Brass Verdict

This is the 2nd installment in the Mickey Haller series by Michael Connelly and it continues to develop the character first met in The Lincoln Lawyer. After being shot in the first book, Mickey becomes addicted to pain medications and his law practice goes on hold. Following a stint in rehab, he is feeling ready to get back to work, but is surprised by inheriting the entire caseload of a fellow criminal defenses attorney who has just been murdered, Jerry Vincent. Apparently, these two lawyers occasionally covered cases for one another and wrote each other into their client contracts as 2nd counsel, but Mickey had no idea that Vincent left the entire practice to him. The team swings into high gear to get up to speed and find that two detectives, including Harry Bosch (Connelly's first and most developed series protagonist), are rummaging through Vincent's files in their pursuit of leads to find his killer. Although Mickey wants to help, he goes head to head with Bosch over client confidentiality.
One of the inherited clients is a high profile and very rich movie studio exec who is charged with a double homicide. Key information is missing in Vincent's stolen computer, calendar and some hard files, but Mickey puts Cisco to work and manages to put together what he considers to be a solid defense. Mickey tries to help the police with enough information, even making himself a target, to help track down Vincent's killer. But as Mickey reminds himself in the end, after discovering he has been played by cops, judges and clients, everyone lies. Mickey occasionally has crises of conscience about defending bad people, especially in trying to keep the good opinion of his daughter, and this particular client sends him in the direction of wanting to call it quits.
The really surprising revelation at the very end of the story is that Mickey figures out Bosch is an illegitimate half-brother, progeny of his famed father, Michael Haller, Sr., and a prostitute.