Book Review- Michael Connelly- The Scarecrow

Michael Connelly- The Scarecrow (Grand Central Publishing 2008) 3.75 Stars

Jack McEvoy has cracked many a case wide open with his journalistic prowess, but now he finds himself being laid off for making too much money. Wanting to go out with a bang he digs into the case of Alonzo Winslow, a young punk who says he is being wrongly accused of murder, yet he has confessed. McEvoy must figure out just what Alonzo confessed to and in the process he discovers a connection to an identical murder in Las Vegas. In his search, he warns the killer of his hunt and finds himself a target as well.

This book took me quite some time to get into, and I found myself wishing for a better introductory chapter, especially from such a seasoned author. However, when it did pick up it really got intense. The plot moves a long at a fast pace for the latter two-thirds of the novel. I also love the characters in this book, and it is interesting to see how McEvoy does his job so well. Normally in thrillers we see ourselves hating the journalists, yet in this book we are engrossed in McEvoy’s work. I enjoyed seeing the return of Rachel Walling, and their tense relationship. It was interesting that Connelly did not try to hide the guilty party from us in this book, which made you cringe as they make wrong assumptions; this is different from Connelly’s usual style. Overall I did enjoy this novel and would certainly recommend it to thriller fans.

For more of my reviews check out my website, www.tonypeters.webs.com

Tony Peters

Kids on a Case: The Case of the Ten Grand Kidnapping

http://authortonypeters.blogspot.com/

Book Review- Stieg Larsson- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Stieg Larsson- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Penguin Books 2008) 3 Stars

Mikael Blomkvist, a once famous journalist, has just been sentenced to one month in prison when an enemy sets him up. Now Henrik Vanger would like to hire him to look into the disappearance of his younger sister Harriet Vanger, who has been missing for forty years. Henrik suspects that a member of his family is guilty and he wants Mikael to find out who is responsible. As Mikael digs he turns up evidence that had been overlooked in the original investigation and he must bring in someone else, Lisbeth Salander. Working as a team they face danger and dig deep for evidence that will crack this case wide open.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came highly recommended, so I picked this up with high hopes. Sadly I found it extremely boring for a few hundred pages, I was told to press on for it got much better, and they were right, it did, more on that later. I found the author to be very wordy and was dismayed by all the extra information that could have been summed up in a couple of paragraphs rather than a couple of pages. I feel that this book could have been cut down from being over eight hundred pages to about four-five hundred. This would have made it much more exciting and it may have gripped me more. Instead I ended up with 350 pages of bore, 300 of interesting enough to keep me reading, and about 200 pages of gripping. The gripping section was really good and the only thing that saved this book, although it was way too short and I fear that many will not make it through to that section awake. I know there are many who enjoy this book, but alas I am not one of them. I guess you will just have to read it yourself and make your own judgement.

I would like to wish all of my readers a great Good Friday.

For more of my reviews check out my website, www.tonypeters.webs.com

Tony Peters

Kids on a Case: The Case of the Ten Grand Kidnapping

www.eloquentbooks.com/kidsonacase.html