For those of you who are not familiar with his work, Michael Connelly is perhaps the best mystery writer around, or, at the very least, on this side of the pond. I know I like M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth mysteries, which I profiled in an earlier gt;article. And, even though Beaton and Connelly are both mystery writers, to compare them is even more difficult than apples and oranges. Think pomegranates and chimpanzees.

There is one thing the two mystery writers do have in common (apart from the mysterious). You will be better able to understand the central characters if you have read the previous novels involving them. A good many elements of their newer stories carry over from the older ones. It’s what we would call “baggage.”

To be sure, Connelly tells you everything you need to know about Mickey Haller, an attorney, who is the story’s protagonist. He also tells you everything you know about Detective Harry Bosch, a very important secondary character in this book and the main character in most of the author’s previous stories. Still, if you had read The Lincoln Lawyer, you would have a somewhat better insight into Haller’s character. If you had read any number of Connelly’s novels featuring Harry Bosch, you would be a lot further ahead of the game, because the Harry Bosch you see in this novel is not the same man you saw in the author’s earlier books, but the events of those books have clearly shaped him. If you do not think it worth your while to read the entire Harry Bosch series for background (and that is perfectly understandable), then I would suggest taking in the fourth one in the series: The Last Coyote, in which he has to solve the most emotionally difficult case he ever took.

You might think a mystery novel would revolve around the detective, not the lawyer, but that is not the case here. Then too, the story is told in the first person, from Mickey Haller’s point of view.  Suffice it to say, both he and Bosch have to do a good bit of sleuthing before all is said and done.

The basic premise of the story is that an attorney named Jerry Vincent is gunned down and his laptop stolen, right in the middle of his most important case: a major Hollywood producer accused of a double murder. Vincent worked alone, so there are no partners to pick up his case load. About that time, Haller is about to try resuming his very successful career that had been put on hold for two years due to a serious gunshot wound. The Chief of Judges, a flinty lady with a no-nonsense attitude, interviews Haller about taking over the dead lawyer’s caseload and, with some seeming reluctance, turns it over to him.

Haller takes his new job very seriously, especially insofar as it represents a potential financial windfall. He procures most of the clients Vincent had on his books, including the big-shot producer. Hanging over Haller’s head, though, is the inconvenient fact that his predecessor had been murdered. Was it due to a personal beef or did it have something to do with the guy’s caseload? If the latter was true, then Haller was also in danger.

Detective Bosch had no direct stake in the producer’s upcoming trial, but he had drawn the assignment of solving Jerry Vincent’s murder. As a matter of course, his path crosses Haller’s. Sometimes, throughout the story, they work in tandem, many other times at cross purposes, but, in the end, as you know they will, they work it out.

As for the Hollywood producer and his trial and the murdered attorney’s killer, you will have to find those things out by reading the book. I have to say, there were a great many twists in this story I did not see coming at all. But then, Michael Connelly is a master at that sort of thing. As a reward for reading the entire book, you will come to know why the author titled it The Brass Verdict.

As I noted earlier, it’s available in paperback now, so you don’t have to take out a home equity loan to buy it. Or, he added with a twinkle in one or the other of his eyes, you might check your local library. It is a book that is certainly well worth your time and, if you go the ownership route, worth your money as well.