Michael Connelly writes books with hard boiled characters, Tough Guys. He is most famous for his Harry Bosch series. Harry Bosch is one tough LAPD Detective. You mess with him you are messing with trouble. Mr. Connelly has added another tough protagonist, Mickey Haller, a tough defense attorney. He was introduced in “The Lincoln Lawyer.” Haller doesn’t have an office, he works out of Lincolns. He has several that he rotates.

The Brass Verdict has both hard boiled guys. Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller. Haller is the main guy, Bosch just has a side part in this book. Two tough guys. They are kind of working together but not really. This avoids the confrontation where one of the tough guys has to blink.

I’ll spare you the story. You can read the book to find out the story. I don’t care about the story. I go for the writing. I’ll just give you a flavor of the book, Chapter One, page 1:

“Everybody lies. … A trial is a contest of lies. … The trick if are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not for just any lie, But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You can then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts out on the floor.”

This isn’t chick lit. It isn’t the Red Tent. This is a guy book.

I give it a 3 out of 4. A great read.