History Literature / FairWarning

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Vogel suggests tampering with Jack McEvoy's DNA to frame him as the killer, Hammond refuses, unwilling to frame a man. Though he also points out he wouldn't be able to get to the DNA to tamper with it if it wasn't assigned to him.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Hammond hates his female boss, and privately thinks all women are materialistic. It also pains him to see a man convicted of murdering a woman, which in his mind is not much of a crime, believes women deserve the pain they get, and claims a past incident (later revealed to be rape of a female student by a male professor) should not be a crime. Vogel too, when confronted on the website on the dark web, claims the women whose DNA they sell are "all whores". Hammond and Vogel are incels, so that's kind of the point.]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Hammond hates his female boss, and privately thinks all women are like her. It also pains him to see a man convicted of murdering a woman, which in his mind is not much of a crime, and claims a past incident (later revealed to be rape of a female student by a male professor) should not be a crime. Vogel too, when confronted on the website on the dark web, claims the women whose DNA they sell are "all whores". Hammond and Vogel are incels, so that's kind of the point.]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Hammond hates his female boss, and privately thinks all women are like her. It also pains him to see a man convicted of murdering a woman, which in his mind is not much of a crime, and claims a past incident (later revealed to be rape of a student by a professor) should not be a crime. Vogel too, when confronted on the website on the dark web, claims the women whose DNA they sell are "all whores". Hammond and Vogel are incels, so that's kind of the point.]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Hammond hates his boss, and privately thinks all women are like her. It also pains him to see a man convicted of murdering a woman, which in his mind is not much of a crime, and claims a past incident (later revealed to be rape of a student by a professor) should not be a crime. Vogel too, when confronted on the website on the dark web, claims the women whose DNA they sell are "all whores". Hammond and Vogel are incels, so that's kind of the point.

Jack's life gets turned upside down when he gets a visit from the LAPD. It seems that a year ago, he had a casual hookup with one Christina Portrero. The police are at his door because Tina Portrero was found in her home with her neck snapped. Jack isn't a serious suspect (and he's soon cleared by DNA), but he's drawn to the story as a reporter. Jack investigates the Portrero case and finds both a brutal SerialKiller and a surprising connection to find-your-ancestry gene websites.

Jack is doing consumer watchdog reporting for a website called [=FairWarning=]--it's a real website, fairwarning.org, although since the publication of this book it's been dissolved. His life hasn't gone as well as he might have hoped since ''The Scarecrow'': royalties from his two books have declined, his car has 160,000 miles on it, and he's had to move to a smaller apartment due to the meager salary from the website. Worst of all, he's broken up again with the love of his life, former FBI agent Rachel Walling. Four years ago, he used her as a source for a story, and he went to jail when a judge demanded he reveal his source. Rachel came forward and identified herself, destroying both their relationship and her FBI career.

* RealPersonCameo: Myron Levin, Jack's boss at [=FairWarning=], is a real guy who really does run [=FairWarning=].org.

* NewMediaIsEvil: Inverted at the end, when Jack and Rachel decide to turn the podcast into a crime-fighting tool.

Jack is doing consumer watchdog reporting for a website called [=FairWarning=] (it's a real website, fairwarning.org). His life hasn't gone as well as he might have hoped since ''The Scarecrow'': royalties from his two books have declined, his car has 160,000 miles on it, and he's had to move to a smaller apartment due to the meager salary from the website. Worst of all, he's broken up again with the love of his life, former FBI agent Rachel Walling. Four years ago, he used her as a source for a story, and he went to jail when a judge demanded he reveal his source. Rachel came forward and identified herself, destroying both their relationship and her FBI career.

** The "single-bullet theory" of love, passed on from Harry Bosch to Rachel and from Rachel to Jack, is mentioned again in this novel.

* ContinuityNod: Fewer than usual in Connelly books, mostly due to Jack [=McEvoy=] not interacting that much with the Harry Bosch 'verse.

* MalicioiusMisnaming: Detective Mattson mispronounces Jack's last name as "Mick-evoy". Soon enough Jack realizes that Mattson has a grudge against him and is doing it on purpose.
* RealPersonCameo: Myron Levin, Jack's boss at [=FairWarning=], is a real guy who really does run FairWarning.org.

It features neither his most frequent protagonist, Detective, Creator/HarryBosch nor his second most frequent protagonist, lawyer Literature/MickeyHaller. In fact this is the third appearance of IntrepidReporter Jack [=McEvoy=], 24 years after ''Literature/ThePoet'' and 11 years after [=McEvoy=] popped up again in ''Literature/TheScarecrow''.