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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
A little morbid. He's a great writer though this particular novel was a little to graphic for me.
8.4/10 Another great Jack McEvoy thriller that also includes Rachel Walling. This is a great book that starts will Jack being a soon to be laid off reporter for the La Times working on one last case. This is another great book by Michael Connelly!
I’ve been a huge fan of Michael Connelly for years now, and thanks to the beauty that is Goodreads, I’m finally filling in the blanks of the entire Bosch universe he has created. My last big void being “The Scarecrow”. Boy, what a doozy.
Returning protagonist Jack McEvoy starts on what appears to be a simple hunt for justice for a small time dealer who screams wrongful incarceration for murder. What weaves out over the next 500+ pages is a tight thriller.
We know the mastermind, the titular “Scarecrow” from the first page, but the story builds upon itself, creating a dual narrative of hunter and prey that’s made all the more engaging with Connelly’s signature style. It all adds up to a thrilling and climactic finish, and an ultimately satisfying result.
Fans of Connelly don’t want to sleep on this novel, and I’m happy to report it holds up to some of his best!
Returning protagonist Jack McEvoy starts on what appears to be a simple hunt for justice for a small time dealer who screams wrongful incarceration for murder. What weaves out over the next 500+ pages is a tight thriller.
We know the mastermind, the titular “Scarecrow” from the first page, but the story builds upon itself, creating a dual narrative of hunter and prey that’s made all the more engaging with Connelly’s signature style. It all adds up to a thrilling and climactic finish, and an ultimately satisfying result.
Fans of Connelly don’t want to sleep on this novel, and I’m happy to report it holds up to some of his best!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Long time reader of Michael Connelly. He consistently draws the reader quickly into the story from page one. The Scarecrow brings back Jack McEvoy, LA Times crime reporter, from his debut in The Poet. Jack’s determination to write that one last great story after receiving a pink slip spurs him to delve deeper into a local murder and confession of a juvenile drug dealer. Jack quickly realizes things aren’t adding up, and we off and running in Connelly’s The Scarecrow.
The story moves at good pace and we see him team up with FBI agent, Rachel Walling. In addition to a classic Connelly crime story, a side theme is the decimation of newspapers and investigative print journalism.
I enjoyed the plot and it kept me reading from start to finish.
The story moves at good pace and we see him team up with FBI agent, Rachel Walling. In addition to a classic Connelly crime story, a side theme is the decimation of newspapers and investigative print journalism.
I enjoyed the plot and it kept me reading from start to finish.
I wasn't crazy about the last Bosch book, but with "The Scarecrow," Connelly returns to form. His prose is good and, as always, his novel is a love letter (of sorts) to LA.
Really enjoyable - like twists and turns of how book developed. Will read The Poet which is involves same characters from a previous case.
Serial killers, journalists, FBI, what more can you ask for? Very good book.
Reporter Jack McEvoy has been bouncing around on the periphery of the wider 'Boschiverse' for a while, although he hasn't taken center stage as a viewpoint protagonist since 14 books / 13 years back in The Poet. But he's here again, once more stumbling across a serial killer that law enforcement has missed when he notices a homicide written up in his LA newspaper bears a striking resemblance to one from Vegas the year before: two physically similar victims, each brutally raped, killed, and left in the trunk of her car with evidence pointing to a known associate. Unfortunately for our hero, the true culprit is an expert computer hacker as well, and has set up a digital tripwire to alert him if anyone starts looking online for cases that fit his pattern.
It's the tech stuff that is the least convincing in this story, I think, partly because it's aged poorly since 2009 and partly because it's just so over-the-top in the first place. The villain is canceling credit cards and cell phone plans, draining bank accounts, deleting and forging new emails, and studying documents on the journalist's work network, all while holding down his own high-responsibility job running IT security for a data storage firm (which for some reason involves openly planting child pornography on intruding users' systems and then calling the police on them) and continuing to abduct and murder people. Where ever does he find the time?
This is also one of those rare Michael Connelly titles that doesn't really hold any surprise twists to it, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it can be clunky when such reveals are given either too little or too much support in advance, a tricky balance that the writer doesn't always manage to strike. But on the other hand, knowing the antagonist's identity all along makes this wholly a thriller and not a mystery, and Connelly tends to do his best work at the intersection of those genres. It's possible this novel could have been improved if readers were kept limited to the same information Jack has, rather than periodically getting chapters from the perspective of his named opponent.
But at this point in the extended Harry Bosch series, the author can reliably spin a good crime yarn and his audience knows generally what to expect. Returning fans won't be disappointed by this one, though it probably won't appear on many favorites lists.
[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]
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It's the tech stuff that is the least convincing in this story, I think, partly because it's aged poorly since 2009 and partly because it's just so over-the-top in the first place. The villain is canceling credit cards and cell phone plans, draining bank accounts, deleting and forging new emails, and studying documents on the journalist's work network, all while holding down his own high-responsibility job running IT security for a data storage firm (which for some reason involves openly planting child pornography on intruding users' systems and then calling the police on them) and continuing to abduct and murder people. Where ever does he find the time?
This is also one of those rare Michael Connelly titles that doesn't really hold any surprise twists to it, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it can be clunky when such reveals are given either too little or too much support in advance, a tricky balance that the writer doesn't always manage to strike. But on the other hand, knowing the antagonist's identity all along makes this wholly a thriller and not a mystery, and Connelly tends to do his best work at the intersection of those genres. It's possible this novel could have been improved if readers were kept limited to the same information Jack has, rather than periodically getting chapters from the perspective of his named opponent.
But at this point in the extended Harry Bosch series, the author can reliably spin a good crime yarn and his audience knows generally what to expect. Returning fans won't be disappointed by this one, though it probably won't appear on many favorites lists.
[Content warning for gun violence and gore.]
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog