Fair Warning: a thriller that offers food for thought about the information we put out into the world — including our DNA

What is this about?

Jack McEvoy is a reporter who stumbles onto a story when cops come to interview him about a woman he dated — and who is now dead. From there, Jack takes his co-worker Emily, editor, Myron and ex down a rabbit hole of DNA, incels and the dregs of the internet.

What else is this about?

Whenever I hear warning stories about the private information I inadvertently put on the internet, I always listen with half an ear because I’m convinced I’m not going to be one of those people that get caught out — except anything is possible, and in the case of Fair Warning, plausible. Nothing about us is protected once we put it out into the world — including our DNA.

Blurb

The hero of The Poet and The Scarecrow is back in the new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly. Jack McEvoy, the journalist who never backs down, tracks a serial killer who has been operating completely under the radar–until now.

Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he’s ever encountered.

McEvoy investigates—against the warnings of the police and his own editor—and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. But his inquiry hits a snag when he himself becomes a suspect.
As he races to clear his name, McEvoy’s findings point to a serial killer working under the radar of law enforcement for years, and using personal data shared by the victims themselves to select and hunt his targets.

Called “the Raymond Chandler of this generation” (Associated Press), Michael Connelly once again delivers an unputdownable thriller that reveals a predator operating from the darkest corners of human nature—and one man courageous and determined enough to stand in his way.

Fair Warning is book 3 in the Jack McEvoy series, but I think Michael Connelly has crafted a story that can play as an introduction to Jack and his past, so you can jump right in with this book.

(Interestingly, Fair Warning is a real website, and Connelly is on the board. Myron, Jack’s editor, is the actual editor of the website)

Jack McEvoy comes with a history — a journalist who broke the stories of killers The Poet and The Scarecrow in books one and two of the series, but in this, those achievements are long past. Jack is now working as a reporter on a consumer website called Fair Warning. Connelly gives us just enough to know what happened to his personal relationship with Rachel, his ex, and where they stand — and that he wants a reconciliation.

When he is questioned as part of an investigation into the murder of a woman he had a one-night-stand with, Jack discovers that the woman, Tina, is just one part of a larger, more complicated story that no-one has managed to pick up on.

From there, readers accompany Jack on the trail of this story, of the leads he chases down and how he puts it all together. It’s such fun and interesting to see how he puts it together, and manages to convince Rachel that he has a case, and Myron, his editor, that they should be covering exactly what DNA companies do with the DNA they sell — in this case, women’s DNA, with a set of particular genes that indicate they are more inclined to addictive behaviour, is sold to a website controlled by incels. These guys are selling DNA and information to fellow incels who use it to essentially manipulate and sleep with women.

And one of them is a killer.

Given that I recently reviewed Follow Me, which included what men do on the Dark Web to spy on women, this is something that is ultimately frightening.

But, part of our reality it seems.

A journalist’s work is never done, and perhaps not as action-packed as you would think

I appreciated that while Fair Warning included some action, I enjoyed following Jack’s in reporter mode too — talking to the cops, convincing his editor to go with his story and that it belonged at Fair Warning in the first place. Not to mention, the very interesting ways he gets his information.

The interplay between Jack and Emily, his co-worker when she was is assigned to the story is another aspect that intrigued me — I don’t know the rules of journalists at a website like this, and now I find I want to know more.

Fair Warning is about the pursuit of the story, more than the outcome and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much.

There is a resolution to Jack’s search for the killer stalking woman, but it’s not quick and nor is it easy.

What does the future hold for Jack? 

Even though this is book 3 of a series, it’s a time in Jack’s life when he is leaving behind his past, in more ways than one, and moving forward into a new phase of his life.

I am excited for what the next book holds for the Jack, and the decision he makes at the end of this one to move into podcasts – Connelly has his own podcast so it seems a natural choice for Jack to make.

Have you read this series?