The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly

 

L.A. defense lawyer Mickey Haller is back in business.  After a case went terrible wrong, he has spent two years away from the law, part of that in a rehab center after becoming addicted to pain pills from an injury received on his last case.  Now he is ready to ease his way back into his former life.

But his plans to ease back in don't work out.  Haller is surprised to find out that far from having to look for clients, he has just been handed over thirty of them.  He had an agreement with another lawyer, Jerry Vincent. The two men served as backup for each other although they aren't close personally.  When Vincent is found murdered, all of his clients become Haller's.

The big case is a murder case about to start.  Walter Elliott is a famous and wealthy Hollywood executive, a movie producer with a string of successful movies.  Elliott has been charged with the murders of his wife and her lover at his beach mansion a few months earlier.  No murder weapon was found but Elliott found the bodies and called the police and there is gun powder residue on his hands.  He is charged and Vincent was his defense attorney.

Now Haller must get ready for a high stakes murder trial in a short turnaround.  Elliott is adamant that the trial go on as scheduled; he is determined to prove his innocence as quickly as possible and get back to his former life.  As Haller investigates the crime, he meets a police detective, Bosch, who is the officer in charge of Vincent's murder.  The two men form a partnership of sorts although they aren't very impressed with each other.  Haller is much more focused on the murder trial which starts to feel as if there is much going on behind the scenes that he isn't privy to.  Can he successfully try the case?

This is the second book in the Mickey Haller series.  Mickey is the son of a famous defense attorney, good at the law and not very good at relationships.  He has several ex-wives, a daughter he doesn't see as often as he'd like and few friendships.  The case has twists and turns and the ending is one that the reader won't see coming.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.