Fair Warning begins with a murder. That’s unfortunate, but even more unfortunate for Jack McEvoy is that the LAPD considers him a suspect. McEvoy knows he’s innocent, but how will he prove it to the police. And how will he find the real killer?
This is the 34th book in Michael Connelly’s fictional world of murder in Los Angeles. Most of the books feature LAPD detective Harry Bosch, but other novels center around Mickey Haller (Bosch’s half-brother), Rachel Ballard (an up-and-coming detective and Bosch’s occasional colleague), and Terry McCaleb (an FBI serial killer investigator). Fair Warningis the third novel featuring award-winning journalist Jack McEvoy and FBI profiler Rachel Walling.
Connelly seems incapable of writing a boring book. While some are better than others, Fair Warning definitely finds him at the top of his writing game. I kept turning pages eager to figure out what will happen next.
And the elements of the story feel contemporaneous: Hatred of journalists. Incel rage against women. Consumer data breaches. Podcasts displacing print. And the ever-depressing reality of lives ruined by violence.
Jack McEvoy and Rachel Walling teamed up in Connelly’s novels The Poet and The Scarecrow. They work well together, but they also have a past. If I read Fair Warning’s ending correctly, they may team up again in the future. That’s a novel I look forward to reading.
I’m also looking forward to Connelly’s November 10, 2020, release of The Law of Innocence, featuring Mickey Haller.
Five stars from me for Fair Warning. In my opinion, Connelly is the best crime writer currently on the market.
Book Review
Michael Connelly, Fair Warning (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2020).
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