The Reversal by Michael Connelly

Connelly introduces his latest book:



The best-selling author answers questions about The Reversal for USA Today:



First line in the book:  Tuesday, February 9, 1:43 P.M.  The last time I'd eaten at the Water Grill I sat across the table from a client who had coldly and calculatedly murdered his wife and her lover, shooting both of them in the face.

Dust jacket blurb:  When Mickey Haller is invited by the Los Angeles County District Attorney to prosecute a case, he suspects he's being set up.  Why should one of the hottest defense lawyers in the business agree to switch sides for one trial?  Especially since the DA's determination to re-try Jason Jessup, a convicted child-killer who spent almost twenty-five years on death row before DNA evidence freed him, seems doomed to failure.

Despite the risks, Mickey finds it's an offer he can't refuse.  Not only will the trial generate a media blitz, but as Mickey and his lead investigator Detective Harry Bosch learn more about the death of twelve-year-old Melissa Landy all those years ago, they become convinced that Jessup is guilty - and once freed he will kill again.

With the odds stacked against him - including a defense attorney adept at portraying Jessup as the innocent victim of a corrupt justice system and a key witness who risks having her life torn apart on the stand - Mickey knows that if this is the only case he ever prosecutes, it's one he cannot afford to lose.

My thoughts:  What an exceptionally well-written book!  This is the fourth novel of Connelly's twenty two novels starring Mickey Haller as the protagonist and Harry Bosch taking a not-so-secondary role.  It is very hard to fault Connelly's books because he never disappoints his fans and always delivers top quality work.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because it is a book about right and wrong, love and evil.  As Bosch says, "There are certain kinds of evil in the world that had to be contained, no matter the hardship."  Does justice always prevail?  We know that there are no certainties in a courtroom and that a wrong does not necessarily mean a chance of conviction and that a right does not mean that the public will agree with the verdict.  Potential political fallout plays a huge role in enforcing judgment, more often than not on opposing ends of the scale.

In this respect, it demonstrates that nothing seems to move in a straight line and how a mistake in judgement can affect the search for truth and thereby pervert the course of justice.  In the author's acknowledgement, he writes that he greatly benefited from reading Defending the Damned:  Inside a Dark Corner of the Criminal Justice System by Kevin Davis, an award-winning journalist, author, magazine writer and a former crime reporter based in Chicago.  His book gives you a true behind-the-scenes look on the way the court system works in America.

A gripping and convincing storyline with well-drawn characters and their relationships with one another, realistic dialogue, smooth prose, excellent attention to details, all in all, an intelligently written thriller which you just gotta read!  Super!

In my opinion, Michael Connelly is one of the best and inspiring contemporary writers of crime fiction.

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Rating:  5/5