Wednesday, December 02, 2015

The Latest Oz Reading

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly is not the sort of book one would expect in an Oz collection. But I'd heard there was an Oz connection and picked up a cheap copy, and I'm glad I did! This was a taut, well-written little thriller about Jack McEvoy, a crime/legal journalist, on his way out at the Los Angeles Times, who decides to go out on a high note and write the story of his career. He focuses on a young black man accused of murder who claims he was innocent, and Jack realizes the police's case doesn't hold water. When he discovers a similar case in Las Vegas, he starts connecting the dots and finds out there is a lot more to the murders than anyone suspects. But the murderers — yes, there are more than one — have all kinds of resources on their side as well, and they are not intimidated by McEvoy. The Oz connection is subtle at first — I actually missed the first one — but they start rolling together as the story progresses. (And then there's that title!) Like a lot of stories of this type, there are a few places that rely on coincidence to move the story along, but overall I really, really enjoyed this, even outside of the Oz connection, which surprised me, as I've never been much of a fan for crime/mystery/thriller genre. Maybe if I Can ever get out from under the pile of Oz books I still have to read (ha!), I can read more of these sorts of books.

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