Jack McEvoy

John "Jack" McEvoy is a literary character created by Michael Connelly in the 1996 novel The Poet and starring again it the sequel the Scarecrow thirteen years later. In the interim, McEvoy appeared in one Harry Bosch novel – 2001's A Darkness More Than Night – and one Mickey Haller novel – 2008's The Brass Verdict.

Connelly describes his time writing about McEvoy as his "least favorable writing experience" ^[1] because "he is easily the most autobiographical character I have ever written about".^[2] After publishing the Scarecrow, Connelly confirmed that "Jack is on the back burner."

McEvoy is reportedly at least somewhat based upon one of Connelly's childhood friends, who went by the same name. This version of Jack looks very different, and lives in the New England area, unlike the literary McEvoy. Apparently, Connelly and McEvoy are still close friends, and a reference to the latter can be found in almost every book of the former. McEvoy and Connelly are in a group of friends known to internal sources as "The Fam" or "The Squad," including members with aliases such as "Arm," "Potato," "Pumpkin," "Leg," "Mushroom," "Starfruit," and "Crouton." McEvoy has revealed his code name was "Flapjack." Connelly has not revealed this information.

Fictional biography

Jack was born in May 21, 1961, the son of Millie and Tom McEvoy, the twin brother of Sean McEvoy, the younger brother of Sarah McEvoy (who died in 1976), and the brother-in-law of Riley McEvoy. He grew up in Colorado before going to college at the Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois. After college, he traveled to Paris, then returned to Colorado and took a position covering the murder beat for the Rocky Mountain News.

He moved to Los Angeles in the late-1990s and covered the crime beat for the Times. While at the Times, he married and subsequently divorced fellow journalist Keisha Russell, who had previously appeared in Connelly's 1995 novel The Last Coyote.

References