Opening paragraphs................

      Everybody lies.
      Cops lie.  Lawyers lie.  Witnesses lie.  The victims lie.
      A trial is a contest of lies.  And everybody in the courtroom knows this.  The judge knows this.  Even the jury knows this.  They come into the building knowing they will be lied to.  They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.
      The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient.  To wait.  Not for just any lie.  But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade.  You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill its guts out on the floor.
      That's my job, to forge the blade.  To sharpen it.  To use it without mercy or conscience.  To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.

-Michael Connelly,  The Brass Verdict