Starred review from March 30, 2009
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.
April 15, 2009
Downsized from the Los Angeles Times, crime reporter Jack McEvoy decides to ride one last big story to the moon.
There's no mystery about who suffocated stripper Denise Babbit and stuffed her corpse into the trunk of her car, since Alonzo Winslow, 16, confessed to the murder after the LAPD found his fingerprint on the car's mirror. But when Alonzo's mother—or maybe it's his grandmother, or both—nags just-fired Jack to look into the case, he quickly realizes that Alonzo's confession isn't a confession at all. And Angela Cook, the twinkie barracuda Jack's been asked to groom as his replacement, alerts him to the earlier murder of Las Vegas showgirl Sharon Oglevy that has all the earmarks of this one, even though her ex-husband's already locked up for it. Clearly there's a serial killer at work, and clearly, though Jack doesn't realize it, it's Wesley Carver, a computer-security expert whose ability to track everyone on earth through cyberspace makes him uniquely sensitive to who might be on his case, and uniquely empowered to neutralize them. After losing his bank balance and his credit cards to identity theft, however, Jack is rescued by Rachel Walling, the FBI agent whose torrid affair with him enlivened his last big story (The Poet, 1996). The ensuing cat-and-mouse game, duly played out in chapters alternately presented from the viewpoints of Jack and Carver, is accomplished but not especially suspenseful for readers who've seen it before. Despite his cyber-powers, Carver isn't an especially scary villain, nor does Jack shine as a sleuth. But Connelly (The Brass Verdict, 2008, etc.), who's nothing if not professional, keeps the twists coming and provides column-inches of background expertise—perhaps more than the story needs—on the hard business of hard news and a realistic preview of Jack's likely fate.
Middling among the distinguished author's score of thrillers. New fans hooked by this one will be happy to know that his backlist is even richer.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
Starred review from April 15, 2009
Connelly has done it again. Reporter Jack McEvoy, the hero of Connelly's earlier novel, "The Poet", is back in a chilling new mystery. The latest casualty of corporate downsizing at the "Los Angeles Times", Jack decides to end his career with a story about a young drug dealer's arrest for and confession to murder. A phone call from an angry relative gets him to investigate the old case further, and Jack stumbles upon a high-profile serial killer case that might save his job, assuming he can survive long enough to solve it. The newspaper industry is on the verge of collapse these days, and ex-newspaperman Connelly here tackles the subject head-on while juggling an intricate mystery at the same time. He wisely focuses on McEvoy to tell the story, with the occasional interlude from the mastermind behind the attacks, making the narrative terrifying and compelling at the same time. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 1/09.]Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 1, 2009
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 McEvoydownsized 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 kids 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 McEvoys career. It also leads to a reunion, both professional and romantic, with FBI agent Rachel Walling, who has also been popping up in Connellys 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 doesnt 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 Connellys very best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
Starred review from July 27, 2009
Connelly hits it out of the park with one of the best thrillers of the year. Seasoned reporter Jack McEvoy has just been laid off from his job at the Los Angeles Times
and—to add insult to injury—is assigned to train his replacement, a precocious young woman who will work for half his salary with none of his experience. But McEvoy will not go gently into the land of the downsized: he still has one last story to cover featuring a killer who dumps his victims in the trunk of a car. Peter Giles brings a skilled and intimate feel to his reading without losing the chilling momentum; at one point he relays a beautifully built scene that contains one of the best “gotcha” moments in some time. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 30).