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The Scarecrow

Michael Connelly
Little, Brown, & Co. (2009)
ISBN 9780316043670
Reviewed by Narayan Radhakrishnan for RebeccasReads.com (7/09)


About 10 years back I read a book about a tenacious crime reporter named Jack McEvoy, written by a crime reporter. I had serious thoughts of becoming a crime reporter after reading the book. But the book stayed me with a long time. The book was “The Poet” and the author was ace crime journalist Michael Connelly. Since then I have read most of the books written by this author- and am particularly fond of the Harry Bosch series of detective thrillers. Connelly also had entered the Grisham territory with “The Lincoln Lawyer” and that too proved to be a success. Yet for some unknown reason, Connelly was not bringing back Jack McEvoy. Well, after this long hiatus (by long, I really mean looooooooonnnggg), Jack McEvoy is back. This time round he is facing a villain more diabolic than the Poet in “The Scarecrow.”

The years have not been kind to McEvoy. Once a hotshot reporter, once a Pulitzer wining journalist….now McEvoy is the victim of recession and is soon going to get the pink slip. With the advent of blogging, netzines and what not, journalism is not what it had been, and for seasoned veterans these are difficult times. However, McEvoy wants one last hurrah…and if possible grab another Pulitzer with that story. So it’s for his own interest that McEvoy decides to do a story about a young man, Alonzo, who is in the gallows for a drug related murder. Alonzo’s grandmother loudly proclaims his innocence but there is one problem: Alonzo has already confessed to the murder.

A preliminary investigation convinces McEvoy that Alonzo’s confession is false and that there is a bigger story to this. And McEvoy’s drive for a story confronts him with a sinister villain- The Scarecrow who is always one step ahead of McEvoy. What follows is good suspense fare, which we always expect from Connelly.  The ending in "The Scarecrow" is fabulous. Mr. Connelly, if you are reading this review, have you won a Pulitzer???

And for the Harry Bosch fan out there don’t worry,  in October Michael Connelly will publish “Nine Dragons”. Can’t wait for that one.

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