The Reversal by Michael Connelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh, the problem with sequels… Often, it is like this. You cook a gallon of good soup. You and your family eat half a gallon one day, and then to prolong the culinary feat, you add half a gallon of water to the remaining soup, and have half a gallon of it the next day. Then you add another half a gallon of water the next day, and so on and on, and soon you have no soup at all, just water, and a memory of good soup. "The Reversal" is a sequel to Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer", which is a very good book. Alas, "The Reversal" is not a good book. It is mostly water, not much soup.

We have Mickey Haller, Maggie McPherson, Harry Bosch, and Agent Walling, but they are just names on paper. They are not real people. We have to create their characterizations from what we know from the previous books. In "The Reversal" they are just empty vessels, paper agents to move the plot.

The publisher's blurb says "Written with the depth, pace, and insight…". Two out of these three are false. There is absolutely no depth and no insight. Yes, there is pace. The writing is not up to usual Connelly's level. I would guess it was either partially ghost-written or the author wrote the whole book in a few short weeks, not caring about the style.

Big disappointment! I am scared to read the further sequels.


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