The Scarecrow
by Michael Connelly
Hardcover- $6.00

Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final ...

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  "The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly" by jeandebs (see profile) 06/09/10

Reminded how Internet communication is very insecure. Lots of suspense wondering if the main characters would discover the murderer before he added them to his victims.

 
  "The Carecrow" by essie (see profile) 06/16/10

All Michael Connelly books are good.

 
  "The Scarecrow" by ncvlib (see profile) 06/16/10

Great character and plot development! If you like Connelly you will enjoy this book.

 
  "The Scarecrow" by hedyL (see profile) 06/17/10

High tech serial murderer vs. well known reporter with FBI girlfriend. Moved quickly-another solid read from Michael Connelly.

 
  "Scarecrow" by traveler1 (see profile) 12/15/10

 
  "Going Out Witih a Bang" by ebach (see profile) 09/01/11

Michael Connelly's latest book, THE SCARECROW, involves a soon-to-be-laid-off long-time LA Times reporter Jack McEvoy, who decides to "go out with a bang" by writing an investigative story about a black boy from South LA who may be wrongfully accused of murder. McEvoy finds a heck of a lot more than he thought he would as a high-tech company and some techno savvy employees there try to thwart his investigation. As a result, although the kid from South LA gets out of jail, McEvoy and his gorgeous (of course) FBI girlfriend nearly lose their lives every few pages.

THE SCARECROW may sound corny, but it really is a fun read. I hadn't read a Connelly novel before and wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it.

If you haven't read Connelly before but enjoy authors such as Harlan Coben, Lisa Scottoline, Stephen White, or Lee Child, you'll like THE SCARECROW. You'll probably want to read some of Connelly's others, too. I do.

Comment: I was pleased that Connelly didn't strive to be politically correct in his book. I know many authors would have described some of these characters differently so they didn't offend anyone.

Comment: The beginning of the book has a reporter with less experience than McEvoy who will take his place because she makes a lot less money. But she does have news writing experience between undergrad and grad school with a newspaper in Florida. And she does have a masters degree in journalism. Yet she has to ask McEvoy what it means to put "30" at the end of an article.

Give me a break! You can't take a single college journalism class and not know what that means!

Irritation: McEvoy is smart and performs as a smart person would--except when he is around his FBI agent girlfriend. She is unbelievably all-knowing. Whenever they're together, she bosses McEvoy around, and he meekly takes direction from her, suddenly out of his own ideas and dependent on her brains.

Because I read an uncorrected advance proof, I noticed many editorial and typographical errors. It would be interesting to see if these were all caught in the final published copy, especially one of my pet peeves: misuse of "ensure," "assure," and "insure."

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