Reviews

The Reversal by Michael Connelly

malignantcactus's review

4.0

Solid and fun courtroom thriller. Don't really have much to say other than that.

nigel1962's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

sec892's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

milkaflicksthroughpages's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

lesleyo's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

alex_in_wonderland25's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

paws42's review

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

floridababe51's review

5.0

What can I say if you enjoy good stories with likable characters and great bad guys these are the books for you. Bosh & Mickey make a great team. The courtroom scenes are the best. If you enjoy series then this is for you. Whether alone or together the stories suck you in from the beginning.

athenathor's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

prodigalstudent's review

3.0

I was a bit confused about how to rate this since it was definitely well-written and entertaining to read. Legal-mysteries are quickly becoming one of my favorite genres and this followed the same footsteps as the last two Mickey Haller books. However, this book wasn't as successful for me as the other two for the following reasons:

1) The interplay between the legal drama and the mystery was jarring. I prefer having one POV character, but we kept shifting between Bosch and Haller and that took me out of the story.

2) The mystery just was not compelling. I can understand the ending with

Spoiler

no payoff

, but the mystery itself was not interesting to follow.

Spoiler

It was a whole bunch of setup with no payoff

, and pages that would have been better dedicated to the legal drama. Speaking of which, the legal drama had the novelty of Haller being the prosecutor but that novelty got quickly old because Connelly just did not spend enough time with Haller's character to flesh this out.

3) I liked having a smart female lawyer protagonist, but I still think Connelly needs to do a better job with his female characters - they just do not seem real. They're always too perfect, and always right, and normally that would annoy me - but since this is a legal mystery genre, I can ignore it. However, it is an issue which was highlighted to me given that Maggie was one of the main protagonists of the novel.

In conclusion, I am probably being too hard on this book. It is because I'm a fan of Connelly's work, and know he can and has done better. I would still recommend it to friends who are interested in legal-mysteries, but it would not be a strong recommendation from my side.