOILER ALERT!! I do have one complaint which is a spoiler. I'll put it in small print so people who don't want to read it can more easily avoid accidentally picking up info.

I was a little annoyed that in both books, it looks like the client is innocent and then the big reveal at the end is that he's really guilty and Haller didn't know it. It was very effective in The Lincoln Lawyer, but then it happens again in The Bradd Verdict. I was waiting for a new twist on the big aha moment, and it turned out that Haller gets punked both times.

Only four more Connelly books left. I'm not going to know how to act without a Connelly book in my hand.