You're Not In The Emerald City Any Longer SCARECROW!!!!July 16, 2009 Nancy Martin(Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) 27 out of 29 found this review helpful
I added this up last night and discovered that I have read more books by Michael Connelly (15) than any other author I've read. So I guess one could say I'm a huge fan. The amazing thing is that they were all five star books (except for Chasing The Dime, of course). I find this almost hard to believe but it's true. And I'm actually one of the readers who started reading Connelly before his real fame came into being with the publication of The Poet.
I guess it's only fair then that his latest offering features journalist Jack McEvoy....the same Jack McEvoy who appeared in The Poet. Connelly's true fans have been awaiting a reappearance by one of their favorite characters for years now and in The Scarecrow, Jack's return does not disappoint for one minute. I loved this book from the beginning to the end.
Having started his career as a journalist, I'm sure this book is close to Connelly's heart as he watches the slow demise of the newspaper industry. The fact that technology is killing newspapers becomes only too clear as the book starts off with Jack getting a pink slip from the LA Times. But "our" Jack is intent on going out with a bang and makes it his business to come up with one last story that will be Pulitzer prizeworthy. He will set out to prove that a sixteen year old gang member is not guilty of the murder for which he is being accused. The good news to Jack's fans is that he will need to ask FBI agent Rachel Walling for her help as he starts to get too close to the answer to the mystery and much too close to The Scarecrow. Their "coupling" in this book is well worth the wait as they make such a great team.
We learn at the beginning of the book who the real villain is and I enjoy when an author does this because I then get to follow the thoughts of the "bad guy" right up front. As Jack is closing in on The Scarecrow, we get to view this villain as he becomes a bird being scared by a scarecrow as opposed to the opposite way around. I enjoyed all of the Wizard of Oz references in the book as well. At one point, music is playing in the background and it's Eric Clapton in concert singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." In addition, the city editor of the LA Times where Jack works is "Dorothy" Fowler and guess where's she originally from....you guessed right...Kansas. I also love when an author references one of his other books within the book I'm reading. In this case, Jack mentions reading a series of stories about a lawyer who did his business out of a Lincoln. Nice shoutout to Mickey Haller of The Lincoln Lawyer fame.
Unlike other authors who don't have Connelly's talent, he doesn't have to make his stories so convoluted that you can't even understand them. He also doesn't resort to having the villain be one of the investigators as so many other authors "cop out" and do. He writes a clear-cut story from start to finish and it's always one you can't put down. I always comment that I read very few books in a given year that would get a "10" rating from me. In the mystery/thriller category, this is one for 2009, a "Big 10". The only other two books in this genre that I've read this year and have also received a "10" rating from me were The Lincoln Lawyer and The Brass Verdict. Surprise, surprise, they were also written by Connelly. This is obviously one satisfied fan.
Doing Everything RightAugust 22, 2009 Stoney(Miami, FL) 4 out of 4 found this review helpful
THE SETUP
Jack McEvoy, a newspaper crime writer has just been fired, but has two weeks to train his replacement. He decides on a parting "screw-you" in the form of an article that the newspaper will be compelled to submit for a Pulitzer Prize. The story will be about a black teenager accused of murder. Jack does not believe the young man to be innocent--rather the story will be about how he got into the situation. Of course, the young man is innocent, and Jack is forced into a serious effort to clear him---or at least to find the real serial killer for the sake of authoring a sensational story. That's the setup.
COMMENTS
If I were teaching a course in popular fiction writing, "The Scarecrow" would be a case study in how to do it right. Almost as important as getting everything right, "The Scarecrow"t is free of the sloppy writing and gaffs that plague most popular novels in the general action/intrigue/suspense genre.
There is NO annoying teaser. The purpose of this loathsome device (which has become "standard" in most popular novels) is to snag potential purchasers, who are skimming first chapters in bookstores, with up-front action. Often such teasers have virtually nothing to do with the story. More typically, they only become comprehensible to the reader near the end of the novel, by which time the details have been forgotten. THANK YOU Michael Connelly
There is no filler to pad the page count. The main characters are few and easily identifiable. Although the plot has turns and twists, it is easy to follow. The two principal "good guy" characters are appropriately developed for the genre and easy to relate to and root for. The sex scenes are few and tasteful.
I disagree with some other reviewers. I found nothing gruesome whatsoever in the novel.
True, "The Scarecrow" has a fairly sedate pace--it is NOT one of those novels which grabs you by the throat and won't let go until you've read the last page. However, I appreciate a novel I can enjoy without risking a cardiac event.
THE VERDICT
"The Scarecrow" is superbly written, captivating and entertaining.
A Loving Obituary for American NewspapersAugust 10, 2009 Hershel Parker(Morro Bay, California United States) 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of Connelly's best mysteries. It is also an obituary for all newspapers, although focused on the Los Angeles TIMES. Not everyone will grieve with Connelly as I do. I was in email contact with an editor at the LA TIMES on a day when 140 people were let go. I have spent months, all told, in the old NYPL Annex and many other libraries reading nineteenth-century newspapers, my head in a microfilm reader or standing in pain over low flat tables turning big pages or, very rarely, working at a high slanted stand kind to the back. I have a special love of American papers when 10 or 12 papers were in tough competition and another 20 or 25 catered to special audiences. Many, many other readers of Connelly will bring their own newspaper history to THE SCARECROW, and grieve in their way. This is a fine mystery, but it is more. This early tribute to the vanishing newspaper may remain one of the most heartbreaking anyone ever writes.
Michael delivers again......!June 1, 2009 Louies Mom(los angeles) 7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This will be short and sweet....I cannot be more thrilled when a new book of his comes out....I savor every word this talent puts on paper. I especially noted the view of the current situation newspapers are in and how a reporter might deal with this matter. The way this whole story is revealed and solved is just brilliant and regardless of the few negative comments this is a book to savor on many levels. I like this character and hope we will continue to hear from him.
OutstandingSeptember 23, 2009 Tim Beazley(San Diego, CA United States) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of the things I've always liked about Connelly's books is that his characters seem so realistic, reacting to real-life situations the way we'd expect real-life people to act. "Scarecrow" has that same, real-life feel.
Jack McEvoy is a former ace-reporter, whose recent career has not lived up to his earlier achievements; and he works for the L.A. Times, a newspaper whose former glory is fading too, just like Jack's. Connelly, a former newsman himself, gives a vivid description of the devastating impact that competition from internet and cable news providers has had on print media. The impact on the L.A. Times was so great that they imposed a reduction-in-force, and Jack is the 99th person to be laid off. Even worse, Jack has to train his own replacement. Connelly does an outstanding job describing Jack's inner turmoil as he tries to deal with his humiliating circumstances.
Jack has two weeks to train his replacement, and he resolves to use that time to write one last story, a story that will make such a splash that the paper will have no choice but to keep him on. Jack's last-chance story involves a black teenager accused of brutally raping and killing a young white stripper. Jack thinks he can weasel his way into the boy's confidence and get enough material for a Pulitzer-level, "mind of a young black killer" story, but there are three small problems.
First, Jack's ambitious, young replacement may try to steal the story from him.
Second, Jack's editor may have the hots for the replacement, who happens to be an extremely attractive young woman.
Third, the young black boy sitting in jail may not actually have killed that stripper after all.
And that's when the story really gets interesting.
Jack faces numerous challenges in his search for the truth, his quest for a Pulitzer Prize, and his fight for his job; and the little details that Connelly throws in make each page seem so true-to-life that you feel like you're actually watching it happen yourself.
This is a really good story told by a real master.
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