Book Review: The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Working at the library, I’ve gotten to know just a little bit about all sorts of popular authors, though in most cases I have never and probably will never read these authors and their books. Just off the top of my head I could tell you that David Baldacci , for instance, cranks out novels set in Washington, DC and around the world dealing with intrigue and international affairs. Or that Marion Chesney has penned a boat load of short, formulaic historical romances that continue to be popular with patrons many years after their release. I know about dozens if not hundreds of such authors whom I’ve never read. And up until very recently, Michael Connelly was one of them.
I wanted to start my site re-launch with a big major release book, and when one of my absolute favorite publicists offered me an Advanced Reading Copy of Connelly’s The Scarecrow I jumped at the chance and offered to do a publication day review. Then the book came in the mail and I started to read it, and WOW. Connelly, a former newspaper reporter is an amazing writer! (The shelf full of best-selling books Should have been a clue, I know, but one thing the staffs of both bookstores and libraries know is that even in the Best Seller Lists one still has to be Very selective because there are far, Far, FAR more books published every year than any human could possibly read.)
Jack McEvoy is one of the most senior and highest-paid reporters on the venerable Los Angeles Times. Having made a huge name for himself after breaking the story and writing the best-selling book about a serial killer who came to be known as The Poet (a Connelly novel by that same title), Jack has enjoyed a plush ride at the newspaper known in the industry as “the velvet coffin”– so cushy and fancy that no one Ever wants to leave until they die. But as those of us who have seen newspapers in our towns quite literally disappear in recent months and years already well know, the newspaper business is changing and as expensive dead weight, McEvoy is unsurprised to find himself one Friday afternoon assigned to the —30— list. (Back when reporters submitted copy for editing and typesetting by using paper in a typewriter, —30— was the standard code for ‘end of story’ or ‘end of submission’. These days, it refers to the lay-off list as papers continue to lose money and cut staff.)
So McEvoy decides to go out with a bang and begins working on a story about a gang banger accused of a recent horrible murder whom the evidence actually proves innocent of the murder charge, despite the “confession” the LAPD tricked out of the not so bright young man after hours and hours of abusive interrogation. There turns out of course to be much, much more to the story which McEvoy will discover as the new cub reporter he is training to take over the police beat in his last two weeks on the job is brutally murdered and her body planted in McEvoy’s own house. McEvoy quickly resumes relations with Rachel Walling, a very smart FBI investigator who was critical during The Poet case and the two are off on a roller coaster ride of an investigation that will take them between LA, Las Vegas and Phoenix in a case that delves into the most sophisticated of computer technologies against the backdrop of the failing print newspaper business.
Those who are already fans of Connelly will certainly want to get a hold of The Scarecrow right away. (It’s ON SALE NOW!). And anyone who appreciates a well-written and intelligent thriller will also find much to appeal in The Scarecrow. Very Highly Recommended.
Title: The Scarecrow Author: Michael Connelly Format: Hard Cover Publisher: Little Brown Publication Date: May 26, 2009
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