The Brass Verdict

The New York Times - Janet Maslin: The Brass Verdict has the sneaky metabolism of any Connelly book. It starts slowly, moves calmly, hides pertinent bits of information in plain sight and then abruptly ratchets up its energy for the denouement. The reader who wonders why this book cares so much about, say, the jury selection process will eventually see that Mr. Connelly had reason to do things this way. Even when Mickey painstakingly explains how his outline of a case resembles a Christmas tree, as he first establishes a trunk and branches, then hangs bits of evidence all over them, he describes something that proves more interesting than it may sound.