Copyright 2008 by Hieronymous Inc. Published by Little, Brown and Company, New York.
This is one of the series of mysteries by Michael Connelly featuring Hieronymous Bosch, LAPD detective. But this one has a twist: Bosch is a supporting character. The main character is Mickey Haller, a lawyer fresh out of drug rehab who gets his career resurrected in a big way when another lawyer dies (shot to death) and he inherits his portfolio of 31 open cases. The big prize in that caseload is the pending murder trial of Walter Elliot, the head of a small-but-growing movie studio. So Haller is immediately thrown into an intense, high-profile murder trial. Some way to ease back into legal life.
Bosch is the detective who is investigating the murder of the lawyer. Haller first encounters him as he enters his inherited office to find Bosch poring over case files. He immediately kicks Bosch out of the office, but soon realizes that until the person who murdered his predecessor is caught he, too, might be in danger. This suspicion is heightened when, after working late in the office, he is attacked by a man in the parking garage – the same man that Bosch had shown him a picture of just a few days earlier. He ultimately teams up with Bosch to unmask the murderer.
So there are several mysteries here. Who murdered the lawyer? Why is Elliot adamant that there be no delay in the trial? Why is Bosch asking Haller about the FBI? All of these questions are nicely intertwined and completely resolved. I can’t say it is the most puzzling crime novel I have ever read as I correctly guessed the main culprit early on, but it moves along nicely and has more than the usual number of surprises.
The biggest problem, from a reading enjoyment perspective, is that Haller’s career reboot is ultimately not very successful. I found myself rooting for him and was disappointed that things did not work out so great. But such is life, I suppose. The lack of a nice, neat resolution makes the story all the more believable.
7 out of 10.