The Poet, The Scarecrow and The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

If you like Law and Order, you will love Michael Connelly books, and if you like listening to books, you will love the narrator for Connelly on audible.com.  His smooth voice and variety of character voices make you feel like you're watching a movie in your head.
 I first discovered Connelly last year on Audible, looking for some brain candy to listen to on vacation; I chose The Poet.  The main character, Jack McEvoy, is a newspaper reporter whose brother has recently committed suicide, but...did he??  Jack teams up with an FBI agent named Rachel, a newbie who gets way too personally involved with the case, and the two of them begin the hunt for a pretty ingenious serial killer.  Jack is allowed in on the FBI investigation, making him privy to all kinds of information he can use on a potential Pulitzer prize-winning article.
The Scarecrow follows these same two characters, five years later, on the heels of another creepy killer.    Jack's life is in a bit of a mess, as is his career, but this time it is Jack himself who gets pulled into the sphere of the murderer.  It's a thriller until the end, splicing together themes of love, psychosis, and the demise of the written word.
The Lincoln Lawyer was made into a movie last year (pretty good one, according to my family), but since I'm not a big fan of Matthew McConaughey, I bypassed the theater.  The book, however, is a humdinger.  At first, I thought...typical sleazy defense attorney, defending so-called 'innocent' client = same old, same old.  However, numerous twists exist in this book, plus it throws in a compliment about USC law school (where my daughter currently attends), so it's a winner.  I actually listened to
all three of these books while working out, driving, baking cookies, cleaning house - you get my drift - they're addictive.  There's just something about Connelly's stories - they're not what I would characterize as 'pretty' writing, but they are page turners.  He creates characters that are imperfect, scarred from life, yet enticingly likable.  Good authors have this ability, and Connelly certainly rates.   Highly recommend *****