# Michael Connelly fans: is it him or is it me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893 "2009-06-16T00:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/1 "2009-06-16T00:00:16Z")
I finally (sheesh) got around to reading _The Brass Verdict_ this past weekend. I felt like his last book before that (_The Overlook_) was as good as anything he’d written, but _Brass Verdict_ left me kind of … lukewarm. And one of his recent books (maybe _The Closers_, but maybe _Chasing the Dime_) read like an unused story from the TV show he was doing a while back. Used to be, I looked forward to every new Connelly novel. But it took me over a year to get around to reading the one I just finished. How do other fans feel about his work of late? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/2 "2009-06-16T00:37:52Z")
The last one I read was _The Lincoln Lawyer_. I thought it was shallow, unfinished almost, like reading a screenplay. I’m starting to prefer the other Connolly (John). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/3 "2009-06-16T00:40:54Z")
See, I don’t remember enjoying _Lincoln Lawyer_ all that much either. It’s sad, because I read so little that Connelly and Kurt Eichenwald are really about the only authors I can recommend to people, and I hate to think I’m losing one of them. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/4 "2009-06-16T02:04:54Z")
Well, you can start recommending the other Connolly. 🙂 Or William Lashner – his writing is similar to Connelly’s. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/5 "2009-06-16T02:27:06Z")
I loved _The Brass Verdict_. I also liked _The Lincoln Lawyer_, but not quite as much as TBV. Maybe you just don’t like his legals as well as you do his police procedurals? I hadn’t read any legals in a while so these really hit the spot for me. And I kind of geek out on how he ties his protagonists’ story lines together. The ending was almost overdoing it, but I loved TBV right up to that point. It was just like a second helping of dessert I didn’t need. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/6 "2009-06-16T12:23:08Z")
I like him. Maybe it’s because I read so much dreck. I have _The Scarecrow_ on wait list at the library. I liked \*The Lincoln Lawyer \*better than _TBV_, but they were both high quality. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-connelly-fans-is-it-him-or-is-it-me/499893/7 "2009-06-16T13:42:37Z")
> [@Harriet the Spry](#): > > Maybe you just don’t like his legals as well as you do his police procedurals? That’s a completely valid hypothesis. I do have to grant that he achieved in _The Brass Verdict_ the highest thing any mystery author can: I didn’t see the ending coming. I actually thought the “fixer” attorney (the one with the judge husband) had something to do with it. > [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I like him. Maybe it’s because I read so much dreck. You know, that’s a good point. As I mentioned, I don’t read a tremendous amount (I bill myself as the **Worst-Read Librarian of All Time** ), so maybe the problem is that I have sort of lost perspective. I hear Nicholas Sparks has a new book coming out. Maybe I should give that a read. 🙂