Product Description

The apparent suicide of his policeman brother sets Denver crime reporter Jack McEvoy on edge. Surprise at the circumstances of his brother's death prompts Jack to look into a whole series of police suicides and puts him on the trail of a cop-killer whose victims are selected all too carefully. Not only that, but they all leave suicide notes drawn from the poems of writer Edgar Allan Poe in their wake. More frightening still the killer appears to know that Jack is getting nearer and nearer. An investigation that looks like being the story of a lifetime, might also be Jack's ticket to a lonely end.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8597 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

About the Author
A former police reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Connelly is the author of twelve acclaimed Harry Bosch thrillers and several other bestselling novels. He lives in Tampa, Florida, with his wife and daughter.

Customer Reviews

EARLY CONNELLY UNUSUAL BUT EXCELLENT
Michael Connelly is that rare thing: a consistently excellent thriller writer (see my review of "A Darkness More than Night"). "The Poet" is one of his earlier novels and doesn't feature rogue private eye Hieronymous ("Harry") Bosch. Instead, the hero is sensitive journalist Jack McEvoy, the apparent suicide of whose detective twin brother at the opening of the book sets the stage for a series of complex, intriguing and unpredictable events. There's an excellent cast of major and minor characters, drawn as always with Connelly's excellent deft strokes, and a series of useful twists. All this adds up to an excellent, highly commended read - a clear 5*.

There are two added features here. First, I've read nearly all Connelly's thrillers (see reviews) and this feels like the most personal. The first person narrative, the fact McEvoy is a crime reporter (as Connelly was) who wants to be a writer, the frequent references to his state of mind, feel almost intimate. Second, "The Poet" feels like a labour of love. The complexity and cunning of the plot, in particular, is redolent of a writer giving his all. I'm not knocking his later works - great, also - but here, Connelly has gone the extra mile. This has some downsides - the story does feel a little long in parts, and might be better trimmed by 50 pages. But it's still terrific stuff.

Pros - excellent, involving thriller. Cons - hardly any, but perhaps a mite long.

Meeting Evil Face-to-Face

Jack McEvoy is a crime-beat reporter in Denver whose twin brother, Sean McEvoy, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after obsessing over the murder and mutilation of a girl. Jack starts asking the kind of questions that only a journalist would think of, and bingo . . . he finds that there's something strange going on: There have been a lot of so-called suicides of police officers who have been investigating the murders of children and those who teach and tend them. The link seems to be that they all left notes that contain quote from Edgar Allen Poe.

Soon, Jack is on the hunt and his investigation draws the attention of the FBI when he tries to access a data base of police suicides. Can Jack find out what's going on . . . or will the FBI stonewall him?

This story doesn't start off as fast as most books about serial killers do. That's a shame. With a more powerful beginning, this story would be a classic. But be patient; the story speeds up as it goes.

One of the most appealing parts of this book is looking at the challenge of investigating crimes as a journalist rather than as a law enforcement professional. I think you'll find the contrast to be interesting.

The book also features lots of opportunities to get to know the serial killer so character development is excellent for building tension and interest.

Another Connelly classic
I've read all of the Harry Bosch series with moderate to ecstatic enjoyment, so I figured I should check out the beginning of the series and read them through. The books all revolve around Detective Bosch on the Homicide Squad of the Hollywood division, having apparently been demoted from the elite LAPD Robbery Homicide division for his questionable action in a high-profile serial killer case a year previously. (The events of that "Dollmaker" case are detailed in the book The Concrete Blonde, and be warned that key information about that case is revealed in this book.) This backstory establishes Bosch as a highly capable high profile detective who's somewhat of a loose cannon and marked man for LAPD Internal Affairs.

Once it's clear that there's been a murder, Bosch latches onto the case like a pit bull, pushing it through the procedural red tape.
Connelly spent many years covering local crime for the LA Times, and as in the other books of his I've read, has a good eye and ear for bringing all the little bits and pieces of procedure to life. The investigations always seem to point at a series of obvious suspects, but as any good thriller writer will tell you, it isn't always the butler that done it!! Bosch always seems to find himself tangled up with the FBI agents tasked with the investigation into his investigations ! Meanwhile, Internal Affairs has targeted him big time, and he spends a lot of energy evading their slimy grasp. There's a good deal of internal police politics at work, and Connelly does a nice job of bringing the depressing realities of this into the story.

Somewhat less convincing is the character of Bosch himself. He's the ultimate embodiment of the maverick, anti-establishment, "lone wolf"cop, always rubbing superiors the wrong way for no good reason, and generally being obnoxious and provocative in a way that only gets him in hotter water. For someone as self-avowedly committed to justice as he is, you'd think he would be a little smarter about when to mouth off, since the trouble he gets himself into only diverts him from pursuing justice. And of course, he drinks a bunch, smokes a bunch, listens to jazz, and doesn't have a lot of luck with women. Conspiracy-thrillerish by the end. Readers of serial books, Lee Child`s, `Jack Reacher` books are always excellent, as are the `Rebus` books by Ian Rankin, much more violent are the `Soft Target` thrillers by Conrad Jones, but the common threads are the common characters that make us go back for more of the same. Bosch is addictive reading and this is an excellent novel.
It also doesn't help that Connelly gives away what should be a shocking twist toward the end by providing a very obvious clue halfway through the book. These flaws, combined with the coincidence the story is built on and the cliché nature of Bosch, result in a book that works in fits and starts, but isn't nearly as good as it could have been.