Michael Connelly

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Use these reading guide questions to help start a conversation about The Reversal. SPOILER WARNING! These questions cover the entire book. Don’t read them unless you have read the book.

“Mickey Haller, for the people,” he said. “Has a nice ring to it.”
1. Do you think Mickey enjoyed his first experience as a prosecutor? Could you see him dealing with a boss and surviving in the bureaucracy of the DA’s office on a regular basis? What did you think were his motives for taking on this case?

“I think if I can make my daughter happy then I’ll be happy. But I’m not sure when that will be.”
2. Harry Bosch said his daughter, Maddie Bosch, was in therapy dealing with her mother’s death and he thought it was helping her.  Harry seemed to be focusing on his daughter’s well-being, and putting his own needs aside, for the time being.  Will that work or do you think he needs help, too? Why do you think Harry mentioned Eleanor Wish’s death to Rachel Walling, his ex-girlfriend?

One of the very best things about having previously been married to Maggie McPherson was that I never had to face her in court.
3. How do you think Maggie and Mickey did working together for the first time? Do you think working together helped or damaged a possible reconciliation between them?

He had his daughter fully in his life now, but at a terrible cost.
4. How has being a full-time father changed Harry Bosch’s life and changed his ability to do his job?  Both Harry and Maddie lost their mother’s at a young age and under violent circumstances.  Do you see other parallels in their lives or similarities in their personalities?

My petty jealousy had slipped out for one small moment.
5. Mickey seemed slightly jealous of the time Maggie was spending with Harry. Was that a reflection of his continued romantic interest in Maggie or was it some kind of sibling rivalry with Harry?

Our daughters were shy upon meeting and embarrassed by how obvious their parents were about watching the long-awaited moment.
6. Harry Bosch has gone from being alone in the world to being a full-time father, having a brother, a niece, and an ex-sister-in-law.  Work and danger forced the Haller and Bosch families together in The Reversal. Do you think this a permanent shift in Harry’s life or will he return to his loner lifestyle?  Should Harry get closer to Mickey’s family for Maddie’s sake?

“Jessup would’ve walked.”
7. Is there any doubt in your mind, like there was for one juror, that Jason Jessup was guilty of killing Melissa Landy?

After that, I lost him on the curving road ahead.
8. Do you believe Jessup killed those other missing girls? Is Harry on to something?

Salters took her seat and the question I wanted to avoid for the rest of my life remained unasked — at least by the media.
9. Should Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch feel any guilt or bear any responsibility for everything that happened with Jessup?

“I know,” Haller said. “You’re thinking, ‘What the hell is this?’”
10. Did you like the combination of legal thriller and police procedural? Did you prefer the police investigation or the courtroom scenes? The Mickey Haller chapters were written in first person, giving you insight into Mickey’s thoughts and motivations. The Harry Bosch chapters were written in third person making Harry more of an enigma. Which do you prefer — 1st or 3rd person narrative? Did you like the alternating chapters and different view points from these two characters?

The Reversal audiobook by Hachette Audio is read by narrator Peter Giles. It is available in CD and downloadable formats.

Listen to an excerpt:

Michael Connelly introduces his novel The Reversal. Shot on the set of The Lincoln Lawyer movie, being filmed in Los Angeles. Directed by Terrill Lee Lankford.

 

Question: The Reversal seems to feature Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch pretty equally. So is this a legal thriller or a detective story?

Michael Connelly: I would like to think it’s both, but it is about a trial — actually a retrial — so I guess that probably tips it toward being a legal thriller. My goal was to show what goes on both inside and outside of a trial. So, inside the courtroom you have Mickey Haller primarily carrying the narrative and then Harry Bosch carries it forward outside. Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside.

Question: Just curious, is it more fun or more difficult to balance two of your signature characters in a single book?

Michael Connelly: It’s a fun challenge. This book alternates chapters, so the big challenge was evenly distributing the plot so that they could alternately carry it forward without having any chapters that were static. I think each chapter advances the story significantly.

Q: Can you explain the title without giving away too much about the novel?

MC: The title is pretty straightforward but at the same time it has a few different meanings. The main plot surrounds the reversal of a murder conviction that puts a man named Jason Jessup back on trial in a 24-year-old murder. But Mickey Haller is called in as an independent prosecutor. So for Mickey, that is a big reversal as well. He has always been the defender of the accused.

Q: Why have him cross the aisle and suddenly become a prosecutor? In previous books he really reveled in being a defender and standing for the underdog, as he often put it. Is this permanent?

MC: Well, you will have to read the book to see if it is permanent. I did it for three reasons. The first is that it’s always good to see a character out of his element. So I thought this would be interesting for both me, the writer, and of course the reader. The other thing is that I try to keep my fiction as close to reality as I can. The fact is, it is rare that a criminal defense attorney represents a completely innocent client. Sure, defendants are often charged with greater offenses than they committed and there are always extenuating circumstances, but it is not a realm where you find many innocents. So to write a series of books where the client is always innocent is unrealistic. This raises a dilemma. My goal is to keep Mickey Haller going in a series and to keep the series as “real” as possible. So if I keep him defending clients who are guilty of committing horrible crimes, will I be able to keep readers coming back again and again? I am not sure, but with The Reversal I had a story where that was not an issue because he is standing for the people, for the side of right and might. The last reason is that I simply wanted to write a story where Mickey and Harry were on the same side.

Q: How much, and what sort of research goes into your legal thrillers?

MC: A lot. The Lincoln Lawyer and The Brass Verdict were the most heavily researched books I have written, and I think The Reversal is right there among them, too. This is because of the legal aspects of the book. I am not a lawyer, and so I need to consult many lawyers to get these details right. I also use a lot of “war stories” in the books. Little anecdotes that I hope add up to a larger mosaic. In order to get these anecdotes I need to go out there and spend time with people who really do this work for a living. I have to say, though, these books are fun to research. I love hearing stories that come from these lawyers’ own experiences. It gets me inspired.

Q:  Stepping outside the courtroom for a moment, there is a whole ancillary story line in this one that has nothing to do with the law, per se, but is about the relationship between Harry Bosch and his daughter, Maddie. This is new territory, granted, those who read Nine Dragons were ready for it to take off. Did you enjoy going there?

MC: Absolutely. I think it’s the heart of the book. I always hope Harry has evolved since day one on the page, but in this book we find him getting used to caring for his fourteen year-old daughter and all that comes with that. It’s all new to him, and he stumbles along, but he has only good intentions. I think their moments together in the book are some of the ones I am most proud of writing. I guess it helps that I happen to have a teenage daughter, as well, and can use some of my own feelings and experiences.

Q: What are the chances that we will ever see one of these guys —Mickey or Harry—in a movie some day?

MC: I think The Lincoln Lawyer with Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller should be in your neighborhood theater next spring if all goes according to plan.

Q: Did you take part in the film project?

MC: I was no more than a minor consultant. I gave some advice on the script, but not a lot, because I thought it was very well done.

Q: What about your appearances on the hit television show Castle? You seem to be a regular. How did that come about and is it enjoyable?

MC: It came about because the producers asked me. The show is about a crime novelist (Richard Castle) and he has a standing poker game with other writers. I am lucky that they asked me. Because it’s fun and certainly feeds the ego. The show’s creator writes clever lines for us, and we seem so smart!

Q: Will we be seeing Mickey and Harry together again?

MC: I hope so. I like the dynamics. But I also plan to explore them apart as well. It’s looking like my next book will be a Mickey Haller book. Harry will get his turn after that.

Q: You published the first Bosch book eighteen years ago. He seems like such a different character now. How much of this was planned and how much just happened?

MC: None of it was planned. There was no way that I could have envisioned in 1992 that I would still be writing about Harry Bosch in 2010. What a gift! So there was no long-range plan other than the fervent belief that the character could never be static from book to book. He had to always keep changing, evolving. He has aged in real time. That’s an eighteen-year slice of a character’s life. There is a lot that can be done with that. Hopefully I have.

Q: How much longer can Harry go?

MC: I hope for a few more years at least. And that’s just the forward progression of the story of Harry as a man with a badge. I could always cut back and explore Harry’s earlier days. There is a lot that I can do. It could be fun. As long as he remains interesting to me as a character, there are no limits to his story.

Part One: THE PERP WALK

ONE

Tuesday, February 9, 1:43 p.m.

The last time I’d eaten at the Watergrill I sat across the table from a client who had coldly and calculatedly murdered his wife and her lover, shooting both of them in the face. He had engaged my services to not only defend him at trial but to fully exonerate him and restore his good name in the public eye. This time I was sitting with someone with whom I needed to be even more careful. I was dining with Gabriel Williams, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County.

It was a crisp afternoon in midwinter. I sat with Williams and his trusted chief of staff – read political advisor – Joe Ridell. The meal had been set for 1:30 p.m., when most courthouse lawyers would be safely back in the CCB, and the DA would not be advertising his dalliance with a member of the dark side. Meaning me, Mickey Haller, defender of the damned.

The Watergrill was a nice place for a downtown lunch. Good food and atmosphere, good separation between tables for private conversation, and a wine list hard to top in all of downtown. It was the kind of place where you kept your suit jacket on and the waiter put a black napkin across your lap so you needn’t be bothered with doing it yourself. The prosecution team ordered martinis at the county taxpayers’ expense and I stuck with the free water the restaurant was pouring. It took Williams two gulps of gin and one olive before he got to the reason we were hiding in plain sight.

“Mickey, I have a proposition for you.”

I nodded. Ridell had already said as much when he had called that morning to set up the lunch. I had agreed to the meet and then had gone to work on the phone myself, trying to gather any inside information I could on what the proposition would be. Not even my first ex-wife, who worked in the District Attorney’s employ, knew what was up.

“I’m all ears,” I said. “It’s not everyday that the DA himself wants to give you a proposition. I know it can’t be in regard to any of my clients – they wouldn’t merit much attention from the guy at the top. And at the moment I’m only carrying a few cases anyway. Times are slow.”

“Well, you’re right,” Williams said. “This is not about any of your clients. I have a case I would like you to take on.”

I nodded again. I understood now. They all hate the defense attorney until they need the defense attorney. I didn’t know if Williams had any children but he would have known through due diligence that I didn’t do juvy work. So I was guessing it had to be his wife. Probably a shoplifting grab or a deuce he was trying to keep under wraps.

“Who got popped?” I asked.

Williams looked at Ridell and they shared a smile.

“No, nothing like that,” Williams said. “My proposition is this. I would like to hire you, Mickey. I want you to come work at the DA’s office.”

Of all the ideas that had been rattling around in my head since I had taken Ridell’s call, being hired as a prosecutor wasn’t one of them. I’d been a card-carrying member of the criminal defense bar for more than twenty years. During that time I’d grown a suspicion and distrust of prosecutors and police that might not have equaled that of the gangbangers down in Nickerson Gardens, but was at least at a level that would seem to exclude me from ever joining their ranks. Plain and simple, they wouldn’t want me and I wouldn’t want them. Besides that ex-wife I mentioned and a half-brother who was an LAPD detective, I wouldn’t turn my back on any of them. Especially Williams. He was a politician first and a prosecutor second. That made him even more dangerous. Though briefly a prosecutor early in his legal career, he spent two decades as a civil rights attorney before running for the DA post as an outsider and riding into office on a tide of anti-police and prosecutor sentiment. I was employing full caution at the fancy lunch from the moment the napkin went across my lap.

“Work for you?” I asked. “Doing what exactly?”

“As a special prosecutor. A one time deal. I want you to handle the Jason Jessup case.”

I looked at him for a long moment. First I thought I would laugh out loud. This was some sort of cleverly orchestrated joke. But then I understood that couldn’t be the case. They don’t take you out to the Watergrill just to make a joke.

“You want me to prosecute Jessup? From what I hear there’s nothing to prosecute. That case is a duck without wings. The only thing left to do is shoot it and eat it.”

Williams shook his head in a manner that seemed intended to convince himself of something, not me.

“Next Tuesday is the anniversary of the murder,” he said. “I’m going to announce that we intend to retry Jessup. And I would like you standing next to me at the press conference.”

I leaned back in my seat and looked at them. I’ve spent a good part of my adult life looking across courtrooms and trying to read juries, judges, witnesses and prosecutors. I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it. But at that table I couldn’t read Williams or his sidekick sitting three feet away from me.

Jason Jessup was a convicted child killer who had spent nearly twenty-four years in prison until a month earlier when the California Supreme Court reversed his conviction and sent the case back to Los Angeles County for either retrial or a dismissal of the charges. The reversal came after a two-decade long legal battle staged primarily from Jessup’s cell and with his own pen. Authoring appeals, motions, complaints and whatever legal challenges he could research, the self-styled lawyer made no headway with state and federal courts but did finally win the attention of an organization of lawyers known as the Genetic Justice Project. They took over his cause and his case and eventually won an order for genetic testing of semen found on the dress of the child Jessup had been convicted of strangling.

Jessup had been convicted before DNA analysis was used in criminal trials. The analysis performed these many years later determined that the semen found on the dress had not come from Jessup but from another unknown individual. Though the courts had repeatedly upheld Jessup’s conviction, this new information tipped the scales in Jessup’s favor. The state’s Supreme Court cited the DNA findings and other inconsistencies in the evidence and trial record and reversed the case.

This was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the Jessup case, and it was largely information gathered from newspaper stories and courthouse scuttlebutt. While I had not read the court’s complete order, I had read parts of it in the Los Angeles Times and knew it was a blistering decision that echoed many of Jessup’s long-held claims of innocence as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct in the case. As a defense attorney, I can’t say I wasn’t pleased to see the DA’s office raked over the media coals with the ruling. Call it underdog schadenfreude. It didn’t really matter that it wasn’t my case or that the current regime in the DA’s office had nothing to do with the case back in 1986, there are so few victories from the defense side of the bar, that there is always a sense of communal joy in the success of others and the defeat of the establishment.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was announced the week before, starting a 60-day clock during which the DA would have to retry or discharge Jessup. It seemed that not a day had gone by since the ruling that Jessup was not in the news. He gave multiple interviews by phone and in person at San Quentin, proclaiming his innocence and pot-shotting the police and prosecutors who put him there. In his plight, he had garnered the support of several Hollywood celebrities and athletes and had already launched a civil claim against both the city and county seeking millions of dollars in damages for the many long years during which he was falsely incarcerated. In this day of non-stop media cycles, he had a never-ending forum and was using it to elevate himself to folk hero status. When he finally walked out of prison, he too would be a celebrity.

Knowing as little as I did about the case in the details, I was of the impression that he was an innocent man who had been subjected to a quarter century of torture and that he deserved whatever he could get for it. I did, however, know enough about the case to understand that with the DNA evidence cutting Jessup’s way, the case was a loser and the idea of retrying Jessup seemed to be an exercise in political masochism unlikely to come from the brain trust of Williams and Ridell.

Unless . . .

“What do you know that I don’t know?” I asked. “And that the Los Angeles Times doesn’t know.”

Williams smiled smugly and leaned forward across the table to deliver his answer.

“All Jessup established with the help of the GJP is that his DNA was not on the victim’s dress,” he said. “As the petitioner, it was not up to him to establish who it did come from.”

“So you ran it through the databanks.”

Williams nodded.

“We did. And we got a hit.”

He offered nothing else.

“Well, who was it?”

“I’m not going to reveal that to you unless you come aboard on the case. Otherwise, I need to keep it confidential. But I will say that I believe our findings lead to a trial tactic that could neutralize the DNA question, leaving the rest of the case – and the evidence – pretty much intact. DNA was not needed to convict him the first time. We won’t need it now. As in nineteen-eighty-six, we believe Jessup is guilty of this crime and I would be delinquent in my duties if I did not attempt to prosecute him, no matter the chances of conviction, the potential political fallout and the public perception of the case.”

Spoken as if he was looking at the cameras and not at me.

“Then why don’t you prosecute him?” I asked. “Why come to me? You have three hundred able lawyers working for you. I can think of one you’ve got stuck up in the Van Nuys office who would take this case in a heartbeat. Why come to me?”

“Because this prosecution can’t come from within the DA’s office. I am sure you have read or heard the allegations. There’s a taint on this case and it doesn’t matter that there isn’t one goddamn lawyer working for me who was around back then. I still need to bring in an outsider, an independent to take it to court. Somebody – ”

“That’s what the attorney general’s office is for,” I said. “You need an independent counsel, you go to him.”

Now I was just poking him in the eye and everybody at the table knew it. There was no way Gabriel Williams was going to ask the state AG to come in on the case. That would cross the razor wire line of politics. The AG post was an elected office in California and was seen by every political pundit in town as Williams’s next stop on his way to the governor’s mansion or some other lofty political plateau. The last thing Williams would be willing to do was hand a potential political rival a case that could be used against him, no matter how old it was. In politics, in the courtroom, in life, you don’t give your opponent the club with which he can turn around and clobber you.

“We’re not going to the AG with this one,” Williams said in a matter-of-fact manner. “That’s why I want you, Mickey. You’re a well-known and respected criminal defense attorney. I think the public will trust you to be independent in this matter and will therefore trust and accept the conviction you’ll win in this case.”

While I was staring at Williams a waiter came to the table to take our order. Williams told him to go away without ever breaking eye contact with me.

“I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to this,” I said. “Who’s Jessup’s defense attorney? I would find it hard to go up against a colleague I know well.”

“Right now all he’s got is the GJP lawyer and his civil litigator. He hasn’t hired defense counsel because quite frankly he’s expecting us to drop this whole thing.”

I nodded, another hurdle cleared for the moment.

“But he’s got a surprise coming,” Williams said. “We’re going to bring him down here and retry him. He did it, Mickey, and that’s all you really need to know. There’s a little girl who’s still dead and that’s all any prosecutor needs to know. Take the case. Do something for your community and for yourself. Who knows, you might even like it and want to stay on. If so, we’ll definitely entertain the possibility.”

I dropped my eyes to the linen tablecloth and thought about his last words. For a moment, I involuntarily conjured the image of my daughter sitting in a courtroom and watching me stand for the people, instead of the accused. Williams kept talking, unaware that I had already come to a decision.

“Obviously, I can’t pay you your rate, but if you take this on I don’t think you’ll be doing it for the money anyway. I can give you an office and a secretary. And I can give you whatever science and forensics you need. The very best of every – ”

“I don’t want an office in the DA’s office. I would need to be independent of that. I have to be completely autonomous. No more lunches. We make the announcement and then you leave me alone. I decide how to proceed with the case.”

“Fine. Use your own office, just as long as you don’t store evidence there. And, of course, you make your own decisions.”

“And if I do this, I pick second chair and my own investigator out of the LAPD. People I can trust.”

“In or outside my office for your second?”

“I would need someone inside.”

“Then I assume we’re talking about your ex-wife.”

“That’s right – if she’ll take it. And if somehow we get a conviction out of this thing, you pull her out of Van Nuys and put her downtown in major crimes where she belongs.”

“That’s easier said than – ”

“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”

Williams glanced at Ridell and I saw the supposed sidekick give an almost imperceptible nod of approval.

“All right,” Williams said, turning back to me. “Then I guess I’ll take it. You win and she’s in. We have a deal.” He reached his hand across the table and I shook it. He smiled but I didn’t.

“Mickey Haller, for the people,” he said. “Has a nice ring to it.”

For the people. It should have made me feel good. It should have made me feel like I was part of something that was noble and right. But all I had was the bad feeling that I had crossed some sort of line within myself.

“Wonderful,” I said.

TWO

Friday, February 12, 10:00 a.m.

Harry Bosch stepped up to the front counter of the District Attorney’s Office on the 18th floor of the Criminal Courts Building. He gave his name and said he had a 10 a.m. appointment with District Attorney Gabriel Williams.

“Actually, your meeting is in conference room A,” said the receptionist after checking a computer screen in front of her. “You go through the door, turn right and go to the end of the hall. Right again and conference room A is on the left. It’s marked on the door. They’re expecting you.”

The door in the paneled wood wall behind her buzzed free and Bosch went through, wondering about the fact that they were waiting for him. Since he had received the summons from the DA’s secretary the afternoon before, Bosch had been unable to determine what it was about. Secrecy was expected from the DA’s office but usually some information trickled out. He hadn’t even known he would be meeting with more than one person until now.

Following the prescribed trail, Bosch came to the door marked Conference Room A, knocked once and heard a female voice say, “Come in.”

He entered and saw a woman seated by herself at an eight-chaired table, a spread of documents, files, photos and a laptop computer in front of her. She looked vaguely familiar but he could not place her. She was attractive with dark, curling hair framing her face. She had sharp eyes that followed him as he entered, and a pleasant, almost curious smile. Like she knew something he didn’t. She wore the standard female prosecutor’s power suit in navy blue. Harry might not have been able to place her but he assumed she was a DDA.

“Detective Bosch?”

“That’s me.”

“Come in, have a seat.”

Bosch pulled out a chair and sat across from her. On the table he saw a crime scene photograph of a child’s body in an open dumpster. It was a girl and she was wearing a blue dress with long sleeves. Her feet were bare and she was lying on a pile of construction debris and other trash. The white edges of the photo were yellowed. It was an old print.

The woman moved a file over the picture and then offered her hand across the table.

“I don’t think we’ve ever met,” she said. “My name is Maggie McPherson.”

Bosch recognized the name but he couldn’t remember from where or what case.

“I’m a deputy district attorney,” she continued, “and I’m going to be second chair on the Jason Jessup prosecution. First chair – ”

“Jason Jessup?” Bosch asked. “You’re going to take it to trial?”

“Yes, we are. We’ll be announcing it next week and I need to ask you to keep it confidential until then. I am sorry that our first chair is late coming to our meet– ”

The door opened and Bosch turned. Mickey Haller stepped into the room. Bosch did a double take. Not because he didn’t recognize Haller. They were half brothers and he easily knew him on sight. But seeing Haller in the DA’s office was one of those images that didn’t quite make sense. Haller was a criminal defense attorney. He fit in at the DA’s office about as well as a cat did at the dog pound.

“I know,” Haller said. “You’re thinking, ‘What in the hell is this?’”

Smiling, Haller moved to McPherson’s side of the table and started pulling out a chair. Then Bosch remembered how he knew McPherson’s name.

“You two . . . ,” Bosch said. “You were married, right?”

“That’s right,” Haller said. “Seven wonderful years.”

“And what, she’s prosecuting Jessup and you’re defending him? Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”

Haller’s smile became a broad grin.

“It would only be a conflict if we were opposing each other, Harry. But we’re not. We’re prosecuting him. Together. I’m first chair. Maggie’s second. And we want you to be our investigator.”

Bosch was completely confused.

“Wait a minute. You’re not a prosecutor. This doesn’t – ”

“I’m an appointed independent prosecutor, Harry. It’s all legit. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t. We’re going after Jessup and we want you to help us.”

Bosch pulled out a chair and slowly sat down.

“From what I heard this case is beyond help. Unless you’re telling me Jessup rigged the DNA test.”

“No, we’re not telling you that,” McPherson said. “We did our own testing and matching. His results were correct. It wasn’t his DNA on the victim’s dress.”

“But that doesn’t mean we’ve lost the case,” Haller quickly added.

Bosch looked from McPherson to Haller and then back again. He was clearly missing something.

“Then whose DNA was it?” he asked.

McPherson glanced sideways at Haller before answering.

“Her stepfather’s,” she said. “He’s dead now but we believe there is an explanation for why his semen was found on his stepdaughter’s dress.”

Haller leaned urgently across the table.

“An explanation that still leaves room to re-convict Jessup of the girl’s murder.”

Bosch thought for a moment and the image of his own daughter flashed in his mind. He knew there were certain kinds of evil in the world that had to be contained, no matter the hardship. A child killer was at the top of that list.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m in.”