The Scarecrow - Hardcover

Connelly, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316166308 ISBN 13: 9780316166300

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2009

Synopsis

Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paper to write the definitive murder story of his career.

He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow's so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.

Jack is soon running with his biggest story since The Poet made his career years ago. He is tracking a killer who operates completely below police radar--and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Including Jack's.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of the Harry Bosch series of novels as well as The Poet, Blood Work, Void Moon, Chasing the Dime, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lincoln Lawyer. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He spends his time in California and Florida.

Reviews

Connelly introduces characters from one series into other novels or series, and veteran readers will find enduring, familiar faces in The Scarecrow. A compelling and suspenseful thriller, it is also a sharp if unobtrusive commentary on the death of our nation’s newspapers, as well as a “frighteningly plausible” examination of the sinister nature of computer technology (New York Times). “Reading it will make it impossible for you to ever again think that when you do something online, no one’s watching,” noted the St. Petersburg Times. The dual perspective (McEvoy’s and the killer’s) adds depth to the narrative, if some clichéd characters and missing details marred critics’ reviews. Because The Scarecrow ends with the beginning of Connelly’s next book, readers anxious about the ending don’t have long to wait.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

Starred Review. Bestseller Connelly comments on the plight of print journalism in a nail-biting thriller featuring reporter Jack McEvoy, last seen in 2004's The Narrows. When Jack is laid off from the L.A. Times with 14 days' notice to tie up loose ends, he decides to go out with a bang. What starts as a story about the wrongful arrest of a young gangbanger for the brutal rape and murder of an exotic dancer turns out to be just the tip of an iceberg that takes McEvoy from the Nevada desert to a futuristic data-hosting facility in Arizona. FBI agent Rachel Walling, with whom he worked on a serial killer case in 1996's The Poet, soon joins the hunt, but as the pair uncover more about the killer and his unsettling predilections, they realize that they too are being hunted. With every switch between McEvoy's voice and the villain's, Connelly ratchets up the tension. This magnificent effort is a reminder of why Connelly is one of today's top crime authors. 8-city author tour. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* Former Los Angeles Times crime reporter Connelly has said that his goal in writing The Scarecrow was to come up with a story “that would be a thriller first and a torch song to the newspaper business second.” He succeeds on both counts. By bringing back Jack McEvoy, the reporter star of The Poet (1996), and by beginning the novel with McEvoy downsized from his job as crime reporter for the Times, Connelly puts both plotlines in gear. McEvoy, determined to go out with guns blazing, plans on writing a story about how poverty turns a 16-year-old into a killer, but he quickly learns that the kid’s confession is bogus. That unlocks the door to a serial killer every bit as warped, perverted, and brilliant as the Poet, the case that made McEvoy’s career. It also leads to a reunion, both professional and romantic, with FBI agent Rachel Walling, who has also been popping up in Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels recently. Not surprisingly, Connelly nails the death-of-newspapers theme, from the gallows humor of the reporters watching their world crumble to the callousness of the bureaucrats in charge of the dismantling. What will drive this novel for most readers, though, is its villain, the Scarecrow, a computer genius who operates a data storage center, or “server farm,” providing security for all manner of Web sites. Except, the Scarecrow doesn’t just protect his clients’ data; he also mines it for victims. Alternating point of view between villain and reporter, Connelly builds tension expertly, using dramatic irony to its fullest, screw-tightening potential. Even confirmed Harry Bosch fans will have to admit that this Harry-less novel is one of Connelly’s very best. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316166308
• ISBN 13: 9780316166300
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448