The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2)

Jack McEvoy is at the end of the line as a crime reporter. Forced to take a buy-out from the LA Times as the newspaper grapples with dwindling readership and revenues, he’s got 30 days left on the job.

His last assignment? Training his replacement, a low-cost reporter just out of J-school who couldn’t find the police station if it was right next store to the Times, which it is.

But Jack has other plans for his exit. He is going to go out with a bang – a final story that will win newspaper journalism’s highest honor – a Pulitzer Prize. He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow’s so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent.