Book Review: The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Mickey Haller #3; Harry Bosch #14.5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Compelling story populated by great characters

Cons: None

The Bottom Line:

Haller, Bosch team up

Take on tricky, twisty case

Will justice prevail?

The Lincoln Lawyer Crosses the Aisle

After revisiting Mickey Haller last month, I was anxious to move on to his next case.  These books about the Lincoln Lawyer are proving to be quite gripping even if they aren't my normal choice.  A recent family vacation to Yosemite provided me the perfect opportunity to listen to the unabridged audio version of The Reversal, and I was once again enthralled.

The second book about Mickey Haller featured author Michael Connelly's other character, Harry Bosch, as a supporting character.  Here, both of them take on lead rolls.  I was worried that, since I have yet to read a full book about Bosch, I might be a bit lost here, but that wasn't an issue at all.

24 years ago, Jason Jessup kidnapped and killed a young girl.  Now, new DNA evidence has freed him, but the LA County DA is going to retry him.  In an effort to avoid any association with some bad practices from the first trial, the DA asks Mickey Haller to cross over from the defense and act as a special prosecutor.  Mickey gets talked into taking the job on two conditions - his ex-wife Maggie McPherson is his second chair, and his half-brother Harry Bosch of the LAPD as his investigator.

The trio has a long, hard road ahead of them.  After 24 years, some of the witnesses are dead or hard to track down.  Will they be able to build a case that will put Jessup where he belongs?

This book is told is alternating chapters from both men's point of view.  The odd chapters give us Haller's first person take on the story while the even chapters are from Bosch's limited third person point of view.  It gives us a great view of the action and adds some interesting layers to the book that I think would have been missing otherwise.

I was disappointed that some of the supporting characters from the first two books about Mickey Haller were missing here.  I'm sure fans of Harry Bosch will feel the same way.  On the other hand, we got to know Maggie much better in this book, and I really like her.  Speaking of liking, I like Bosch much more after spending so much time with him in this book.  He didn't fair so well in the last Mickey Haller book, but now I'm interested in reading his novels as well.

The book is populated by a bunch of interesting characters brought in just for this book.  They helped pull me into the case as well, and left me rooting for justice to prevail.

All these characters are in an engrossing story.  The story takes several twists I didn't expect (as well as a couple I did).  The result kept the miles flying by as I hoped to get just a little bit more listened to before my next stop.  Heck, I was actually cheering at one point during the story.  This includes the courtroom scenes, and there are plenty of them here.  By the time we get there, we are so invested in the story that what happens is actually very important to us.

The audio version I listened to is narrated by Peter Giles.  He does a great job giving us voices for all the characters that make some of the dialogue heavy scenes easy to follow.

Whether you listen via audio or read the novel yourself, I recommend The Reversal.  It's a great, twisty read that will leave you wanting more books by this author.

More courtroom drama can be found in the rest of the Mickey Haller series.  And more great mysteries can be found in the rest of the Harry Bosch series.