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Jack McEvoy: From his rise to fame to the end of his game

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Jack McEvoy: From his rise to fame to the end of his game

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Content JACK MCEVOY:
FROM HIS RISE TO FAME TO THE END OF HIS GAME

by

Jessika Rachael Walsten

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(ONLINE JOURNALISM)

May 2011

Copyright 2011 Jessika Rachael Walsten

ii
Table of Contents
Abstract iii
Introduction 1
Who is Jack McEvoy? 3
What Happened to Journalism? 13
The Standard Journalist 16
Ethics and Investigation 21
Jack and His Stereotypes 24
Fame 26
Final Thoughts 29
Endnotes 32
Bibliography 40
Appendix: The Characters 42

iii
Abstract
This work examines the journalist Jack McEvoy as he appears in four of author
Michael Connelly’s novels. Though, he is the main protagonist in only two: The Poet
1

and The Scarecrow.
2
In these two novels, McEvoy’s circumstances change but he
maintains some of the same journalistic characteristics. For this paper, McEvoy’s
circumstances and characteristics will be compared with other images of the journalist in
popular culture to determine what role McEvoy plays in the journalist’s image as a
whole.

1
Michael Connelly, The Poet (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1996).

2
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010).

1
Introduction
Jack McEvoy never wanted to be a reporter.
“I wanted to be a writer, ended up in the newspaper business.”
3

But that didn’t stop him from being a damn good one.
His writing skills, determination and uncanny ability to find things most people
would miss, including cops,
4
make him good at what he does. It also doesn’t hurt that he
will do nearly anything to get a good story.
McEvoy is Michael Connelly’s
5
fictional protagonist, who appears in four of
Connelly’s novels.
6
However, McEvoy plays the lead character in only two of them.
7
In
both The Poet and The Scarecrow, McEvoy finds himself hunting down a serial killer
who has eluded the cops and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The characteristics
mentioned earlier
8
resurface in both of the novels, making his character generally
consistent. What changes, however, is his situation in life and the state of journalism.
These changes are an important reflection on the state of the media, particularly
newspapers. They also reflect the adaptations journalists have had to make to technology.
The journalist in The Poet, first published in 1996, is technologically much different from
the journalist in The Scarecrow, published in 2009. Likewise, journalism has drastically
changed. And this is all because of the Internet, or at least that’s what the novels have the
reader believe.
To understand why all of these changes are important, McEvoy must be examined
more closely. His characteristics and skills as a reporter in the first novel need to be
2
compared with those in the second novel. McEvoy must be taken apart to look at how
exactly journalism has fallen apart.
The best way to do this is to start from the very beginning.

3
Who Is Jack McEvoy?
Jack McEvoy was born on May 21, 1961,
9
to Millie and Tom McEvoy. He grew
up with his identical twin brother, Sean, and an older sister, Sarah, in Denver, Colorado.
The McEvoys were a normal family. They went on trips. The kids went to school. The
parents worked. But it all unraveled when a tragedy took Sarah’s life.
When Jack and Sean were kids, the family went to Bear Lake, a park near Denver.
It was winter, and the lake was frozen. Jack’s parents were getting lunch ready, and Sarah
was watching Jack and Sean. Jack decided to run onto the ice, and Sarah went after him.
Before she could get to him, she fell through the ice. Jack and Sean, who had watched
what had happened, began screaming. But by the time anyone was able to get to Sarah it
was too late. She had drowned. Sean had covered up for Jack, telling their parents that
they had both run onto the frozen lake. That was one of the best things Sean had done for
Jack.
10
After Sarah’s death, the family stayed together, but there was tension. Jack
thought his parents never quite forgave him for what had happened.
The brothers grew up and moved on. Jack traveled for a few years, living in New
York and Paris, before going to college.
11
Sean went into the service before pursuing
police work.
12
Eventually, Sean ended up as a homicide detective in the Denver Police
Department, wanting to one day be the chief of police.
13
Jack also ended up back in
Denver as a reporter for The Rocky Mountain News. He had worked his way up from a
rewriter and daily reporter to a homicide reporter without deadlines.
14

At the beginning of The Poet, Jack is confronted with the death of his brother.
Sean had been working on a case about a brutally murdered university student named
4
Theresa Lofton. After many dead ends, the case had begun to take its toll on Sean and he
started seeing a psychiatrist. Not long after that he was found dead in a parking lot at
Bear Lake with a single bullet wound to the head. His death was ruled a suicide and the
case was closed with little investigation.
Upon learning this, Jack took a few weeks off from work to collect himself. When
he returned to work, he knew what his next story would be.
15
He wanted to write about
his brother, focusing on cop suicides. His editor at The Rocky Mountain News, Greg
Glenn, after some hesitation bought the idea, and let him run with it. Jack went through
other newspaper stories on cop suicides, and managed to get the files on Sean’s case as
well as Lofton’s. While doing research, he discovered something odd.
16

The year before in Chicago another homicide cop had committed suicide, and the
cop’s last words were from Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Roderick Usher was the name of the last person to have seen Sean alive. Jack gave the
connection a shot, and then looked up the words Sean had written on the windshield of
his car: “Out of Space. Out of Time.” Sure enough those were from Poe too. The link
made him think his brother hadn’t committed suicide after all, and he took his ideas to the
cops. They didn’t look too kindly on him.
17
But eventually he convinced them to reopen
the case. He then traveled to Chicago, and persuaded the cops there to reopen their file.
After that, the ball was rolling. Jack had alerted the authorities to a serial killer
they had missed, and the FBI was brought in because the murders occurred across state
lines. Throughout all of this, though, Jack tried to stay ahead of the game. He wanted to
be the first to break the story, because he thought it was his story.
18
To keep it his, he
5
negotiated with the FBI, and got them to agree to let him be involved in the
investigation.
19
He also negotiated a contract with them, granting him the right to break
the story. The agent assigned to work with him was Rachel Walling, a gifted and
beautiful profiler.
20
Throughout the novel, their relationship grows, and within a short
period of time they become intimate.
21

As the novel continues to progress, they discover the identity of the serial killer,
who baits homicide cops by brutally killing children or people who have contact with
children. A trap is then set up in Los Angeles. The killer, nicknamed the Poet because of
the references he uses to Poe, has made his way to L.A. and finds himself in need of a
camera.
22
The FBI finds out where he has ordered the camera he needs and have set up
shop.
An agent is assigned to pose as an employee at the camera store while Rachel and
Jack wait outside with other agents. They have been sitting outside for hours and nothing
has happened. So, Jack decides to get some coffee. He buys some extra cups and heads
into the camera shop to see if any of the people inside the store want any. Just as he is
about to leave the shop, the killer shows up. Before they can arrest the Poet, the Poet
figures out what is going on, and he shoots and kills the FBI agent working behind the
counter. Jack tries to talk to the Poet and eventually manages to get the gun from him. A
struggle ensues, and Jack finds himself wrestling with the killer. To save himself, Jack
fires the gun, shooting the Poet and killing him.
Once all of the commotion dies down and the FBI interviews Jack, he finds a
moment to call his editor, and his editor tells him something he doesn’t want to hear.
6
“You’re not covering the story anymore. You killed the guy who killed your
brother. You killed the Poet. The story’s about you now. You can’t write it.”
23

Jack is not happy, and begrudgingly agrees to be interviewed by the reporter
assigned to cover his story. While brooding in his room, Jack decides to go through his
files again, and he discovers something. The person he has killed is not the only person
involved in the killings. There is someone else who is responsible for the cop murders,
and this person is on the inside. But before he can get to the other killer, he is captured.
The room is dark and the drugs the second killer had injected into Jack are
making him fade fast. Before the killer could do his job, Rachel bursts in the room and
shoots. The killer manages to get away before the authorities could find out the extent of
his injuries. Jack’s involvement in the story has made him a celebrity, and he is asked to
appear on television shows to tell his ordeal. At the end of the book, he is on leave from
The Rocky Mountain News to write a book. He can finally write his story.
24
But not
everything turns out so well. His relationship with Rachel ends on a sour note, and they
decide that it’s best not to see each other any more.
After he writes his book, Jack continues to ride the coattails of fame a little
longer. Before landing a job at the Los Angeles Times, Jack works freelance for The New
Times, a tabloid-type paper based in Los Angeles, as well as Vanity Fair. While he is
freelancing, Jack appears briefly in A Darkness More Than Night.
25
His interactions in
the novel are restricted primarily to brief exchanges with Terry McCaleb, a criminal
profiler, and Harry Bosch, a detective. In the exchanges, Jack attempts to get information
on a case he is working on, but McCaleb and Bosch brush him off, finding him mostly a
7
nuisance. Jack is even referred to as “a coyote that had been waiting in a cave for his
unsuspecting prey.”
26

Jack also makes an appearance in Connelly’s The Brass Verdict.
27
This time Jack
is portrayed trying to work Mickey Haller, a defense attorney, into an interview about a
case. As in the previous novel, Haller sees Jack as a nuisance. Haller even calls Jack a
liar.
28
Again, Jack is seen as stalking Haller to get an interview, and Haller wants nothing
to do with him.
29

Connelly’s The Scarecrow starts not long after The Brass Verdict ends. At this
point, Jack has worked at the Los Angeles Times for seven years,
30
and his fame has all
but disappeared, making him long for his former days of glory.
31
He has just been laid off
by assistant managing editor, Richard Kramer, and he is very depressed. The paper has
given him two weeks, and he now finds himself with the weekend off
32
to contemplate
his fate.
So, what does he do next? He drowns his sorrows with booze.
“Oh, man. We gotta get drunk tonight.”
“I am, that’s for sure.”
33

But before he can get out the Spring Street doors,
34
he receives a phone call from
the grandmother of a young man named Alonzo Wilson, who had been charged with the
recent brutal killing of a woman. Jack had written a story a few days before on the
murder and arrest. The grandmother proceeded to yell at Jack and tell him he had gotten
the story wrong. She insisted that her grandson was innocent. Jack didn’t take notes
during the phone call, and dismissed her story as soon as he hung up with her. He and
8
Larry Bernard, a fellow veteran reporter at the Los Angeles Times, then decided to go to a
local bar.
After his weekend bender, he returned to work to train the reporter replacing him.
Angela Cook is fresh out of journalism school,
35
and she is a mojo reporter,
36
a mobile
journalist who could file text, photos and video from the field.
37
She is enthusiastic and
quickly catches on.
Jack had decided over the weekend that he wanted to go out with a bang, and to
pursue the possible lead he had on Alonzo’s case.
38
This made working with Angela a
little more bearable. It was the ultimate adios: write a story that would win awards. The
Los Angeles Times would look foolish laying off a journalist who had won recent
accolades.
Jack manages to find Alonzo’s grandmother and goes to meet her.
39
Things don’t
go too well, but he does get her to agree to help him. He also talks to Alonzo’s lawyer
and is able to get Alonzo’s confession. When he finally gets a chance to look over the
more than 900-page document, he realizes Alonzo never confessed to the murder. While
that doesn’t necessarily prove Alonzo’s innocence, it does cast some doubt on the case
against him. This doubt increases Jack’s interest in the case.
He tells Angela of his plans and continues with his research. The next morning
Jack gets to the office and finds out the police department is holding a press conference
about Alonzo’s case. Angela is already there, but Jack tells her that he wants to cover it
because it is about Alonzo. He gets to the conference and Angela is sitting toward the
front with her laptop, filing short pieces for the online edition of the Los Angeles Times.
9
When Jack returns to the office from the conference he finds out that Angela has beaten
him in more ways than one.
40
She had already started writing the story for the press
conference, and Alan Prendergrast, the editor who oversaw the police and court reporters,
had already spoken to her about something else. Angela wanted in on Jack’s story and
had proposed a two-part profile: the first part on the victim and the second on Alonzo.
“Look, Angela, I don’t like how you did this, but I admire how you just go after
what you want. All the best reporters I have known are that way. And I have to say your
idea of doing the double-profile of both killer and victim is the better way to go.”
41

Jack and Angela then get to work on their prospective stories. As he discovered
during his work on the Poet case, Jack finds a connection investigators had missed in
Alonzo’s case. The murder is eerily similar to a murder in Las Vegas. This discovery
excites him, and he boards a plane to Las Vegas after sending an e-mail to Prendergrast
to let him know. He also calls Rachel Walling, his old flame from The Poet, on his way
to try to get the FBI involved. But she dismisses his story.
In Las Vegas, he discovers that the murders are connected, and the murderer
nearly catches him. Strange things also have been happening. Jack’s credit cards no
longer work, and someone drains his bank account of its money. Angela, who stayed in
L.A., has disappeared. Jack’s life is also in danger. Rachel shows up at just the right time,
though, and saves Jack from the killer. Angela is not so lucky.
Rachel and Jack return to L.A. and discover Angela’s body planted in Jack’s
house. Jack is subsequently questioned by police before returning to the newsroom only
to find out he has been taken off the story. Larry Bernard, one of the reporters saved from
10
the ax so far, has been assigned to write it. Left to brood about losing another story, Jack
again makes a discovery. While diving into his files, he realizes what, besides the killer,
connects the two victims. He boards a plane for Phoenix, Arizona, but not before he tells
Rachel about his discovery.
A data storage center in Arizona hosts thousands of websites. Among those
websites are the law firms representing the two victims in cases that were pending before
their deaths.
42
Jack gets to Arizona and persuades Rachel that it’s a good idea to pose as
prospective clients of the data storage center.
43
They both enter the facility to conduct the
ruse. Conveniently, the company’s chief executive officer, who was supposed to meet
with them, was out of the office. They also found another employee had jumped ship;
leaving so quickly he left important things behind.
44
Jack and Rachel suspect the CEO
and the employee who abruptly left are the killers they are looking for, and they alert the
FBI of their findings.
The investigation into the pair of killers goes smoothly, almost too smoothly. The
FBI finds material in their homes linking them to the crimes. After a job well done, Jack
and Rachel head back to their hotel. Jack is supposed to fly back to L.A. while Rachel is
assigned to stay in Arizona with the other investigators. That night Jack talks to Rachel
about the investigation, gleaning as much information he can before she tells him she is
ready for some food and bed. Jack hangs up with her just as room service arrives at
Rachel’s door. He hangs up and smiles, picking up a bottle of wine and a corkscrew in
the process. He is still in Phoenix.
11
On his way to Rachel’s room, he spots a hotel service person lying on the floor in
the stairwell. Immediately, he becomes concerned for Rachel. As he rushes down the
hallway, he manages to call 911. He notices that the door to Rachel’s room is open, and
he shoves his way into the room only to find it empty and some blood on a pillow.
Jack spots a suspicious person at the end of the hall with an unusually heavy
laundry basket and runs after him. The suspect boards the elevator right before Jack could
get in. He thinks fast and manages to beat the person to the hotel’s kitchen where he foils
the plan and saves Rachel. After Jack sees that Rachel is okay, he runs after the killer and
eventually catches him in the stairwell. As he did with the first killer in The Poet, Jack
distracts the murderer with words, asking him question after question. They struggle, and
before the police and FBI can arrive, Jack gets the upper hand and pushes the killer over
the side of the stairs; he dies in the fall.
Again, Jack finds himself a part of the story, and again he has killed the man he
was after. This time, though, he sees he is really close to the story and is not surprised
when he is taken off of it. He then returns to L.A. Because of his work on the case, the
paper offers him his job back.
45
But Jack turns the offer down. He already has a book
deal, and he has been asked by the editor of the velvetcoffin.com to write for their new
investigative section.
46
Kramer asks Jack to leave the office immediately.
On his way out the door, Dorothy Fowler, the city editor, asks him to come to her
office. As he stands there talking to her, he notices something. There is a picture from
The Wizard of Oz on her wall. The Scarecrow’s costume looks eerily similar to the way
the murdered women were asphyxiated. Jack does a quick Google search of the
12
Scarecrow, and his suspicions are confirmed. Jack also finds other connections the
Scarecrow has to the case. In that instant of revelation, he realizes that the two men they
thought were behind the murders were just fall guys. The real killer is still in the data
center, and Rachel is in the data center with him.
Jack flies to Phoenix and meets with Rachel to talk about his discovery. He
convinces her, and then they go back to the data center to get the real mastermind behind
the killings. But the Scarecrow has already managed to trap two FBI agents in an
enclosed room that can only be opened biometrically by the killer’s hand. He is about
ready to kill them by sending carbon dioxide gas into the room. Jack follows a hunch that
leads him to the killer. They struggle, and just before Jack’s life is ended, Rachel shows
up and shoots the killer. She doesn’t quite kill him. They manage to get the other agents
out in the nick of time.
When Jack finally gets home, he ends up in the same situation he was in at the
end of the previous book - with one notable exception. He has his book deal and has
begun writing. But this time he is not alone. He has Rachel there to comfort him.

13
What Happened to Journalism?
An insightful description of journalism’s evolution lies within the pages of The
Scarecrow.
[The Red Wind] used to put the front pages of the A section, Metro and Sports
over the urinals in the men’s restroom. Now they had flat-screen plasma TVs
tuned to Fox and CNN and Bloomberg. Each screen adding insult to injury, a
reminder that our business was dying.
47

While this situation may not mean all that much to the average person, it means
everything to Jack. The Los Angeles Times and print news in general has been replaced
by technology. Just as the TV screens replaced the men’s restroom readings, the Internet
has begun to take over the print edition of the paper. Jack sees the newspaper and himself
as a dying breed. As he is training Angela on the police beat, he puts it this way.
“I would miss Parker Center
48
precisely because I was like Parker Center.
Antiquated and obsolete.”
49

Younger reporters, like Angela who could do it all, were infiltrating the
newsroom, leaving the older reporters in their wake. But is the downsizing of the
newsroom really only because of the Internet?
Many experts attribute the decline in revenue for traditional media, such as
newspapers and magazines, at least in part to a drop in advertising. The downturn in the
economy started the spiral, because companies no longer had the disposable income to
purchase advertising space and many companies disappeared all together. Another
contributing factor was the loss of the classified section of the paper, a big source of
income for papers. The classifieds had moved online to websites like Craig’s List or
Monster.com. And still another factor is decreased budgets at the papers. Without as
14
much money to spend, newspapers cut staff and circulation, creating in many cases
newspapers with bare bones content.
50

The Scarecrow paints a very vivid and grim picture of the state of the news media.
Real reporters, the journalists who had worked in the profession for years, were being
laid off by the hundreds. Papers were downsizing all over the country. Perhaps the most
notable example of this downsizing was the closing of the The Rocky Mountain News, the
newspaper Jack worked for in The Poet. While The Scarecrow was in pre-press for
publication, the paper shut its doors, and Connelly had to make changes to the book
accordingly.
51

After word gets around that Jack has been laid off from the Los Angeles Times, an
old Rocky co-worker gives him a call. Van Jackson had lost his job with the close of that
paper, and he still couldn’t find another. He called Jack to lend him words of
encouragement. This is part of the voice message he left.
“I’ve gotta tell you the truth, man. There’s nothing out there. I’m just about ready
to start selling cars, but all the car dealers are in the toilet, too.”
52

The Los Angeles Times continues to suffer from revenue losses, doing another
round of layoffs as recently as December 2009. Fortunately for Jack, his celebrity status
doesn’t make him in need of work at the end of The Scarecrow. If only all reporters could
be so lucky. The Internet may have run Jack over,
53
but he managed to find a way to get
back up. In the end, he even embraced it when he took the job with the
velvetcoffin.com.
54
Not many seasoned reporters
55
had that luxury.
15
In The Poet, technology is markedly dated and there is no sign newspapers are
struggling.
56
The Rocky Mountain News, in fact, seems to thrive.
Jack has a laptop in the novel, but it doesn’t have wireless. He repeatedly has to
connect the equipment to a phone line to get any network capability, and then he has to
wait around for the network to connect. Stories in the newsroom are transferred
electronically, however.
57
There are no flash drives;
58
no digital video recorders;
59
and no
web updates for stories. Some newspapers didn’t even have websites let alone web
updates.
Perhaps the most telling detail about technology in The Poet is that the killer Jack
killed was tracked down because the equipment he was using was expensive and not
widely available. The killer was using a digital camera, which only a few stores carried
and sold and even fewer companies made. He had to special order it from a store in Los
Angeles, and since only two stores carried the camera, the FBI was easily able to find out
if any recent orders were taken.
Thus, in the first novel, technology helped Jack, but hurt the Poet. In The
Scarecrow, it was the opposite. Technology had hurt Jack, but helped the Scarecrow.
60

16
The Standard Journalist
“I dwelt alone
In a world of moan
And my soul was a stagnant tide.”
61

The concept of loneliness resurfaces frequently in both novels. Jack has no
personal life – save for his encounters with Rachel. He has a handful of friends from the
office with whom he barely interacts. And that’s about it.
Before his brother’s death, he and Jack had had a falling out, and Jack had
minimal contact with his parents and sister-in-law. Jack’s family and Sean are barely
mentioned in The Scarecrow.
Perhaps the image that recurs the most is Jack alone with his computer.
62
When
he is home alone he puts his computer on the dining room table, eating there while
working: “It beats sitting at the table alone and thinking about how I’d been eating alone
for more years than I cared to remember.”
63

The idea of the journalist as loner whose best friend is his typewriter – or, now,
laptop - appears in other images of the journalist in novels. For example, Jack
McMorrow, the fictional creation of Gerry Boyle in his eight-novel Jack McMorrow
mystery series, spends many nights by himself typing.
64
Brian Keyes, a journalist in Carl
Hiaasen’s novels, also spends nights alone.
65
Keyes, however, has left journalism to
become a detective.
66
Journalists depicted on film and television, especially big city
reporters, are likewise portrayed as being alone a great deal, spending most of their time
working or at least ready to work.
67

17
Both McMorrow
68
and McEvoy also like to drink. In Hiaasen’s novels, however,
the journalists do not drink as much. While McMorrow may be borderline alcoholic,
69

McEvoy is more of a casual drinker. But he is not above using alcohol to take the edge
off.
70
When McEvoy is laid off from the Los Angeles Times, the first thing he thinks of
doing is drinking, and he manages to remain drunk all weekend.
71
Even Rachel has a
similar experience. She is forced to resign from the FBI after having used an FBI jet
without authorization to get Jack.
72
As soon as she and Jack get to the hotel room in
Phoenix, she wants to “raid the mini bar.”
73

In The Poet, however, McEvoy’s drinking isn’t quite as prominent.
Another repetitive theme in Connelly’s novels is the idea that Jack will do
anything to get the story, and when he doesn’t get the story or loses it he gets angry and
depressed.
74
Jack also tends to become childish.
For example, in The Poet, Jack negotiates a deal with the FBI to be the first
reporter to break the story about the serial killer they are investigating. But Jack learns
that someone has leaked information to a reporter. Michael Warren
75
publishes a piece in
The Los Angeles Times that connects the murders before Jack even knows the piece is
going to run. As Jack flies to Los Angeles to investigate a break in the Poet case, he
decides to give Warren a call.
“You fucking asshole! It was my story.”
“The story belongs to whoever writes it, Jack. Remember that . . . You want to go
up against me, that’s fine. Then write the fuckin’ story instead of calling me up and
whining about it . . . I’m right here and I’ll see you on the front page.”
76

18
The journalist’s ultimate battle is on the front page. Whoever can get that front-
page story and write it better than anyone else gets all the glory, and when journalists
work hard, they will do anything for that coveted spot.
Jack got cheated out of other front-page stories as well. But he lost those stories
because he became too involved with the subjects he was covering.
77
He went too far to
get the stories, and became a part of them as a consequence.
To get the good stories, Jack does a lot of research, reading through hundreds of
pages of documents if needed.
78
He also knows how to work the people he interviews,
including police. He sees getting information as a game.
79
Jack McMorrow also possesses
the same tenacity and skill set. He can work a source with the best of them.
80

These portrayals also fall in line with the image of the male reporter in the movies
and television.
Joe Saltzman puts that image this way.
Most male reporters in the movies and television are, like those in the audience,
flawed human beings. They are not all good and not all bad but simply trying to
get the story at all costs. They may lie or cheat or act more like detectives than
reporters, but they are usually forgiven their trespasses because the end result
favors the public rather than themselves.
81

McEvoy does lie
82
and he acts like a detective
83
to get the story. But despite all of
Jack’s questionable decisions, he still comes across as a good reporter. Even when he
does appear to be motivated by things other than the public interest,
84
he ultimately
pursues the truth at all costs.
Jack’s commitment to his work makes it hard for him to have a relationship. In
The Poet, there is no indication Jack has had any meaningful relationship for many years.
19
At least, that is, until Rachel comes along. But even that relationship was rocky at best.
They sleep together a few times, and clearly express they have feelings for each other.
That is the extent of it, though. Because of their responsibilities to their jobs, they must
end it. At the end of the novel, Jack feels more alone than ever:
I’ve waited to hear from her [Rachel] but there has been no word. I don’t think
there will be now and I don’t think I’ll be going to Italy as she once suggested. At
night, the ghost that haunts me the most is the thing inside of me that led me to
doubt the very thing I wanted most.
85

At the start of The Scarecrow, Jack’s relationship status is just as bleak. He has
been married and divorced since he started at the Los Angeles Times, and he has few true
friends and little contact with his family. By the end of the novel, however, his
relationship luck has changed, and he and Rachel end up together despite both of their
initial misgivings.
86

Carl Hiaasen’s reporters have just as bleak social lives as Jack.
87
Brian Keyes
blames his social life on his work.
88
Jack McMorrow in Boyle’s novels does manage to
have a relationship. However, McMorrow’s relationship raises some issues because his
partner is a social worker, and some people wonder if confidentiality is compromised.
89

Connelly’s novels also have a few other intriguing journalistic images: the image
of the editor and the television reporter.
Both images are not even remotely favorable.
The editors who appear in Connelly’s two novels are only concerned about
getting the great story.
90
They don’t care about the cost of the story, and their reporters,
Jack included, don’t look on them favorably. Greg Glenn, the city editor in The Poet,
favors a good read over facts.
91
His top priority is to kick the ass of any other competing
20
paper.
92
In The Scarecrow, Alan Prendergrast, the editor in charge of police and crime
reporters, always seems to make deals behind Jack’s back.
93
Jack is old news and
Prendergrast wants to see that Angela is happy.
94

Television reporters make a few appearances in both novels. Every time a TV
reporter appears, however, Jack makes a disparaging remark about him or her. For
example, while Jack is working with the FBI on the Poet investigation, the local news
station gets wind of the fact the FBI is in town. A news van shows up outside, and a
young, blonde reporter proceeds to shove a microphone into the investigators’ faces.
95

Jack has this to tell Rachel about the incident.
“I’m getting there. But I’m hoping she’s like most TV reporters.”
“And how are they?”
“Sourceless and senseless. If she is, then I’ll be okay.”
96

In The Scarecrow, Angela is at the police station and notices television crews.
Angela is worried they might be a threat. But Jack’s take is completely different.
97
Jack
refers to television reporters as following yesterday’s news or press conferences. They
never have a real scoop on anything.

21
Ethics and Investigation
The Society of Professional Journalists structured its Code of Ethics into four
main components.
98
While Jack probably violates every component at some point in the
novels, his most grievous violations fall under the guide to “act independently.”
“Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's
right to know.”
99

Jack is not “free of obligation” because he becomes too invested in his stories. He
has multiple conflicts of interest. Right off the bat in The Poet, Jack decides to write
about his brother’s death. Jack should not have been allowed to pursue the story in the
first place, because he had a stake in the story’s outcome and knew the victim. Yet, his
editor, Greg Glenn, allows him to do it anyway. While pursuing that story, he meets an
FBI agent on the case and sleeps with her. Sleeping with a source would damage his
credibility. Yet, on his side, the publication does nothing to reprimand Jack for his
actions. Rachel, on the other hand, ends up losing her position as FBI profiler and is sent
to South Dakota for a few years.
100
Even though Jack is sleeping with a source and knows
one of the victims in the case, Jack is still allowed to pursue the story. It isn’t until he
kills one of the suspected killers that the conflict of interest seems important to his
editors.
Jack’s situation in The Scarecrow is similar to what happens to him in The Poet.
Again he sleeps with a source, and again he kills one of the suspects in the case. He is,
however, taken off the story much sooner this time, but his removal still has nothing to do
22
with his relationship with Rachel. This time one of the victims happens to be found dead
under Jack’s bed.
In addition to conflicts of interest, Jack doesn’t always treat his sources with
respect.
101
This is especially evident in The Scarecrow. For example, he originally
intends to use Alonzo’s story as a means to get on the front page of The L.A. Times. Jack
has fallen victim to the knowledge gap theory,
102
a communication theory that suggests
people from different socioeconomic backgrounds have different levels of knowledge.
Those differing levels of knowledge result in communication problems. Jack believes he
is smarter than Alonzo and his grandmother, Wanda, and knows he can take advantage of
their socioeconomic status to sell a story. He doesn’t think either the grandmother or
Alonzo has sufficient knowledge to realize they are being manipulated.
In the end, though, his conscience gets the better of him, and he decides to find
out all he can about Alonzo so he can write the story that will set him free. Jack has
become invested again in the public interest.
His conscience also makes him change his mind on a few questionable decisions
in The Poet. Jack travels to Chicago to investigate one of the murders. He visits the place
where the body of a young boy was found.
103
At the spot, flowers and notes memorialize
the young victim. Jack sees a photo of the boy at the site and decides to take it because he
thinks he can use it to run with a story.
104
Before leaving Chicago, however, he decides
that his actions may not have been the most respectful. So, he returns the photo.
105

Jack finds himself confronted with this type of ethical dilemma on more than one
occasion. In The Scarecrow, Jack returns to his house after Angela’s body has been
23
removed and the house has been thoroughly examined. He walks into his bedroom, looks
at where the bed had been and Angela had been found, and feels no sadness or guilt.
106

As he goes to where his computer was, his demeanor changes, and the sadness overcomes
him.
107

But even with these ethical lapses, Jack always manages to turn around and save
the day.

24
Jack and His Stereotypes
I [Jack] realized that I never really considered that Brooks [a Chicago cop] might
be a black man. There was no photo in the computer printouts and no reason to
mention race in the stories. I had just assumed he was white and it was an
assumption I would have to analyze later.
108

Jack never did analyze that assumption. But his attitude toward different races
comes into play again, particularly in The Scarecrow. Within the first 20 pages of The
Scarecrow, Jack stereotypes people. He gets a phone call from Wanda, Alonzo’s
grandmother, and immediately stereotypes her as “black and uneducated.”
109
Jack
dismisses Wanda’s claim of Alonzo’s innocence before he even hangs up the phone with
her. He does this because he thinks she is just some crazy black woman who doesn’t
know anything. When Jack decides he wants to write a profile of Alonzo, he sees Wanda
as a tool he needs to use to get the story. But he is still apprehensive about interviewing
Wanda, and he asks Sonny Lester, a black photojournalist, to go with him.
Throughout the interview, Jack smooth-talks Wanda into cooperating with him.
He convinces her that he believes Alonzo is innocent and that he will help get him out.
She just needs to get Alonzo’s lawyer to give Jack access to all of the case files.
“Bullshit,” says Sonny after Jack finally tells him his plan to write an award-
winning story. “You’re using her because she’s too ignorant to know it. The kid will
probably be just as stupid and go along, too.”
110

Sonny wants in on Jack’s story, and tells Jack he will continue to help him if he
can be on the byline too. Jack agrees. But by the time the story is published, Sonny’s
name is nowhere to be found, and Sonny sends Jack an angry e-mail.
111

25
Jack’s remaining interactions with Wanda and Alonzo are also tinged with bias.
For example, after Alonzo is released from jail, Jack is scheduled to appear on CNN with
Alonzo and his grandmother. When Jack gets to the studio he is shocked to find the pair
already there.
112
He can’t believe they would have gotten up earlier and beaten him to
the studio. These remarks suggest Jack believes Alonzo and Wanda are not only
uneducated, but lazy and unprofessional as well.
There is no indication anywhere in The Poet or The Scarecrow as to where Jack
develops these stereotypes. Does he feel privileged because he is a white man who makes
money and went to college? Are his biases a product of his experiences working as a
reporter? Did he learn his prejudices growing up? Recent research suggests that
stereotypes are a product of learned differences in social groups.
113
Thus, Jack’s
perceptions are likely a combination of his upbringing, his education, and his work-
related experiences. But his biases are not necessarily a good thing. They affect how he
interacts with others, making him quick to judge people before he even has a chance to
talk to them. If it wasn’t for Wanda’s concerned phone call for her grandson, Jack never
would have pursued the story, found the Scarecrow, or regained his celebrity status. He
owes Wanda a lot more than he will ever give her credit for.

26
Fame
Jack McEvoy never quite manages to reach the top in The Scarecrow or The Poet.
But the reader knows he is headed there. At the end of The Poet, McEvoy is already a
celebrity journalist. People know him as the man who killed a suspect in that sensational
serial killer case. He had a book deal, and was going to get a big advance.
114
However,
his true 15 minutes came in the time following the book.
On the other hand, in The Scarecrow, Jack is clearly no longer famous. He is that
guy who kind of looks familiar. Even worse, he is that guy who is painfully aware he
only looks familiar.
115
He reached this point well before The Scarecrow. In A Darkness
More Than Night, the first time he sees Terry McCaleb, McCaleb recognizes him. But
McCaleb doesn’t quite remember from where.
116
Jack has to introduce himself before any
recognition registers.
By the end of The Scarecrow, Jack clearly has achieved some notoriety, but again
his peak of fame from the Scarecrow case is likely to come well after the book ends.
Despite the fact that the reader never quite sees Jack at the height of his celebrity, it is
evident he wants to be there. In The Poet, he mentions multiple times that he wants to be
a celebrity novelist. Early in the book, Jack tells Riley, Sean’s widow, about their high
school goals:
I remember when we graduated from high school we both pretty much knew what
we wanted to do. I was going to write books and be famous or rich or both. Sean
was going to be chief of detectives at DPD and solve all of the mysteries of the
city… Neither of us quite made it. Sean was closest, though.
117

To some degree, Jack achieved his high school goal. But what drives a person to
want to be famous in the first place?
27
One theory suggests that if people want to improve in their field they look to
others to validate their work and worth.
“No matter the field, if we look to progress, we have to depend on people to say
we are not only capable, but the exact person to fulfill a need,” said Bakari Akil II, a
professor of communication, in an article for Psychology Today. “To go a step further,
we need gatekeepers to say this.”
118

The ultimate validation, for some, is fame.
Jack clearly wanted that recognition, and he felt he needed it to achieve the level
of success he wanted. He was motivated to do well by the thought that he may have that
front-page story, get that Pulitzer, or write that amazing book. While he never gets the
Pulitzer, he does write that book. Yet, even with the sense of accomplishment, there is a
pull to get that recognition all over again.
Once a person achieves some level of celebrity, they aren’t always prepared for
what happens. Perhaps, more importantly, no one ever tells them what happens when
they are no longer in the public eye. Jack’s rise to fame in both novels does come at a
price.
As he is on leave from The Rocky Mountain News to write his book, Jack is very
aware of the fact the money he earned is blood money because of Sean’s death.
119
To live
with that, he decides to give some of his royalties to Riley and Sean’s child.
At the beginning of The Scarecrow, Jack remembers his golden days. He
remembers when he had a best-selling book and was on television. But in his current
situation he has lost his self-esteem, slipping into a depression. Depression is a common
28
ailment among the famous, and even those who used to be famous.
120
He wanders around
in a fog until he finds a purpose again. His journey from The Poet to The Scarecrow is
the ultimate fall from the top.

29
Final Thoughts
Jack McEvoy is a hard-working reporter who spends more time with his computer
than developing meaningful relationships. He knows how to play hardball to get his
sources to tell him what he wants. Sometimes, he makes ethically questionable decisions,
which include sleeping with a source. But those decisions don’t get in the way of his
work. Jack is always more concerned about telling the truth than what it costs to get it.
Connelly’s protagonist shares characteristics with the image of male journalists in
other novels. His devotion to the craft and loneliness are seen in Jack McMorrow from
Gerry Boyle’s novels and Brian Keyes from Carl Hiaasen’s novels. Jack McEvoy and
Brian Keyes both have failed relationships. McMorrow and McEvoy know how to work
sources.
But do people read these portrayals?
The Scarecrow debuted at number six on The New York Times Paperback Mass-
Market Fiction list.
121
Since then, it has made it up to the number two spot
122
on the list,
ending its list run on April 11, 2010 in the number 17 spot.
123
This book has reached
many readers, and many more people will continue to read it.
So, what does Connelly’s image tell readers about journalists?
Readers see a man who has no life; who has been thrown away by his profession;
who had fame and then lost it and then got it again; who compromises his values; who
risks his life for his work; and who, most importantly, still manages to get the girl and
succeed through it all.
30
Steve Weinberg puts his concerns with fictional portrayals of journalists like Jack
this way:
In fact, I worry a lot about the unrealistic picture a nonjournalist must take away
from these novels: according to most of them, we lack an ethical center, sleep
regularly with sources, and solve so many crimes, especially murders, that it is a
wonder the police have anything to do.
124

Weinberg’s description of fictional journalists fits Jack McEvoy nearly perfectly.
Yet, he misses some important points. Images like Jack McEvoy, Jack McMorrow and
Brian Keyes are not completely negative. They are hard workers who care immensely
about their profession and finding the truth. And even though their personal glory
sometimes gets the better of them, the hazards of the business bring them back to reality.
Weinberg also fails to acknowledge one other vital component of the journalist’s image.
He doesn’t take into account that no matter how negative the portrayal is it is still rooted
in a little truth. Some journalists do sleep with sources; some also are unethical.
However, readers may remember the darker images more than the good. If they
do, those images would cloud their judgment of journalists and journalism as a whole.
Social Judgment Theory
125
states that when a person is presented with a statement or
message about a particular subject, they make decisions about that subject based on what
they already know. Thus, if a person only sees images similar to Jack McEvoy, they
might assume all journalists sleep with their sources or drink and stay to themselves.
They might not remember Jack’s positive qualities.
So, while the images of the journalist in fiction definitely have both positive and
negative characteristics, perhaps it’s more important to keep in mind the lasting effects of

31
these portrayals. Characters like Jack have tremendous staying power. They stick around
not only on the page, but in the minds of the thousands of readers as well.

32
Endnotes

3
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 17.

4
Op. Cit., p. 92.

5
Michael Connelly is a fiction crime writer who has written more than 20 novels. He has
gained the most readership from his series on detective Hieronymous Bosch, penning 15
novels about the character. Before Connelly started writing novels, he worked as a
journalist in Florida and Los Angeles, primarily covering the crime beat.

6
McEvoy appears in The Poet, The Scarecrow and then briefly in A Darkness More Than
Night and The Brass Verdict.

7
The Poet and The Scarecrow are novels in which McEvoy is the main character. He
only appears briefly in A Darkness More Than Night and The Brass Verdict.

8
Writing skills, determination, and an uncanny ability to find things other people would
miss.

9
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 212.

10
Op. Cit., p. 272.

11
Op. Cit., p. 17.

12
Op. Cit., p. 17.

13
Op. Cit., p. 99.

14
Op. Cit., p. 18.

15
Op. Cit., p. 22.

16
Op. Cit., p. 79.

17
Op. Cit., p. 92.

18
Op. Cit., p. 206.

19
Ibid.

20
Op. Cit., p. 182. Jack and Rachel meet on an elevator ride. He looks at her in the
elevator and thinks she is attractive. They get off at the 12
th
floor together and Jack walks
33

to his room. He opens the door and the next thing he knows she has him pinned to the bed
as she announces she is an FBI agent and he is under arrest. She cuffs him and takes him
by car to Quantico, FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. On the way, however,
something she says makes Jack wonder and he begins to question her. Eventually he
figures out she is lying. She then admits it’s all a scam, and he is not under arrest.

21
Op. Cit., p. 275. They make love on multiple occasions in the novel.

22
William Gladden, the killer, is a pedophile who makes his living by selling photos of
children and his murder victims. He uses a digital camera, which is not sold by a lot of
retailers in 1995. So, he has to special order it, and the FBI figures out his source.

23
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 423.

24
Op. Cit., p. 500.

25
Michael Connelly, A Darkness More Than Night (New York: Grand Central
Publishing, 2001).

26
Op. Cit., p. 447.

27
Michael Connelly, The Brass Verdict (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2008).

28
Op. Cit., p. 321. Haller is mad at Jack because Jack promised him a story would run by
Sunday and it was now a Thursday. Jack has to explain it was the editor’s fault. They
pushed the story back. Haller doesn’t buy it.

29
Op. Cit., p. 523.

30
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 113.

31
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 74.

32
Op. Cit., p. 9. Jack is laid off on a Friday and has the weekend to ponder what to do
next.

33
Op. Cit., p. 11. Jack regales Larry Bernard, a fellow L.A. Times reporter, with the day’s
events. Larry says the first sentence in the dialogue. Jack replies. They go to a bar called
the Short Stop, and Jack drinks so much the bartender takes away his keys. He continues
to drink throughout the weekend.

34
The Los Angeles Times takes up one square block on Spring Street in downtown Los
Angeles.
34

35
Op. Cit., p. 13.

36
A mojo refers to a young reporter who could do it all and had the drive to do it all as
well. Jack is an oldjo.

37
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 21-22.

38
Op. Cit., p. 71.

39
Alonzo’s grandmother, Wanda Sessums, lives in Rodia Gardens, a housing project in
one of L.A.’s poorest neighborhoods.

40
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 119.

41
Op. Cit., p. 119-120.

42
Denise Babbit, the woman Alonzo was accused of killing, had a drug arrest the year
before. Sharon Oglevy, the woman killed in the earlier case, was in the middle of a
divorce.

43
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 353. Jack had been given a letter from the lawyer
in the Las Vegas case, stating that he was working for the lawyer. This letter was
supposed to allow Jack into the prison where the wrongfully accused man, Brian Oglevy,
was being held so he could interview him. The killer foiled his plan before he could
conduct the interview.

44
Jack and Rachel see a box of items. In it are a few books, a set of keys, flash drives and
a coffee mug with the requisite pen and pencils.

45
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 489-491.

46
Op. Cit., p. 495. The velvetcoffin.com is modeled after LAObserved.com. The site’s
editor is also modeled after the real site’s editor, Kevin Roderick. “Velvet coffin” is the
nickname given to the Los Angeles Times in the 1970s, because it took such good care of
its employees that no one ever left.
47
Op. Cit., p. 299.

48
Parker Center is the administration building for the Los Angeles Police Department.

49
Op. Cit., p. 101.
50
Rick Edmonds, “Another Dismal Circulation Report Is On the Way,” Poynter Online, 5
October 2009, http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=171113.

35

51
Michael Connelly, “The Scarecrow Interview with Michael Connelly,” Site managed
by Jane Davis,
http://www.michaelconnelly.com/Book_Collection/Scarecrow/Interview/interview.html
(accessed January 30, 2010).

52
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 80.

53
Op. Cit., p. 374.

54
Op. Cit., p. 495.

55
Seasoned reporters, who have been in the business for years, are often referred to as
members of the 30 club, a term derived from the symbol used at the end of an article (-
30-).

56
This corresponds to the state of the news industry in the mid-90s. Things were still
stable. The A-section was still tacked above the urinals in the men’s room.

57
Jack receives most of his research on the road when Laurie Prine, The Rocky Mountain
News’ librarian, would put the files into his electronic basket.

58
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 87. Alonzo’s lawyer hands Jack a flash drive that
contains all of the important documents relating to Alonzo’s case. The flash drive is a
sign that Jack is now in the digital world.

59
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 83. Jack records his conversation with Alonzo’s
lawyer by using a microrecorder, making a point in his narrative to mention the
equipment is about the size of a lighter.

60
The Scarecrow used the information electronically stored in the data center to find his
prey, and he used the Internet to find Angela and Jack.

61
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 207. Jack came across these lines of poetry from Poe
while researching the author and poet for his story on the serial killer. On this page, he
finds the words sticking in his mind after Rachel leaves him to get coffee during an FBI
meeting.

62
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 271.

63
Op. Cit., p. 70.

64
Joshua Talley, “The Stringer,” The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Student
Research Papers, December 2004,
36

http://www.ijpc.org/IJPC%20Student%20Journal%20Josh%20Talley%20McMorrow.pdf
, p. 2 and 4.

65
Cortney Fielding, “Seen Better Days: The Portrayal of Journalists in Carl Hiaasen
Novels,” The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Student Research Papers, July
2006, http://www.ijpc.org/IJPC%20Student%20Journal%20-
%20Cortney%20Fielding.pdf, p. 5.

66
Ibid.

67
Joseph Saltzman, “Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: a Unique
Method of Studying the Public’s Perception of Its Journalists and the News Media,”
(presentation, annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication, San Antonio, TX, August 12, 2005), p. 37.

68
Op. Cit., p. 2,10, 11, 14, 15, 20, 21, 27, and 29.

69
Op. Cit., p. 21.

70
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 11.

71
Op. Cit., p. 32.

72
While Rachel did resign after a personnel hearing in Washington, D.C., and she joined
Jack in Phoenix that same day, Rachel’s resignation was never really official, and, after
she and Jack found who they thought were the killers at Western Data, her status as an
agent was reinstated.

73
Op. Cit., p. 355.

74
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 352.

75
When Jack first encountered Warren, Warren was working for a law enforcement
research department, working on a study about police suicides. Warren had recently left
the Los Angeles Times where he worked as a reporter. While investigating the suicides,
Warren agrees to be an anonymous source for Jack, giving him copies of files that help
him with the case. Warren’s boss finds out he leaked Jack the files, and Warren resigns,
using Jack’s story to get back with the Los Angeles Times.
76
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 328.

77
Different reporters were assigned to the Poet story after Jack killed one of the killers.
In the Scarecrow story, another reporter was assigned when Jack found Angela dead
under his bed and also when Jack killed one of the killers.
37

78
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 88.

79
Op. Cit., p. 197.

80
Joshua Talley, “The Stringer,” p. 5.

81
Joe Saltzman, “Analyzing the Images of the Journalist in Popular Culture: a Unique
Method of Studying the Public’s Perception of Its Journalists and the News Media”
(presentation, annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication, San Antonio, TX, August 12, 2005), p. 36.

82
In The Scarecrow, he lies his way into the building, posing as an employer for a Las
Vegas law firm.

83
Jack goes one step further than this, negotiating his way onto the FBI’s investigative
team in both novels.

84
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 70. Sonny Lester, a photographer Jack takes with
him on an interview, accuses Jack of using the person he spoke with for the sake of a
story. While Jack admits Sonny is right, once Jack finds out the truth, and he pursues the
story in the public interest.

85
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 500.

86
Rachel had been married and divorced before the start of The Poet. Her relationships
with men had gone just as poorly as Jack’s relationships with women.

87
Courtney Fielding, “Seen Better Days: Portrayals of Journalists in Carl Hiaasen
Novels,” p. 6.

88
Op. Cit., p. 6.

89
Op. Cit., p. 36.

90
Greg Glenn in The Poet and Alan Prendergrast in The Scarecrow both are concerned
more about the paper than the reporter.

91
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 21.

92
Op. Cit., p. 149.

93
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 138.

38

94
Ibid.

95
Op. Cit., p. 248.

96
Op. Cit., p. 249.

97
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 95.

98
“Code of Ethics,” Society of Professional Journalists,
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

99
Ibid.

100
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 193.

101
“Code of Ethics,” Society of Professional Journalists. Under the minimize harm
heading, reporters should “treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings
deserving of respect.”

102
“Knowledge Gap,” University of Twente, 6 September 2004,
http://www.cw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/knowl
edge_gadoc/.

103
Bobby Smathers, a young boy, was brutally murdered. His death also led to the death
of a homicide cop on the case.

104
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 111.

105
Op. Cit., p. 118.

106
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 319.

107
Op. Cit., p. 322.

108
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 121.

109
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 17.

110
Op. Cit., p. 70.

111
Op. Cit., p. 332.

112
Op. Cit., p. 301-302.
39

113
Mike E. Le Pelley, Stian J. Reimers, Guglielmo Calvini, Russell Spears, Tom Beesley,
Robin A. Murphy, “Stereotype Formation: Biased by Association,” Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General 139, No. 11, (2010): p. 138.

114
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 500.

115
Michael Connelly, The Scarecrow, p. 74.

116
Michael Connelly, A Darkness More Than Night, p. 82.

117
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 99.

118
Bakari Akil II, “The Theory of Social Validation,” Psychology Today, 13 September
2009, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-central/200909/the-theory-
social-validation.

119
Michael Connelly, The Poet, p. 500.

120
Mary Loftus, “The Other Side of Fame,” Psychology Today, 1May 1995,
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199505/the-other-side-fame.

121
“Paperback Mass-Market Fiction,” The New York Times, 5 February 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/books/bestseller/bestpapermassfiction.html?ref=revi
ew.

122
“Paperback Mass-Market Fiction,” The New York Times, 19 February 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/books/bestseller/bestpapermassfiction.html?ref=revi
ew.

123
“Paperback Mass-Market Fiction,” The New York Times, 11 April 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2010-04-11/mass-market-
paperback/list.html.

124
Weinberg, Steve, "The Reporter in The Novel," Columbia Journalism Review 36, no.
4 (November 1997): 17-18. Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost.
(accessed February 13, 2010).

125
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Connelly, Michael. “The Scarecrow Interview with Michael Connelly.” Site managed by
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(accessed January 30, 2010).

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42
Appendix: The Characters

Journalists in The Poet:

Jack McEvoy – At the start of The Poet Jack is a typical reporter for The Rocky Mountain
News. By the end of the novel, Jack is a celebrity, having killed a murderer and narrowly
escaping with his life. He investigates his brother’s death to discover a serial killer, who
preys on cops. He has an ethically questionable relationship with an FBI agent he works
with, and manages to sabotage that relationship when he wrongfully accuses her of
committing the Poet’s murders. Jack is a hard-working reporter who is not afraid to go
after what he wants.

Greg Glenn – City editor of the Rocky Mountain News who gives Jack the initial approval
in The Poet to write about his brother. He is a shrewd editor concerned with winning
journalism awards above all else. Glenn prizes a good read over facts and is not afraid to
make changes to the stories his reporters write. Jack is wary of Glenn, withholding
information about the case from the editor on multiple occasions. Glenn finally decides
Jack is too close to the story to write it after Jack shoots William Gladden, the serial
killer.

Van Jackson – Crime reporter at The Rocky Mountain News.

Laura Fitzgibbons – University beat reporter at The Rocky Mountain News.

Laurie Prine – Librarian at The Rocky Mountain News. She helps Jack research cop
suicides and serial killers in The Poet.

Michael Warren – A former Los Angeles Times reporter for the Washington bureau, who
got burned out on the job and decided he wanted to be a family man. He left to be a
media handler at the Law Enforcement Foundation. Jack sees Warren to try to get access
to LEF’s database, regaling Warren with his theory about his brother’s death and the
serial killer who lures children and cops in. Warren agrees to help Jack, remembering
what it was like to be a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. Warren’s fond memories
inspired him to write a story about what Jack had told him, publishing the piece in the
Los Angeles Times before Jack has a chance. This pisses Jack off, resulting in a rather
unpleasant (and bitter on Jack’s part) phone conversation. Warren uses the piece he wrote
to get the Los Angeles Times to hire him back.

Journalists from The Scarecrow:

Jack McEvoy – The beginning of The Scarecrow shows Jack in a vulnerable position.
Once a highly esteemed journalist, he now faces being laid off from the Los Angeles
Times staff. But he decides to go out with a bang, and investigate one last story. In the
process, he discovers a pair of serial killers, who had remained under the radar of law
43
enforcement. He ends up killing one of the murderers, and then almost loses his life at the
hands of the other one. Jack’s a real go-getter who will do anything to get that final story.
Again, Jack finds himself in a relationship with the FBI agent from The Poet. By the end
of the book, Jack’s relationship with the agent is still going strong, and he has gained a
sort of celebrity status from his involvement in the capture of the Scarecrow.

Richard Kramer – An editor at the Los Angeles Times, who is in charge of laying people
off.

Larry Bernard – A veteran reporter at the Los Angeles Times, who is very happy Jack was
let go instead of him. He is much more concerned about himself than his long-time
colleague. Bernard believes Jack got the axe because the Los Angeles Times overpaid
Jack when they hired him.

Angela Cook – A journalist fresh out of journalism school, who has been tapped to
replace Jack. She has been trained to do it all: write, blog, and produce video. She is
eventually killed by the Scarecrow, and her body is planted under Jack’s bed.

Don Goodwin – A former Los Angeles Times reporter turned blogger for the
velvetcoffin.com. The website posts stories about what goes on behind the scenes of
L.A.’s media world. Goodwin is modeled after Kevin Roderick a former reporter who
started LAObserved.com.

Keisha Russell – Jack’s ex-wife, who was sent to work for the Washington, D.C. bureau
of the Los Angeles Times. Her byline appears in The Poet, but her character is not
explored further in the novel. At the beginning of The Scarecrow, however, Jack feels she
is more successful than him.

Dorothy Fowler – The city editor at the Los Angeles Times. She liked to work as an equal
with her reporters, ditching her fancy glass office for a desk by her journalists. Fowler
gets straight to the point when she talks to her reporters. When Jack tells her about the
death of Jack’s replacement, Angela, she is suspicious.

Alan Prendergrast – “Prendo” is Jack’s go-to guy at the Los Angeles Times. Prendo works
in the first level of management, and Jack’s relationship with Prendo is challenged when
Prendo is found conspiring with Angela to take Jack off his Los Angeles Times story.

Michael Warren – The same Warren from The Poet, who is still at the Los Angeles Times
after using Jack’s story on the Poet to get a job at the paper. Jack doesn’t get along with
him, because Warren stole the story, referring to him as unethical.

Sonny Lester – A photographer at the Los Angeles Times. Jack takes Lester with him to
interview Wanda Sessums, the grandmother of a man wrongly accused of a young
woman’s murder. Lester is taken along because he is black, and Jack hopes he will help
44
Jack get an interview. Jack tells Lester that he thinks the man has been wrongly accused.
After hearing Jack’s theory, Lester decides he wants in on the story, and Jack agrees only
to leave Lester out of the byline when the story finally gets published.

Van Jackson – Colleague of Jack’s at The Rocky Mountain News who briefly appeared in
The Poet. In The Scarecrow, Jackson is still without a job after The Rocky Mountain
News shut its doors. He calls Jack after hearing Jack was let go to tell him it’s tough out
there.

Patrick Denison – A cops/crime reporter at The Daily News, Los Angeles’ other daily
newspaper.

Esteban Samuel – The night editor at the Los Angeles Times. He is one of the first people
Jack sees after discovering Angela, Jack’s replacement, dead. Jack tells him what
happened.

Emily Gomez-Gonzmart – A great reporter on the Los Angeles Times metro staff, who is
a self-starter. She earned the nickname GoGo.

Family:

Millie McEvoy – Jack’s mother. She is hardly mentioned in The Poet, except in a few
brief telephone interactions, at Sean’s funeral and flashbacks. In The Scarecrow, she is
mentioned even less. Jack feels that both his parents resent him for surviving the accident
that killed his sister. Millie is the only person who calls Jack, John.

Tom McEvoy – Jack’s father. Like Millie, he is hardly mentioned in both The Poet and
The Scarecrow. His main contribution is teaching Jack how to smoke. Jack says his father
reminds him of the Marlboro man.

Sarah McEvoy – Jack’s sister. She was older than Jack, and she died when he was a kid.
Jack ran out onto frozen Bear Lake, near Denver, and Sarah ran on the ice to get him. But
she fell through the ice and drowned. Jack felt responsible for his sister’s death, and he
felt guilty because his brother, Sean, tried to cover up for him.

Sean McEvoy – Jack’s twin brother, who ended up working as a cop in Denver. Sean
became obsessed with the murder of Theresa Lofton, a university student who worked
with children. He began seeing a psychiatrist because of the case. His obsession led to his
death. At first, his death was ruled a suicide. But after perseverance and some journalistic
detective work, Jack found out his brother was murdered by a serial killer.

Riley McEvoy –Sean’s wife. Jack and Riley’s relationship was somewhat awkward since
Jack had a crush on Riley in high school. He was awkward and never knew how to
45
pursue her. But his brother did. Riley is pregnant when Sean dies, and Jack decides to
leave the money he earned from his book deal to Riley and her child.

Law Enforcement:

Rachel Walling – Jack first meets Rachel in The Poet while he is investigating the serial
killer who murdered his brother. Their relationship gets of to a rocky start when Rachel is
charged with detaining Jack after he takes some files from storage. After Jack is allowed
to observe the FBI’s investigation, Rachel is assigned to look after him, making sure he
doesn’t talk about the case before he is supposed to. During this time, their relationship
changes, and they have become intimately involved. But by the end of The Poet, Jack has
trust issues and accuses Rachel of being involved with the killings. Rachel saves Jack
from the real serial killer, Bob Backus, but she couldn’t save their relationship. In The
Scarecrow, Rachel and Jack reunite for the first time in years. Rachel had been forced to
work on an assignment far away from Jack, and they ended up not keeping in touch. But
they relatively quickly rekindle their romance and again find themselves tiptoeing the
ethical line. Jack and Rachel throughout the book work closely together to find the
killers. At times, Rachel is skeptical of Jack’s theories. But she always gives in to him.
Unlike the previous novel, the pair ends up together by the end of The Scarecrow.

Harold Wexler – Wexler worked with Sean on the Denver Police Department. During his
initial investigation in The Poet, he uses Wexler as his point man in the Denver Police
Department, convincing Wexler to let him look at his brother’s police file. Jack also tells
Wexler that he doesn’t think Sean committed suicide.

Terry McCaleb – A criminal profiler, who is one of the main characters in A Darkness
More Than Night. Jack is trying to contact McCaleb for an interview, but McCaleb wants
nothing to do with Jack.

Harry Bosch – A detective, who is also a main character in A Darkness More Than Night.
Like McCaleb, Bosch tries to avoid talking to Jack, and Bosch views Jack as a pest who
should be squished.

Attorneys:

Mickey Haller – A defense attorney who is the main character in The Brass Verdict.
Haller’s relationship with Jack is limited to a few brief interactions with the reporter. Jack
is seen as almost stalking Haller for an interview, appearing virtually out of nowhere to
ambush him.

Killers:

William Gladden – A convicted pedophile, who was accused of the murders in The Poet.
Jack kills Gladden in Los Angeles, a move that results in Jack’s removal from the story.
46
The FBI knew Gladden was in L.A. living under an alias. He had gotten in trouble for
taking photos of children in Santa Monica. The police seized his camera, and when the
FBI found this out, they knew Gladden would need to buy a new one. Because Gladden
used a fancy digital camera that not many stores sold, investigators were able to track him
and set up a sting operation to catch him. Jack disrupts the sting, and in the process ends
up killing Gladden. But Gladden turns out to be a patsy for the real mastermind behind
the killings: FBI agent Bob Backus.

Bob Backus – Backus was an FBI big shot in The Poet, who used his power in the bureau
to cover up the fact that he was the main guy behind the killings. He was responsible for
letting Gladden out of prison, giving Gladden the opportunity to kill and Backus the
chance to blame someone for the Poet’s killings. Backus had a tough relationship with his
father, a criminal profiler for the FBI. That relationship led Backus to want to kill other
cops.

Wesley Carver – Works for a data storage center in Phoenix where he serves as one of
the primary employees. Carver uses his access to client data to find his victims in The
Scarecrow. He also uses his cyber savvy to impede Jack’s investigation of the killings,
draining Jack’s bank account and hacking into Jack’s computer. Like Backus in The Poet,
Carver frames someone else (his boss at the storage center in this case) for the murders he
committed. Rachel ends up saving Jack from Carver, shooting and killing him, a scenario
similar to the end of The Poet.

Marc Courier – Carver’s partner in crime, who ends up being the original suspect in the
killings. Courier works with Carver and the pair of them pulls off the murders together.
Jack kills Courier at an Arizona hotel after he chases Courier down. Courier had posed as
a room service attendant to capture Rachel and kill her. But Jack catches Courier just in
time to chase him.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This work examines the journalist Jack McEvoy as he appears in four of author Michael Connelly’s novels. Though, he is the main protagonist in only two: The Poet1 and The Scarecrow.2 In these two novels, McEvoy’s circumstances change but he maintains some of the same journalistic characteristics. For this paper, McEvoy’s circumstances and characteristics will be compared with other images of the journalist in popular culture to determine what role McEvoy plays in the journalist’s image as a whole.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Walsten, Jessika Rachael (author)

Core Title Jack McEvoy: From his rise to fame to the end of his game

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Online Journalism)

Publication Date 04/29/2011

Defense Date 04/01/2011

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Harry Bosch,image,Jack McEvoy,journalism,Michael Connelly,OAI-PMH Harvest,reporter,The Poet,The Scarecrow

Place Name California (states), Chicago (city or populated place), Colorado (states), Denver (city or populated place), Illinois (states), Los Angeles (city or populated place), USA (countries)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Saltzman, Joseph (committee chair), Cray, Edward (committee member), Gustafson, Thomas B. (committee member)

Creator Email jrwalsten@gmail.com,walsten@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m3809

Unique identifier UC1502239

Identifier etd-Walsten-4536 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-461739 (legacy record id),usctheses-m3809 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Walsten-4536.pdf

Dmrecord 461739

Document Type Thesis

Rights Walsten, Jessika Rachael

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu