Genres
Publication
Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (1997), 576 pages
Description
FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HARRY BOSCH AND LINCOLN LAWYER SERIES. An electrifying standalone thriller that breaks all the rules! With an introduction by Stephen King. Death is reporter Jack McEvoy's beat: his calling, his obsession. But this time, death brings McEvoy the story he never wanted to write--and the mystery he desperately needs to solve. A serial killer of unprecedented savagery and cunning is at large. His targets: homicide cops, each haunted by a murder case he couldn't crack. The killer's calling card: a quotation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His latest victim is McEvoy's own brother. And his last...may be McEvoy himself.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Narboink
Not being familiar with the quality of conventional thrillers, I’m in no position to judge the merits of this book in relation to its competition. It’s certainly not highbrow literature, but it admirably delivers the sort of humorless charm that one might reasonably expect from a bestseller.
On a side note, it’s interesting to read “The Poet” from a historical perspective. It takes place at the dawn of the Internet age, when digital cameras were expensive novelties, cellular phones were confined to automobiles, and the Internet was taking baby-steps through cumbersome and noisy dial-up modems.
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Plot is clearly the driving force of the novel, and Connelly keeps it that way by avoiding indulgences such as tangential mood-setting or extraneous emotional décor. This bracing minimalism helps maintain dramatic tension, but it does so at the expense of a richer reading experience. I many ways, “The Poet” is similar to the hour-long police procedurals we’re so used to seeing on television: a guilty-pleasure... a vaguely formulaic diversion that is satisfying without being particularly fulfilling. I might very well pick up another Connelly bestseller the next time I want to numb my mind at the beach while soaking up some sun.On a side note, it’s interesting to read “The Poet” from a historical perspective. It takes place at the dawn of the Internet age, when digital cameras were expensive novelties, cellular phones were confined to automobiles, and the Internet was taking baby-steps through cumbersome and noisy dial-up modems.
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LibraryThing member larryking1
For the past few decades, I have been slowly working my way across The Bosch Universe, a series of crime procedurals and/or thrillers that, as a rule, portray Detective Hieronymus Bosch, a hard-bitten LA loner who deals with bureaucracies at work and crime on the streets. There are also many other
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recurring characters herein and one of these is Jack McEvoy, a reporter who walks a fine line between the tottering vicissitudes of print journalism and his specialty, following the twisted trails of serial killers and their kin. Now, a month ago, the latest McEvoy came out, yet I had yet to read his first, The Poet. So, off I went, back to an autographed first edition with a receipt dated 1996. (Yes, I realize that I am a tad behind!) With his finely-tuned sense for detail, Jack finds a clue that makes him realize that a few random suicides of police detectives are not suicides at all: they had been stalked and murdered by a serial killer! Jack uses his knowledge to 'trade, and as a result, he receives in return total access to the FBI crew trying vainly to keep up with their crazed suspect. In an intriguing twist, every few chapters, we follow along with the travels and travails of this man, The Poet, the nom de plume of the pedophile, always a step or two ahead of the posse. Unlike many Connelly novels, this one goes all over the place: Denver, Chicago, Florida, Phoenix, LA, and even a few late-night drinks at one of my bistros, Hollywood's Cat & Fiddle! This was a tough, gruesome read, but I must be back with more Jack McEvoy before too long! Show Less
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
The first novel by Connelly that is not part of his Bosch series seems to be trying to be different - even though the story, after weaving through the country, ends up in Los Angeles and in one of the houses on the walls of the canyons, the novel is not about Los Angeles. Or about a broken cop. But
Meet Jack McEvoy. He is a reporter for a daily paper in Denver and he just lost his brother - a twin he was not that close with. The brother had been a cop but he did not die in the line of duty - he shot himself. Or so everyone believes anyway. Jack does not believe that, starts digging and finds what all cops had missed - they had expected a suicide so they either brushed up or ignored anything that did not fit. And the chase is on - because Sean McEvoy had not been the first victim of a murderer with a strange obsession with Poe. Add a woman, a jilted lover, a trek across the country, a red herring or two, a few psychopaths and a few more deaths.
The book is written in 1996 and it shows. No, it is not old-fashioned and the story actually works but... this is the time before wide-spread internet (mails and message boards are still around but the big revolution of Internet is still to come) and (mostly) before mobile phones; before the ability to just open a laptop and find the articles you need. It is in that midway moment of history when the world is already changing but is not where it will be very soon. Had this been set a decade or two later, some of the story could not have worked - the time lost in waiting for searches to be performed and someone to manually scan a book to find a poetry line would not be believable. And some of the plot relies on them. But if you account for the realities of the times, the plot works.
The biggest issue of course is that you know something is coming, a surprise ending. When you are 400 pages in a 500 pages book and it looks like it is wrapping up, you know something else is coming. In this case though it is not unexpected, Connelly leaves the clues through the story and weaves a nice net through them - so he can pull off the ending.
Jack is not supposed to be a likeable character - and he is not. And yet you want him to win - because somehow he is like every human being you know. On the other hand some of the supporting characters (*cough*Warren*cough*) are almost comically stereotyped - anyone not seeing him pulling the stunt he did is just not looking for it. But then, being written 20 years ago, how cliche was that back then? I suspect it was - but it serves its role. In some ways it serves as a smoke screen, hiding what is hidden in some of the other characters' actions.
At the end it was a satisfying read - a bit darker than I expected but at the same setting up the setting for bringing back some of the characters. And the parallels between McEvoy and Bosch are writing themselves - they have different histories and backgrounds, different jobs and interests and yet, you can see the shadow of one of them in the other.
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it is still about a broken man and his quest for justice. And as with all the early Bosch novels, the book reeks of despair from the first page - although the hope is never too far away. Meet Jack McEvoy. He is a reporter for a daily paper in Denver and he just lost his brother - a twin he was not that close with. The brother had been a cop but he did not die in the line of duty - he shot himself. Or so everyone believes anyway. Jack does not believe that, starts digging and finds what all cops had missed - they had expected a suicide so they either brushed up or ignored anything that did not fit. And the chase is on - because Sean McEvoy had not been the first victim of a murderer with a strange obsession with Poe. Add a woman, a jilted lover, a trek across the country, a red herring or two, a few psychopaths and a few more deaths.
The book is written in 1996 and it shows. No, it is not old-fashioned and the story actually works but... this is the time before wide-spread internet (mails and message boards are still around but the big revolution of Internet is still to come) and (mostly) before mobile phones; before the ability to just open a laptop and find the articles you need. It is in that midway moment of history when the world is already changing but is not where it will be very soon. Had this been set a decade or two later, some of the story could not have worked - the time lost in waiting for searches to be performed and someone to manually scan a book to find a poetry line would not be believable. And some of the plot relies on them. But if you account for the realities of the times, the plot works.
The biggest issue of course is that you know something is coming, a surprise ending. When you are 400 pages in a 500 pages book and it looks like it is wrapping up, you know something else is coming. In this case though it is not unexpected, Connelly leaves the clues through the story and weaves a nice net through them - so he can pull off the ending.
Jack is not supposed to be a likeable character - and he is not. And yet you want him to win - because somehow he is like every human being you know. On the other hand some of the supporting characters (*cough*Warren*cough*) are almost comically stereotyped - anyone not seeing him pulling the stunt he did is just not looking for it. But then, being written 20 years ago, how cliche was that back then? I suspect it was - but it serves its role. In some ways it serves as a smoke screen, hiding what is hidden in some of the other characters' actions.
At the end it was a satisfying read - a bit darker than I expected but at the same setting up the setting for bringing back some of the characters. And the parallels between McEvoy and Bosch are writing themselves - they have different histories and backgrounds, different jobs and interests and yet, you can see the shadow of one of them in the other.
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
"Death is my beat."
Good first line of a good book! A journalist's brother's death is ruled a suicide, but he believes it's a homicide. Enter our serial killer, The Poet. But who is he/she? The book follows the path of Jack, the journalist, as he tries to uncover the motives and secrets of the
Good first line of a good book! A journalist's brother's death is ruled a suicide, but he believes it's a homicide. Enter our serial killer, The Poet. But who is he/she? The book follows the path of Jack, the journalist, as he tries to uncover the motives and secrets of the
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person whom he believes killed his twin brother. The story is pretty straight forward, but has some decent twists and turns at the end. I liked it overall, but I never liked Jack, and that made it hard to really care about him as the "hero" of the novel. I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't read another one with him as the "star". But I did love the Poe quotes! Show Less
LibraryThing member SpaceandSorcery
Since my riveting binge of the TV show Bosch during last year’s lockdown, I’ve started reading Michael Connelly’s books focused on his most successful character and reached volume nr. 6 so far, but I’ve become aware that this very prolific author has written a good number of other
Jack McEvoy is a journalist specialized in the analysis of violent crimes: when his twin brother Sean, a detective with the Denver PD, takes his own life, Jack is shocked but led to think, along everyone else, that Sean was depressed because of his inability to solve a brutal murder he was working on. Searching for details on the case, Jack finds some evidence that seems to indicate Sean’s death could have been a murder disguised as a suicide, and so he starts a search that points toward a serial killer whose actions have eluded the attention of the police and also of the FBI, that is now called into action to uncover the truth under a so-far ignored chain of police officers’ “suicides”. With the help of FBI agent Rachel Walling, Jack joins the pursuit of the killer nicknamed “The Poet” from the Edgar Allan Poe quotes found on the murder scenes: the journalist is driven by the need to discover the truth about what happened to Sean, of course, but there is also the possibility of a huge scoop on the horizon, because discovery and capture of the Poet will gain nationwide attention…
The Poet starts in a quiet, almost sedate way, but once the narrative gears are set in motion the story takes on the speed of an avalanche, inexorably advancing toward the final showdown (which works also as a “to be continued” because not everything is resolved here): I have by now become familiar with Connelly’s narrative style and his successful way of taking the readers through wrong turns and blind alleys, or to trick them with some misleading clues, but here he literally does it with a vengeance, delivering a compulsive read that I found difficult to put down. One of the winning elements in this novel is the change in POV, which alternates between Jack McEvoy (presented in third person) and William Gladden, the killer (presented in first person): where Jack’s segments prove quite intriguing, because the cat-and-mouse game between law enforcement and its prey is based on the collection of clues and a desperate battle against time, Gladden’s sections take us into the mind of this man who is not only a cold-blooded murderer, but also a very organized pedophile, which adds an element of horror to the whole story - not the horror of supernatural monsters, which we can easily dismiss because we subconsciously know they don’t exist, but the horror of a very real, dangerous and disturbed mind.
Considering the subject matter and the kind of emotional triggers it involves, I admired the author’s very light hand in dealing with it and in focusing more on the psychological aspects of the issue rather than on its more shocking ones, while refraining from any kind of moral judgment. On one hand we learn that Gladden was the victim of abuse in his childhood, but on the other we cannot forget that he’s become in turn the monster whose victims have suffered the same kind of abuse before being murdered: both facts are presented as starkly and unemotionally as possible, leaving any form of further consideration to the readers themselves, which is a choice I always appreciate.
Strangely enough, while I literally devoured the novel, I could never feel any kind of attachment to the main character: with any other story this might have proved counterproductive, but in this case the excitement of the chase ended up offering the kind of balance I needed to counteract my displeasure with McEvoy. What I did not like in him is the kind of duality at the roots of his character: of course he wants to know the truth of what happened to his brother, of course he wants justice for him and all the other victims, but underneath it all there is always the need to turn it into the next Great Story, to win the fame and acclaim he craves, even if he does not consciously admit it. Connelly’s characters are more often than not flawed, which makes them human and relatable, but I found Jack’s flaws irritating, and his desire to glean the hard facts for the sake of a Pulitzer-worthy series of articles feels… sinful, for want of a better word, because the victim who started the whole search was his brother, and from where I stand gaining fame and recognition from the death of a loved one feels like an empty accomplishment, if not a vile one.
FBI agent Rachel Walling is, on the other hand, an intriguing character who I believe deserved more narrative space, so I hope that her return in the Harry Bosch novel linked to this one will offer further insights into her personality. What we see here is an individual who is both driven and ambitious, but holds some darkness from the past, and I look forward to learning more about her. Her romantic relationship with McEvoy in The Poet never convinced me fully, partly because of my expressed prejudice against him, and partly because it seemed to evolve too quickly, just as it ended equally quickly, and since there is no POV from Rachel it’s impossible to get into her mind and see what makes her tick.
If, toward the end, the novel falters a little as it falls into the time-honored device of having the bad guy offer a long, drawn-out explanation to McEvoy before trying to kill him, it picks up by leaving the door open for the further exploits of the Poet, to which I certainly look forward. Given my lack of empathy with the main character, I doubt I will read other books in the Jack McEvoy series, but on the other hand The Poet confirmed that Michael Connelly is the first of my go-to authors when I am in the mood for a good thriller or a crime novel. And there’s still a lot of ground of explore there…
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standalone novels or series, so I decided to expand my search in a wider circle: once I found out that The Poet, first book in the Jack McEvoy series, is also connected to one of the next books for Harry Bosch, I decided to try it - learning that the story was about the search for a serial killer was also a strong motivator.Jack McEvoy is a journalist specialized in the analysis of violent crimes: when his twin brother Sean, a detective with the Denver PD, takes his own life, Jack is shocked but led to think, along everyone else, that Sean was depressed because of his inability to solve a brutal murder he was working on. Searching for details on the case, Jack finds some evidence that seems to indicate Sean’s death could have been a murder disguised as a suicide, and so he starts a search that points toward a serial killer whose actions have eluded the attention of the police and also of the FBI, that is now called into action to uncover the truth under a so-far ignored chain of police officers’ “suicides”. With the help of FBI agent Rachel Walling, Jack joins the pursuit of the killer nicknamed “The Poet” from the Edgar Allan Poe quotes found on the murder scenes: the journalist is driven by the need to discover the truth about what happened to Sean, of course, but there is also the possibility of a huge scoop on the horizon, because discovery and capture of the Poet will gain nationwide attention…
The Poet starts in a quiet, almost sedate way, but once the narrative gears are set in motion the story takes on the speed of an avalanche, inexorably advancing toward the final showdown (which works also as a “to be continued” because not everything is resolved here): I have by now become familiar with Connelly’s narrative style and his successful way of taking the readers through wrong turns and blind alleys, or to trick them with some misleading clues, but here he literally does it with a vengeance, delivering a compulsive read that I found difficult to put down. One of the winning elements in this novel is the change in POV, which alternates between Jack McEvoy (presented in third person) and William Gladden, the killer (presented in first person): where Jack’s segments prove quite intriguing, because the cat-and-mouse game between law enforcement and its prey is based on the collection of clues and a desperate battle against time, Gladden’s sections take us into the mind of this man who is not only a cold-blooded murderer, but also a very organized pedophile, which adds an element of horror to the whole story - not the horror of supernatural monsters, which we can easily dismiss because we subconsciously know they don’t exist, but the horror of a very real, dangerous and disturbed mind.
Considering the subject matter and the kind of emotional triggers it involves, I admired the author’s very light hand in dealing with it and in focusing more on the psychological aspects of the issue rather than on its more shocking ones, while refraining from any kind of moral judgment. On one hand we learn that Gladden was the victim of abuse in his childhood, but on the other we cannot forget that he’s become in turn the monster whose victims have suffered the same kind of abuse before being murdered: both facts are presented as starkly and unemotionally as possible, leaving any form of further consideration to the readers themselves, which is a choice I always appreciate.
Strangely enough, while I literally devoured the novel, I could never feel any kind of attachment to the main character: with any other story this might have proved counterproductive, but in this case the excitement of the chase ended up offering the kind of balance I needed to counteract my displeasure with McEvoy. What I did not like in him is the kind of duality at the roots of his character: of course he wants to know the truth of what happened to his brother, of course he wants justice for him and all the other victims, but underneath it all there is always the need to turn it into the next Great Story, to win the fame and acclaim he craves, even if he does not consciously admit it. Connelly’s characters are more often than not flawed, which makes them human and relatable, but I found Jack’s flaws irritating, and his desire to glean the hard facts for the sake of a Pulitzer-worthy series of articles feels… sinful, for want of a better word, because the victim who started the whole search was his brother, and from where I stand gaining fame and recognition from the death of a loved one feels like an empty accomplishment, if not a vile one.
FBI agent Rachel Walling is, on the other hand, an intriguing character who I believe deserved more narrative space, so I hope that her return in the Harry Bosch novel linked to this one will offer further insights into her personality. What we see here is an individual who is both driven and ambitious, but holds some darkness from the past, and I look forward to learning more about her. Her romantic relationship with McEvoy in The Poet never convinced me fully, partly because of my expressed prejudice against him, and partly because it seemed to evolve too quickly, just as it ended equally quickly, and since there is no POV from Rachel it’s impossible to get into her mind and see what makes her tick.
If, toward the end, the novel falters a little as it falls into the time-honored device of having the bad guy offer a long, drawn-out explanation to McEvoy before trying to kill him, it picks up by leaving the door open for the further exploits of the Poet, to which I certainly look forward. Given my lack of empathy with the main character, I doubt I will read other books in the Jack McEvoy series, but on the other hand The Poet confirmed that Michael Connelly is the first of my go-to authors when I am in the mood for a good thriller or a crime novel. And there’s still a lot of ground of explore there…
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LibraryThing member clif_hiker
After reading the 6th or 7th Harry Bosch story (A Darkness More than Night); I wandered over to this series with Jack MacEvoy. Bosch et.al. kept referring to the 'Poet' case, and MacEvoy shows up in connection with the new case... anyway, one of things I like about Connelly's books is that he so
The Poet is one of his earlier stories, and I really liked it through the first half of the book. Later on I could see it veering off into a 'bad cop' type of story with the only question as to which cop it was... It's still a very good read, and lays the groundwork for many of his later books.
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often writes from different viewpoints and still manages to tell a compelling story.The Poet is one of his earlier stories, and I really liked it through the first half of the book. Later on I could see it veering off into a 'bad cop' type of story with the only question as to which cop it was... It's still a very good read, and lays the groundwork for many of his later books.
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LibraryThing member debavp
If you have the edition that has the foreward by Stephen King--just skip that part. I almost didn't read this book because King touted it as being so frightening that he had to turn on more lights in his house while he was reading it. So I'm thinking this is as intense, if not more so, than King's
The subject matter could be construed as 'scary' in reference to who is actually doing the evil deeds, but not scary enough to keep you awake at night or looking over your shoulder :)
This is the one Connelly book that I really just didn't care for. A bit Patterson in presentation and a subject and plot that really didn't have much imagination to it. If you want to see what happens next to Jack McEvoy, he makes a brief appearance in A Darkness More Than Night.
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The Shining. I seriously kept picking up, but not starting it because I didn't want the crap scared out of me. So when I started reading, after about a third of the book I was just plain pissed because this was not scary at all. The subject matter could be construed as 'scary' in reference to who is actually doing the evil deeds, but not scary enough to keep you awake at night or looking over your shoulder :)
This is the one Connelly book that I really just didn't care for. A bit Patterson in presentation and a subject and plot that really didn't have much imagination to it. If you want to see what happens next to Jack McEvoy, he makes a brief appearance in A Darkness More Than Night.
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LibraryThing member jjlangel
This was written more than ten years ago, so the computer technology is quaint, but otherwise this is a very good thriller. I look forward to reading the further adventures of these characters...
LibraryThing member Heptonj
This is an excellent read. The first line hooks you.
A serial killer is on the loose and he is killing cops. The brother of one of the victims is a veteran journalist who brings the evidence the police need to treat the deaths as murder and not suicide as they have been called. He earns an 'in'
A serial killer is on the loose and he is killing cops. The brother of one of the victims is a veteran journalist who brings the evidence the police need to treat the deaths as murder and not suicide as they have been called. He earns an 'in'
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position with the FBI which brings internal conflicts and fascinating personalities into play. He becomes sexually involved with the lead investigator on the case but always holds back from giviing himself fully which is a disaster for both his personal life and the investigation. The expected ending begins, but finishes in an entirely different way to what is expected. Can't wait to read The Narrows which is a follow on but brings in our favourite Harry Bosch on the case. Show Less
LibraryThing member dazzyj
A high point in Connelly's relentless stream of solidly effective thrillers. This one has a marvellously twisty plot, and enough (seemingly) authentic FBI procedural detail to make its outlandish story line seem credible.
LibraryThing member Georg.Miggel
I really liked this book. It has a strong beginning and a lot of credible characters. What I liked most was the fact that it seemed to end on page 450. I thought: Ok, not a bad solution, but a bit obvious. But then I noticed there were still 100 pages to go. Finally I realized the end was not the
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end, but only a fake end, and then the "real story" was about to begin. Very strong and surprising until the very last page Show Less
LibraryThing member mrtall
The Poet was the only Michael Connelly book I'd never read, and I'll tell you what: that was an advantage! I'm a big Connelly fan, but this is surely his worst book; only the limp Chasing the Dime is in the running.
After four straight Harry Bosch police procedurals, Connelly obviously wanted to do
Connelly was a newspaper reporter for many years, and I can understand his desire to try out a newsie character. But his need to get his reporter 'inside' the FBI's investigation relies on an elaborate, unbelievable string of 'deals' that clog up the plot and that render the storyline implausible and the main characters unrealistic.
Connelly's a fine writer of police procedurals, so if you stick to Harry Bosch, you'll be fine.
After four straight Harry Bosch police procedurals, Connelly obviously wanted to do
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something different here. The protagonist, Jack McEvoy, is a newspaper reporter whose twin brother, a cop, has mysteriously committed suicide. McEvoy smells a rat, and soon is teaming up with the Feds to try to track down the Poet, an outlandish serial killer who targets lawmen.Connelly was a newspaper reporter for many years, and I can understand his desire to try out a newsie character. But his need to get his reporter 'inside' the FBI's investigation relies on an elaborate, unbelievable string of 'deals' that clog up the plot and that render the storyline implausible and the main characters unrealistic.
Connelly's a fine writer of police procedurals, so if you stick to Harry Bosch, you'll be fine.
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LibraryThing member PIER50
I am a big fan of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch character, and so I was interested to try out one of his other creations. The story of 'The Poet', an apparent serial killer and the newspaper reporter Jack McEvoy was fast paced and had a couple of good twists at the end. A couple of the 'love
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interest' scenes were a bit hammy, but overall, a good detective thriller on par with Connelly's best Show Less
LibraryThing member BillPilgrim
I read a review of Connelly's new book, The Scarecrow. It was a positive review, and I found a few other good reviews. I thought I would like to find a pulp writer that I would enjoy. I put a hold on The Scarecrow and looked for another of his works to read before that became available. This book
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sounded good and uses the same main character as the newest one, a newspaper crime writer. So I got this out of the library at the same time. I enjoyed the story a lot. It really pulled me in and held my interest. I read it quickly, spending a lot of time with it over only a few days. Although the writing made me wince fairly often, with cliches and awkward prose, this did not happen too often to ruin my enjoyment of the plot. Another good point was that I was not able to find any serious unbelievability with the story line. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
Connelly is definitely a master of the psychological thriller and this novel is a prime example. Although the motivations of the characters can seem simplistic, the way they act out is not and this creates a complicated and gripping mosaic of twists and turns. There is well finagled surprise ending
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and most refreshing: Connelly does not try to explain everything. A great read for those long waits at the airport! Show Less
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
The Harry Bosch novel which is frequently referenced in his later books. Usual high standards as Harry Bosch tracks the murderer with the moniker of The Poet.
LibraryThing member marient
Death is reporter Jack McEvoy's beat:his calling, his obsession. But this time, death brings McEvoy the story he never wanted to write-and the mystery he desperately neess to solve. A serial killer of unprecedented savagery and cunning is at large. His targets:homicide cops, each haunted by a
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murder case he couldn't crack. The killer's calling card: a quotation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His latest victim is McEvoys's own brother. And his last....may be McEvoy himself. Show Less
LibraryThing member Darrol
Too elaborate; 2 too many twists.
The thing that interested me through the book is the transitional nature of the technology in it. At the beginning of the digital/internet explosion.
The thing that interested me through the book is the transitional nature of the technology in it. At the beginning of the digital/internet explosion.
LibraryThing member ctpress
I do not read many books in this genre, but must admit it took me by surprise. Jack McEvoy, a journalist based in Denver, tries to find out more about his twin brothers suicide, the brother is a cop - and it leads him to a FBI investigation and a serial killer - the villain is creepy and
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intelligent and a memorable character. The conflict between McEvoy and the FBI-investigation (of course a female agent and love interest) is very funny. Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
I had previously read and enjoyed novels in the "Harry Bosch" detective series by Michael Connelly but I was not prepared for the intensity of suspense that he delivers in this thriller. The protagonist is Jack McEvoy, a newspaper reporter, who is introduced with these opening lines: "Death is my
With these words the story moves into what seems like hyper drive as the reader is presented with the reporter's single-minded pursuit of the serial killer who murdered his twin. Even his buddies in the Denver PD thought Sean McEvoy's shooting in the backseat of his car looked like a classic cop suicide, right down to the motive: his despondency over his failure to clear the murder of a University of Denver student. But as Sean's twin brother, Jack, of the Rocky Mountain News, notices tiny clues that marked Sean's death as murder, his suspicions about the dying message Sean scrawled inside his fogged windshield--``Out of space. Out of time''--alert him to a series of eerily similar killings stretching from Sarasota to Albuquerque.
THe twist and turns are handled so smoothly that even when you guess one of the plot twists there are two more lying in wait that you did not see coming. Connelly writes with a lucid style that provides just enough detail to demonstrate his knowledge of the territory without slowing the plot action. For example, there are scenes set in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago that is my back yard and the details are all accurate. Scenes like that made me believe he did the same for Baltimore and Phoenix when those cities become the scene of the action. In Jack McEvoy, the reporter, he has created not only a smart detective but also a very human being -- one that is easy to identify with. The result this with the controlled suspense makes this one thriller that I did had no difficulty finishing. An added treat are the literary connections that at least partially define the killer and help McEvoy in his pursuit. This is an exceptionally well written novel about a unique set of murders that are solved by an reporter born with a detective gene.
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beat. I make my living from it. I forge my professional reputation on it. . ."With these words the story moves into what seems like hyper drive as the reader is presented with the reporter's single-minded pursuit of the serial killer who murdered his twin. Even his buddies in the Denver PD thought Sean McEvoy's shooting in the backseat of his car looked like a classic cop suicide, right down to the motive: his despondency over his failure to clear the murder of a University of Denver student. But as Sean's twin brother, Jack, of the Rocky Mountain News, notices tiny clues that marked Sean's death as murder, his suspicions about the dying message Sean scrawled inside his fogged windshield--``Out of space. Out of time''--alert him to a series of eerily similar killings stretching from Sarasota to Albuquerque.
THe twist and turns are handled so smoothly that even when you guess one of the plot twists there are two more lying in wait that you did not see coming. Connelly writes with a lucid style that provides just enough detail to demonstrate his knowledge of the territory without slowing the plot action. For example, there are scenes set in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago that is my back yard and the details are all accurate. Scenes like that made me believe he did the same for Baltimore and Phoenix when those cities become the scene of the action. In Jack McEvoy, the reporter, he has created not only a smart detective but also a very human being -- one that is easy to identify with. The result this with the controlled suspense makes this one thriller that I did had no difficulty finishing. An added treat are the literary connections that at least partially define the killer and help McEvoy in his pursuit. This is an exceptionally well written novel about a unique set of murders that are solved by an reporter born with a detective gene.
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LibraryThing member souleswanderer
From the very first sentence Michael Connelly hooks the reader into Jack McEvoy's dark world. A newspaper reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, McEvoy has chased after death and written numerous articles dealing with not only the victim's story but the survivor's as well. How do you feel, one of
Marred by an earlier childhood tragedy and his subsequent perceptions of failing to live up to his parent's expectations, Jack isn't ready to accept the idea that his brother Sean, a Denver Police Officer, committed suicide. Balancing the fact that Sean was working a brutal and unsolved murder case, that bothered him enough to seek psychiatric counsel, and his own knowledge of his twin's past, Jack isn't able to console himself with the obvious facts pointing to suicide. Seemingly chasing a dead end case and managing to alienate those that were close to his brother, Joe continues digging into the incident and discovers that not everything is as it first looks.
As a reporter, Jack uses the resources of the newspapers vast database to discover another death similar to that of his brother and travels to Baltimore searching for an elusive sliver of hope that he might find answers to his questions. What Jack uncovers is a slowly evolving pattern of a serial killer, and he finds himself in a struggle with the FBI to retain his exclusive story while trying to discover the murderer of lead detectives all staged as apparent suicides.
Connelly does a superb job of slowly building the intensity and then keeping it taut, while leading the reader through a high profile, quickly changing man-hunt as each new series of clues is discovered. Following the series of events through Jack's eyes keeps the reader grounded and feeling like an outsider looking in when the FBI gives him the slip. We are also charged with the moral dilemna of a man struggling to keep the gray between black and white becoming too shaded.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Poet, and consider this one of the better Connelly novel's that I've read. He does an excellent job of creating characters, giving them flaws that I can relate to and circumstances that are always believable. Slowly making my way through the Bosch series, which I will claim as one of my favorite series and characters, I discovered that I needed more background for the next novel in the list. Hence, me picking up an earlier work and one that is out of sequence, although I have already come across a few references to the Poet, and McEvoy as a reporter, in the earlier novels.
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his first line of inquiries when chasing a story, has now settled around him like a thick, wool blanket rubbing against bare skin when news of his twin brother's death reaches him.Marred by an earlier childhood tragedy and his subsequent perceptions of failing to live up to his parent's expectations, Jack isn't ready to accept the idea that his brother Sean, a Denver Police Officer, committed suicide. Balancing the fact that Sean was working a brutal and unsolved murder case, that bothered him enough to seek psychiatric counsel, and his own knowledge of his twin's past, Jack isn't able to console himself with the obvious facts pointing to suicide. Seemingly chasing a dead end case and managing to alienate those that were close to his brother, Joe continues digging into the incident and discovers that not everything is as it first looks.
As a reporter, Jack uses the resources of the newspapers vast database to discover another death similar to that of his brother and travels to Baltimore searching for an elusive sliver of hope that he might find answers to his questions. What Jack uncovers is a slowly evolving pattern of a serial killer, and he finds himself in a struggle with the FBI to retain his exclusive story while trying to discover the murderer of lead detectives all staged as apparent suicides.
Connelly does a superb job of slowly building the intensity and then keeping it taut, while leading the reader through a high profile, quickly changing man-hunt as each new series of clues is discovered. Following the series of events through Jack's eyes keeps the reader grounded and feeling like an outsider looking in when the FBI gives him the slip. We are also charged with the moral dilemna of a man struggling to keep the gray between black and white becoming too shaded.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Poet, and consider this one of the better Connelly novel's that I've read. He does an excellent job of creating characters, giving them flaws that I can relate to and circumstances that are always believable. Slowly making my way through the Bosch series, which I will claim as one of my favorite series and characters, I discovered that I needed more background for the next novel in the list. Hence, me picking up an earlier work and one that is out of sequence, although I have already come across a few references to the Poet, and McEvoy as a reporter, in the earlier novels.
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LibraryThing member raizel
good of its kind, which is to say I don't know why his books, about awful stuff as murder mysteries are, are so comfortable to read, but they are.
LibraryThing member jmcclain19
The ending was disappointing, the method in which the serial killer overpowers his victims, (career homicide detectives) is incredibly weak. In the idea of not giving away spoilers, I'll let you find out for yourself, but it was just beyond the realm of possibility in my mind. There are twists &
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turns right up to that point however. The weak ending doesn't go along with a riveting storyline that takes you all over the US ending up in Connelly's familiar storyline back yard - Southern California. The main protagonist, Jack McEvoy, is a "warts and all" character, with enough flaws to make you wonder at times why you should care about him as the story's main focal point. Three & 1/2 stars - entertaining read but the Poet's method, when finally revealed, is a boat anchor on full story enjoyment. Show Less
LibraryThing member TimKiester
Excellent book! Well written, engaging and creepy.
LibraryThing member VirgoGirl
This was actually my first Michael Connelly book and it had me at hello! While the subject matter is dark, the plot and suspense keep you engaged the whole time. Loved it.
Subjects
Awards
Anthony Award (Nominee — Novel — 1997)
Dilys Award (Winner — 1997)
Nero Award (Winner — 1997)
Hammett Prize (Nominee — 1996)
Mystère de la critique (1998)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1996
ISBN
0752809261 / 9780752809267