Though at the climax there is balance, as the internet is also portrayed as a force for good in this changing world as Jack embraces the technology. The interesting analogy is that the internet is key to the novel’s plot as not only is it being used by a serial killer, but it is also responsible for the death of news-print media. With bodies turning up wrapped in plastic sheets in the trunks of cars, Jack has his work cut out, especially as the Scarecrow knows a lot about Jack.

In The Poet, the internet was in its infancy but now it is well advanced and the Scarecrow is using its dark side to terrible effect. Following a divorce and the recent downsizing at his newspaper, he finds himself training a young reporter and in the process stumbles upon a crime that will lead him to battle a serial killer called the Scarecrow. Following the hunt for the Poet, Connelly’s alter-ego McEvoy got fame with a book deal and a plum job at the LA Times, but life has not been easy on him. This time McEvoy has to face off a very sick adversary named the Scarecrow, and like the Poet, this killer is using new technology, specifically crawling along the damp dark floor of the internet to extract mayhem and terror.Ĭonnelly mines the economic damage occurring in print media today at the opening of The Scarecrow, which is of little surprise considering he was a former high profile journalist covering the LA crime-beat just like his protagonist Jack McEvoy. Apart from his ongoing Harry Bosch series, Connelly writes tremendous standalones, and this year’s The Scarecrow features Jack McEvoy who last showed up in Connelly’s breakthrough novel The Poet, battling the serial killer who gave the novel its name. Mike Connelly is no stranger to Shots Ezine having talked to us in the past about City of Bones in 2002, The Narrows in 2004 and The Overlook in 2007. We’d all been energised by the return of journalist Jack McEvoy in Connelly’s terrifying The Scarecrow and wanted to ask him a few questions. The Shots team of Mike Stotter, Ali Karim and Ayo Onatade met up with one of today’s greatest writers of crime fiction at the 2009 Crimefest conference in Bristol – Michael Connelly.

The poet michael connelly review