Fiction, Reviews

The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly

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The Brass Verdict is Michael Connelly’s second novel about his new character, lawyer Mickey Haller. I wasn’t too sure whether I liked Mickey much when I read the first one, The Lincoln Lawyer, but this book definitely warmed me to him.

Mickey Haller is a defense attorney. He’s just coming off a one-year hiatus when he gets the news that an old friend, another defense lawyer named Jerry Vincent, has been murdered, and has left his stable of clients to him. One of them is a “franchise case,” a big-paycheck, high-profile case involving Walter Elliott, a Hollywood movie mogul.

There are problems with defense lawyers as heroes of stories. We all know that in the real world they’re not Perry Mason. They defend the worst people in the world, and if they’re good they get very rich off it. What makes Mickey Haller sympathetic is that he feels that moral tension, on a deep level. It probably had a lot to do with the cocaine-and-alcohol habit that destroyed his marriage, alienated his daughter, and nearly cost him his life.

On moving into Jerry’s office, Mickey finds two policeman going through the case files—illegally. He kicks them out, but oddly finds himself drawn to one of them, who turns out to be Harry Bosch, the hero of the majority of Michael Connelly’s novels. This is an excellent strategy on the author’s part, and helped me settle into the story.

Harry asks questions—who had Jerry Vincent bribed? How was the FBI involved? Mickey doesn’t know the answers. Harry doesn’t believe him. But they will still be drawn together into the double mystery of Jerry’s murder and the Elliott trial, which turn out to be linked. And the killing isn’t over.

A good story by a master storyteller. Connelly did telegraph one surprise though, at least in my case. He generally keeps politics out of his books (for which I’m eternally grateful), but here he did mention one character’s conservative affiliations. I immediately thought, “I’ll bet this character turns out to be a villain.” And behold, it was so.

Maybe Connelly’s done the same thing with liberal characters in the past, but I never noticed it. (Then again, I probably wouldn’t.)

But storytellers, be warned—we know your poker tells.

Authors

Klavan on death panels

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Andrew Klavan has an opinion on whether “death panels” are a legitimate concern or not.

It begins to occur to you that this is how you are going to die: by the fiat of fatuous ideologues—that is to say, by the considered judgment of a government committee. They are going to snuff you out and never lose a minute’s sleep over it, because it’s only fair, after all.

The basic fallacy, it seems to me, is the assumption that “socialized” and “compassionate” are the same thing. This is where liberals are blinkered. They believe that their virtuous intentions (and in most cases they are extremely virtuous) will guarantee virtuous outcomes. “Don’t talk to me about real-world consequences! I’m talking about my feelings here!”

Thanks to Dave Lull and Loren Eaton, who both sent the link.

Coffee, Tea, Drinks

The Face of Taster’s Choice

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Do you remember the label on Taster’s Choice instant coffee? It’s of a man enjoying his cup of scoop-n-stir joe. Apparently, the man in that photo didn’t know his face made the cut back in the 1980s, because a few years ago someone said, “Dude, you look like that dude on that coffee stuff, you know?” And when he checked the jar, he saw for first time that his was the face of Taster’s Choice.

So he sued, and you’d think that the man whose face became an international logo would be owed a lot of money, unless he signed it away in the beginning. But no, the company just ran with the image without getting back to him, avoiding payment and violating their contract.

Now, the courts are asking whether the man still has the opportunity to sue, because it’s been awhile since all this happened.

Uncategorized

Can’t Buy ‘Deep Thoughts’ in a Jar No More

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Larrey Anderson remarks on a dearth of thinkers in America and recommends Paul Johnson’s book, Intellectuals. “Our present situation is not good for the Republic,” he writes. “By selling feel good snake oil intellectualism, we have polarized America into unwavering ideological camps, each camp filled with phony sophisticates. How we got ourselves into this pickle is an interesting story.”

Anderson says we’ve been teaching relative values in our society for at least fifty years, but I believe I read Mortimer Adler say in an essay he wrote in 1940s that we’ve been teaching relative values since the late 1800s.

Fiction

“Obnoxious, Supercilious Snob”

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Sherry reviews Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street. “Published in 1920, Main Street is proto-feminist, liberal in its politics (to contrast with the no doubt conservative politics of 1920’s small town businessmen), and agnostic in its religious views. Our protagonista, Carol Kennicott . . . mostly stays just this side of being an obnoxious, supercilious snob.”

Fiction, Reviews

Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, by Dean Koontz

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If I were actually the kind of industry insider I pretend to be as an author/blogger, I would have been aware that Dean Koontz’ long-awaited final volume in his Frankenstein trilogy was coming out at last. (He delayed it, he has reported, because New Orleans, the setting of the books, had suffered enough after Hurricane Katrina, and deserved a break. I’d been very worried the story would go forever unfinished.)

Koontz dedicates Frankenstein: Dead and Alive to “the late Mr. Lewis, who long ago realized that science was being politicized….” It would appear that C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength was an inspiration for this book and for the whole trilogy. That gives me particular satisfaction, as I did an homage of my own in Wolf Time.

Although it’s not necessary to read the first two books before reading Dead and Alive, I would recommend it. It’s a pity there was such a long lag between books, because, in my opinion, this book works best as the capstone to the trilogy experience. Continue reading Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, by Dean Koontz →

Book Reviews, Creative Culture