Fair Warning

A single encounter a year previously has led to reporter, Jack McEvoy, being suspected of murder.McEvoy, who featured in earlier Connelly novels ( The Scarecrow and The Poet ), is presently working for a consumers’ rights website, exposing criminals who prey on the public.
The brutal and unusual method in the killing of Tina Portrero forces the reporter to research and find a series of startlingly similar murders. The victims - all women - had been looking into their genetic history using a very cheap analytics company and had subsequently been strangled in a particular way which required great strength.
McEvoy can investigate the crimes, using, sometimes, methods not wholly within the law in an attempt to unmask the killer and has the assistance of his former lover, Rachel, an ex- profiler with the FBI.
It is no surprise that Michael Connelly novels ( 34 ) have sold over 74 million copies worldwide as he is a master storyteller as the excitement and tension crescendoes to an unexpected climax.
A brilliant book by a brilliant author.
Wholly recommended.

One of my favourite authors, this book is an absolute must. It's good to see Jack McEvoy back. Michael Connelly's writing is seamless, his characters fully rounded, the plot fascinating, the pace from the start is enthralling and the subject of DNA very interesting. What's not to like?
Many thanks to Netgalley/Michael Connelly/Orion Publishing for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Utterly brilliant return of Jack McEvoy and Rachel Walling in fast paced search for a serial killer targeting unsuspecting women through their DNA. Michael Connelly's writing and storytelling had me hooked from the first page to the surprise ending. I can't wait for his next book.

Michael Connelly continues to delight his readers with this latest outing of Jack McEvoy, the journalist who Connelly himself regards as the most autobiographical character he has written about. Connelly fans will have encountered Jack McEvoy before in ‘The Poet’ and ‘Scarecrow‘ plus odd appearances in other books, but this book is a freestanding read that does not require any prior knowledge of McEvoy’s backstory. 

Readers looking for an appearance by Bosch or Ballard will be disappointed but otherwise happily entertained by the usual Connelly ingredients: a fast-paced plot; a narrative that almost reads itself with writing that is fluent and descriptive; and a well-constructed drawing together of all the themes by the end of the book. It’s not Connelly’s fault that he has set the bar so high in the peerless Bosch novels, and there will be few Bosch fans who will see ‘Fair Warning’ in quite the same league. But for this reader, at least, this was a solid read and hard to put down. Against the Bosch yardstick it’s perhaps a 4.5 star read, but against other crime fiction it deserves 5.

Out of nowhere, a slow burner of a compelling storyline,; complicated and intriguingly crafted to introduce the reader to complex issues emerging from thIs  century and era we live in. Scientific breakthroughs that we welcome with a confidence and freedom whilst not fully understanding the knock on effects for society on security and safety. A one night stand. A dead body. Our roving reporter dragged into a tenuous link between his past and present; a nose for the possibility of a serial killer at large targeting vulnerable women.  As always this writer never fails to deliver with surprises and ingenuity that always delights the reader. Our modern author allows this 21st century hero of the story to rely on a fellow woman reporter and a female ex FBI agent to compliment his strengths, weaknesses and skill set to solve this mystery delivering results impossible for him acting in isolation. The conclusion is unhurried, unexpected and delivered with the aplomb expected from this expert at his craft. The misuse of supposedly private and watertight information applicable to large numbers of the population will strike fear and uncertainty into many of. what and who can we, the public, trust with our intimate details.  A brilliant murder mystery that encourages questions unique to the innovations of scientific breakthroughs. Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this 5 star read enjoyable on several different levels.

A fast pacing thriller that had me gripped from the start and was a difficult book to put down. A story of the misuse of DNA information which has worrying concerns about the so called anonymity and confidentiality clauses that we are all presented with. A serial killer is attacking women and killing them in in an unusual way Well recommended