The Gods of Guilt - Reviewed

The Gods of Guilt

Written by Michael Connelly

Published by Orion

£12.99 (Paperback) £18.99 (Hardback)

Michael Connelly's latest novel - published in the UK this week -  is The Gods of Guilt, a term for the jury in a case, the twelve people charged with deciding the truth, motivations and ultimately the fate of the defendant before them. As the genre might suggest, this is Connelly returning to the character of Mickey Haller who has appeared in past tomes such as The Brass Verdict, The Reversal, The Fifth Witness and, most famously, The Lincoln Lawyer - the latter being made into a film with Matthew McConaughey.

Haller becomes aware that his potential new client has ties to an old one, but not in the way he might expect.  Andre La Cosse is a digital pimp accused of killing one of the women for whom he arranges 'dates'.The woman in question, Gloria Dayton, was a prostitute Haller had believed he had helped guide to a better life away from the seediness of LA's underbelly many years before. He was wrong - and apparently about a lot of things surrounding that earlier case. Though initially sceptical of La Cosse's explanations that he isn't responsible for the death, even though there was an altercation minutes before, and doubts his client's  pleas of innocence, it quickly becomes clear that there are various agendas at work and that various interested parties might well be happier if Haller and La Cosse never make it to the courtroom.

Coming from a family of writers, I've always been picky about the books I pick up to read. Over a decade ago, while perusing a bookshop in New Orleans, I picked up a first edition copy of Michael Connelly's Blood Work (later adapted as a rare, inferior film by Clint Eastwood) and was hooked, eventually picking up all the other main novels that the authoor - and ex-crime reporter - has penned over the years. I've been known to devour some of his novels in one sitting (reading The Concrete Blonde, I opened the pages at Heathrow and finished the closing chapter ten minutes before touchdown at LAX).

I'll be honest and say this was not a book I managed in one sitting and, perhaps like a real case, the story does take a little time to gain pace and momentum. Essentially the book is divided into three time periods - firstly when Haller is introduced to the case, the second is the period of investigation when some routes and tactics are revealed and then it  finally features the actual defense case Haller mounts for his client - and for himself - in the courtroom in front of those 'Gods'. As established in previous stories, Mickey is not a character that we find as easily to like as Connelly's other creation Harry Bosch (actually Haller's half-brother). This is a character full of foibles, one who balances carrying the righteous weight of the world on his shoulders... with a fluid morality and questionable ethics of his own - and with which we may sometimes find ourselves at odds. Connelly spends time underlining those aspects in the early pages of the story, showing just how far the lawyer is willing to go to win a case, through sleight of hand as much as simple decent arguments. We may not like Haller, but we'd probably want him on OUR side.

But Connelly is familiar with the territory and is by now a dab hand at weaving the formal actions of the courtroom with the more loose-form morals that go on outside its doors. If there are inevitably and neccesary moments of high drama that punctuate some of the proceedings, there's also a firm hand taking in the more procedural moments where Haller and his team must  go through the mundane to find the exceptional and overcome some of their own prejudices to get the job done. The result is a ensemble cast of characters, some of them heroes, others grotesques, who all orbit around Mickey and play their part. If the spread is sometimes a ittle uneven, then there is a sense these are real supporting characters who may yet get a chance to shine in other stories... if they survive this one.

The Gods of Guilt isn't my favourite Connelly book of recent years - I'll always be more partial to the Bosch outings - but it's clear that Connelly's various heroes inhabit different parts of one equally compelling world and every venture into their dark and comprmised streets is a worthwhile journey.

Impact will be talking to Michael Connelly about The Gods of Guilt and the upcoming 'Bosch' television series next week...