Read this thriller for the thrills, the computerized crime spree. Or read it for the sad reality of what's happening to almost all newspapers. Or read it to take in the work of a writer who can tell a gripping story through characters who live and breathe.

A return to form for Mr. Connelly and his sharpest book since “The Lincoln Lawyer”... “The Scarecrow” begins its crime plot routinely, with more emphasis on the press than on the investigation. Then it gets jacked up to a high level of suspense by the Scarecrow’s sinister powers in the Internet’s darker reaches. And then it turns back into something familiar, as Mr. Connelly allows the long-range demands of his career to diminish this particular book’s ending.