I just finished The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly it was a good book but not great. The Scarecrow was not as good as last time we see Jack McEvoy in the book The Poet but the book is still good.

The Scarecrow follows veteran reporter and crime writer Jack McEvoy to his new job 7 years later at the LA Times. Jack being a best seller and master reporter after his encounter with The Poet 7 years earlier is high on the pay scale and with the downsizing of the paper gets his pink slip and is told he has two weeks left on his reporting beat intends to go out with another huge story.

The book has Jacks love interest and recurring Bosch character Rachael Walling back again. FBI Special Agent Rachael Walling is just coming back from a punishment style assignment after she got involved with Jack 7 years ago during The Poet investigation. Mention of Harry Bosch and other characters from Michael Connelly Novels is fun to read I really like the way all the characters at some point meet or hear about each other makes it feel more of a connected series.

This book was published in 2009 while The Poet was originally published in 1996 then republished again after major success in 2002. The time lapse in the book is 7 years where in reality the time lapse was really 13 years. The years are not a big issue but with such time laps it just makes the character Jack McEvoy feel like a character the author forgot about at times. There has not been any mention of Jack McEvoy in any Michael Connelly book since 09 when this was published making me feel at times that the author took the character as far as he could go for the time being. The way the book was written as well and parts of the ending to me felt like a sendoff to the character and maybe with was supposed to feel that way.

I enjoyed the book it was good I would say it’s not the best book by Michael Connelly has ever written but it’s not horrible either. I enjoyed the book and seeing Jack and Rachael together again after all these years. I would give the book 3.5 stars out of 5. I enjoyed the book but I felt at times the story was good but the bad guy was not as developed at a normal Michael Connelly novel and from reading Harry Bosch I like not knowing who the bad guy is the entire story.

I know some of that comes down to personal preference but I just feel it was not the authors best work. I would hope for another Jack McEvoy book but with Bosch taking off on Amazon and the success of Lincoln Lawyer movie several years ago I doubt it will happen but we can hope I do enjoy the Jack McEvoy character very much.