Fair Warning by Michael Connelly: A review

Michael Connelly employs the same writing technique he has used so successfully in his police procedurals, private detective mysteries, and "Lincoln lawyer" stories in his latest book featuring investigative journalist Jack McEvoy. We follow the reporter step by step as he works to cover a complicated story involving the misuse of DNA data and a possible serial killer. McEvoy has investigated and helped to take down a couple of serial killers in the past, so one might say this is his wheelhouse. He has written a couple of popular books about his experiences with those cases, but he's now employed as a reporter for a website called Fair Warning that champions consumer rights so he first approaches his story as it pertains to the violation of consumer rights.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The story begins when McEvoy is visited by two detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department who are investigating the murder of a woman named Tina Portrero. Portrero is someone whom McEvoy had had a one-night stand with several months earlier, but he had had no further contact with her and hadn't seen her since. The method by which the woman was killed was surprising; her neck had been twisted so hard that her spine was severed, a method called Atlanto-Occipital Dislocation (AOD). As McEvoy researches that technique, he finds other cases of women across the country who have been killed in this way and he begins to wonder if he may have another serial killer in his sights.

His initial problem is to figure out what those women might have had in common that could have brought them to the attention of their killer. He finds that connection in a DNA testing company called GT23. He learns that the company had openly sold the DNA analysis of some of their clients, ostensibly anonymously, to different entities for "research purposes." But the anonymity of their clients was not 100% guaranteed and it appears that a clever hacker was able to identify the DNA donors and pull out those with genes that indicated a propensity for "risky behavior." And thus McEvoy has his hook for a story about abuse of consumer rights.

To help him find the information he needs, McEvoy reaches out to a former FBI agent who he has worked with in the past and with whom he had once had a romantic relationship. Her name is Rachel Walling and she has featured in several Connelly books. After her last interaction with McEvoy, she had lost the job that she loved and was so good at with the FBI. These days she is a private investigator, but McEvoy needs her skills as a profiler to help him find a murderer. The two start working together and soon the romantic spark is reignited, but we can sense that McEvoy is going to sabotage it as he has before.

As McEvoy and a female reporter from Fair Warning, along with Rachel Walling, begin following their leads, they find a cesspool of misogyny in the tech world, most starkly exemplified by the hateful Incel groups that cyberstalk and harass women, denigrating and abusing them online and sometimes acting out violently toward women in the real world. If such groups were able to identify women who might be vulnerable to their attacks through analysis of the women's DNA, they would have a virtually unlimited source of victims for their bullying. And that, the investigators find to their horror, seems to be just what has happened.

Connelly is at his best in delineating intricate plots and leading the reader along with a riveting storyline to a satisfying conclusion. He hasn't lost his touch. I was completely invested in this story right from the beginning, and, though I am far from a tech genius, I had no difficulty following along with his explanations of how things played out in this complex story. Perhaps we will be getting more investigative reporter procedurals from the master in the future and that could be a very good thing.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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