The Scarecrow
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Michael Connelly List Price: $27.99 Our Price: $18.47 You Save: $9.52 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Hardcover 448 pages Release Date: 26 May 2009 Publisher: Little, Brown and Company ISBN: 0316166308 Rating:   Sales Rank: 57564 | | Look for similar books by subject:
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| | Customer Reviews: A Waste of Money (29 July 2010)I read a book by another author where it was obvious he just discovered flying by private jet. The book seemed to be a vehicle for showing that he knew the life-style and the lingo to the point where it was a throw-away. Connelly does the same thing here with what must be new-found knowledge of data protection environments. Then, he beats it to death. It got very tedious very fast. The entire book was shallow and trite. In fact, the book reads like a plot for a movie for teenagers. Definitely not even close to his prior work. It's not perfect, It's not Vintage, but It's darn close (23 July 2010)Michael Connelly is probably my favorite author for crime novels and has been for many years. He stays in that position because unlike many of my other favorite authors, he has overcome "the wall" and brought himself back to close to his old form in his latest novels. While Sanford, Robinson, Crais, Flynn, Grisham, have begun to fade, Connelly proves that he still has it. Putting Team Bosch aside for this novel and bringing out Team McEvoy/Wallings, Connelly shows his depth of field and penchant for attempting something a little different. Having read a total clunker just before The Scarecrow, I was simply blown away by the first 150 pages. Connelly was on his game and it showed. The writing was crisp, the characters were vivid and bringing back Jack McEvoy from The Poet was a terrific idea. Connelly really knows his way around the newsroom and the opening storyline was excellent - Jack gets canned after a high profile career to make way for a young, budding beauty by the name of Angela Cook. I was captivated from the start. From there it settles into a fast paced serial chase and never lets up. Why the 4 star instead of 5 star, then? Well, I can't go into detail without giving up too much of the story, but it will suffice to say that Connelly puts a little too much faith in the coincidence or artistic license - in this reader's opinion. At one point, Connelly even mentions some of the "luck" in order to let the reader know that it might be a little too much. But it's not out of the realm of the possible, so I'll let it slide to some degree. Also, as the chase concludes, there are a couple of open ended issues that I didn't care for. However, that said, this is a terrific book and one that will keep the reader flying through the pages. Dissaointing sequel (14 July 2010)Weak, by the numbers follow up to the vastly superior The Poet. Where The Poet had thrills and surprises, The Scarecrow is utterly predictable once you get past the first 100 pages. Where the relationship with the FBI agent worked in The Poet, here it felt as if it were inserted to satisfy a focus group. Promising start, then it's Attack of the Giant Plot Holes (14 July 2010)I had fairly high hopes after all the glowing media reviews & seeing it make Amazon's Best of 2009. The bad guy is a credible hacker type, and Connelly seems to know his way around techspeak and the vulnerabilities of the Internet, as well as the downward spiral of print news media. Then the Huh? moments start. The two ostensibly intelligent leads start doing incredibly dumb things, despite what they know about the bad guy & his methods, apparently because that's the only way to advance the plot. An FBI agent is kicked out for misuse of government funds, and is magically restored to her prior position in the course of two days. (I work for the Feds, & I can tell you this would never, EVER happen, however big a break on a case an ex-agent unearthed. Some SSA at the Bureau would take all the credit, and leave them high & dry). A functioning 'throwaway' cell phone in an underground bunker, or the middle of the Nevada desert? I don't think so. And so on. If you're not prone to asking questions about why characters do what they do, and aren't bothered if it makes no sense given the prior setup, go for it. But I have to say I just couldn't buy it. Amazon got suckered on this one. Go for 'The Lincoln Lawyer' instead. Google "crap" and get 100000 hits for this book (12 June 2010)Remember the movie from the 90s staring America's sweetheart Sandra Bullock called The Net and the movie called Unlawful Entry where in both movies the villian is a computer genius and freezed all teh heroeses' accounts and credit cards and all that? Well the same thing happens in this book FIFTEEN years later!! This book might be fun for senior citizens who never use a computer and think EMAIl will steal there soul. If you, like the chareacters int his book think "Googling" is some strange and magical event like in Harry Potter, then you will be fascinated by this crap. | |
