Scarecrow Audio Book
by Michael Connelly
read by Peter Giles
Everyone’s a critic, right?
When I first started this blog I reviewed audio books whenever I had the chance. Now that I have my studio open I haven’t had time. I still listen to the books each and every morning on my drive to work. I just haven’t been writing about what I have listened to.
One of the reasons is that I haven’t found anything all that great. Being a Michael Connelly fan I was excited when I heard he had a new book out called, the Scarecrow. I immediately put in a request for both the print and audio versions, respectively.
At the library it sometimes takes months to get a book, but usually you end up getting the audio book within a few weeks at most. The Scarecrow was no exception.
I had no idea what the scarecrow was about and I never read the jacket to find out. When I plugged in the first CD I was secretly hoping it was a Harry Bosch novel. When I heard the voice of the narrator I knew that it was not.
I recognized the voice, but wasn’t sure who it was. I was sure who it wasn’t and that is the reader who has read the last few Harry Bosch novels. I waited until about the second or third CD before I finally had a look. The reader was Peter Giles, who you might know better from one of the more recent Batman movies where he played Two Face.
Peter does a respectable job. I enjoyed his voices and he was a good choice for reading a character such as Jack McEvoy, who Connelly fans might remember from an earlier novel called, the Poet.
McEvoy is a writer from the LA Times and while he is on the hunt for the serial killer, the Scarecrow, we are also introduced to what many writers at newspapers are facing these days; downsizing. I like the way Connelly threads this into the plot. I know two journalists who have recently faced this grim reality, and it’s no surprise that one was laid off and the other is still barely hanging on.
The other part of this story is pretty much standard fair, which is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. But it seems like more and more of these stories are becoming too predictable. I knew what was coming long before it happened.
In a Harry Bosch novel Connelly can get away with this and I wouldn’t think twice. But that’s because of the main character. Bosch is Harry and he’s got depth and grit. McEvoy is a newspaper writer that has the balls of a cop, but seems to be dulled by years of continuously writing everyone else’s story and forgetting to live out his own.
What it comes down to is that I enjoyed this story more than many of the recent books I have listened to, but that isn’t saying all that much. I’ve been going through a dry spell for two or three months and am yet to come across a story that really moves me for quite some time. So for the time being I guess I’ll have to keep looking… or wait until the next Harry Bosch book comes out later this year.
