The killer knows Jack is coming-and he's ready. What Jack doesn't know is that his investigation has inadvertently set off a digital tripwire. He reunites with FBI Agent Rachel Walling to go after a killer who has worked completely below police and FBI radar-and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. Jack's real intention is to use his access to report and write a story that explains how societal dysfunction and neglect created a 16-year-old killer.īut as Jack delves into the story he soon realizes that Alonzo's so-called confession is bogus, and Jack is soon off and running on the biggest story he's had since The Poet crossed his path years before. But she has fallen for the oldest reporter's trick in the book. Jack convinces Alonzo's mother to cooperate with his investigation into the possibility of her son's innocence. Jack focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer from the projects who has confessed to police that he brutally raped and strangled one of his crack clients. He is going to go out with a bang - a final story that will win the newspaper journalism's highest honor - a Pulitzer prize.

His last assignment? Training his replacement, a low-cost reporter just out of journalism school. Forced to take a buy-out from the Los Angeles Times as the newspaper grapples with dwindling revenues, he's got only a few days left on the job. Jack McEvoy is at the end of the line as a crime reporter. For Jack McEvoy, the killer named The Poet was the last word in evil.

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly