Scarecrow Returns - Matthew Reilly

While I'm doing my Wheel of Time re-read I must be reading other books as well, otherwise I'd get way too backed up with books waiting to be read.  Yesterday, it was the long awaited Scarecrow Returns.  


I always thought I picked up my first Matthew Reilly book at Heathrow airport when I was 18.  Well, I very well may have picked up the book at Heathrow, but looking at back at the publishing date of Area 7, apparently it wasn't when I was 18, more like when I was 20.  Still, I think the publishers are wrong, that or they post dated the publishing date, right?


I read Area 7 without knowing that it was a second book and fell in love with, not just Scarecrow, but Matthew Reilly as well.  The man's fast paced writing style is amazing.  Naturally, I had to go back for Ice Station, and then I gobbled up his stand alone novels, Contest and Temple as well.  When Scarecrow came out, I was waiting with baited breath.  My paperbacks are falling apart they've been read and loaned out so much.  For Christmas one year I bought a friend the three Scarecrow books.  My brother and my husband, along with two of my husband's friends have read the Scarecrow books because of my enthusiasm.

If you also read Matthew Reilly and think I'm overlooking his Jack West books, I'm not.  The Jack West series is fun in its own way, but it doesn't stand out.  Scarecrow does.  Still, Matthew Reilly is an author whose books I always highly anticipate and always purchase without even reading the dust cover.

The US title of the latest Scarecrow book is, as seen above, Scarecrow Returns.  In Australia it's Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves.  Maybe because I'm American, I prefer the simple, Scarecrow Returns title.  The non-American title implies that Scarecrow is somehow the leader of the Army of Thieves, most definitely not the case.

Ah, Matthew Reilly has grown up.  The main thing, besides the action, that I love in the books, was that "no one is safe."  In a Matthew Reilly book, everyone is on the chopping block at one time or another, and our mighty hero Scarecrow might not get everyone saved.  The last book really drove that home.  Yet I am also quick to point out "It's action, not drama, think fast paced Tom Clancy."  If you're looking for the next great American (or Australian) novel, skip Reilly no matter how much I gush about the author and the books, Reilly's not for everyone, and I accept this.

The reason I say Reilly has grown up is that in Scarecrow Returns, Reilly manages to combine his classic fast thinking action sequences along side some real character developing moments.  Reilly did very well threading Scarecrow's story line from what was a defining moment of Captain Shane Schofield in the prior book into Scarecrow Returns.  By using the action/no one is safe plotting, he grew his characters beyond anything we've ever seen.  When Reilly wrote Ice Station he was 23, he's now 37, in this interview he explains how he feels he's "grown up."

Now I'm done with Scarecrow Returns and Reilly has not let me down.  He included more of a back story to the other novels that have gone before, even Hell Island, and Reilly spun another fast paced novel of amazing and unbelievable proportions yet made me believe in the story.  And Reilly even had some great character points as well.  On a Reilly scale 1 - 10, Scarecrow Returns is a 10+.

At the end of the interview Reilly spoke of who he would be writing about next, Jack West or Scarecrow and mentioned he doesn't know.  If Reilly is able to write again after the death of his beloved wife Natalie in December, I hope he chooses Scarecrow (and if not Scarecrow maybe a Black Knight novel).
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