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"The Scarecrow", September 29, 2009
By mikedraper

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"Jack McEvoy gets his notice at the "Los Angeles Times." He's given 14 days so he could train his replacement, Angela Cook.

Heading back to his desk, he gets a call from Wanda Sessums, Alonzo Winslow's grandmother. Her grandson is accused of murder and she tells Jack that his paper got the facts wrong. Alonzo is accused of killing a stripper and leaving her body in her car's trunk.

Jack and Angela work the case together. Angela finds a story of another stripper, Sharon Oglevy, who was killed in the same manner, in the trunk of her car and with the same marks on her body.

The reader learns about Carver, the killer. He is a computer expert and his web site on the trunk murder search engine picks up a hit when Angela checks into the Oglevy killing. He uses spyware and sees that Jack is looking into the second death and feels he must stop Jack.
Carver is adept with his computer and gets Jack's credit card numbers then calls the companies and says he's Jack, the cards have been stolen. Therefore there is a temporary freeze on using them. Carver also erases Jack's emails to his boss at the paper.

Feeling isolated and in need of a person to trust, Jack calls his old romance, Rachel Walling, an FBI agent.
Rachel feels something's wrong and flies to Vegas. She sees enough to learn that Jack is being set up. They return to Jack's home and find Angela's body under Jack's bed.

Now Rachel gets the FBI involved. They trace the emails to Carver and then follow one of Carver's assistants to get the info they need.

Well done, a fun plot but a bit of a stretch. Connelly's characters are always interesting. Jack is sympathetic and likable."

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