The Poet by Michael Connelly

Synopsis

Jack McEnvoy is a journalist who specializes in reporting high profile murder cases and he is good at what he does. When his twin brother, a Denver homicide detective, is found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Jack investigates the circumstances and refutes the official cause of death as a suicide.

Jack discovers some vague clues that lead him to several other cases involving homicide detectives that are apparently murdered and written off as suicide, thus uncovering a serial killer with a penchant for leaving cryptic clues from the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe.

Jack manages to overcome the volatile relations between himself as a journalist and the police and FBI agency, who harbor a natural contempt for anyone representing the media looking over their shoulders and disputing their work. He gets embedded with the FBI investigation and discovers that the skills that make for a good journalist also make for a pretty good detective, and that he was more like his brother Sean than he had ever thought.

As the body count rises, the plot takes some intriguing twists and turns, with the climax of the story delivering a surprising knock-out punch. * * *

My Two Cents Worth

My first experience with Connelly just happened to a book he wrote twelve years ago, The Poet. It represents a slight change of genre for me, but I find myself to be an instant fan with a long list of novels to be discovered by this clever and imaginative author. He writes this story with a level of skill and experience that leads you to believe that he has considerable real-life experience as a journalist working the homicide beat, much like the main character.

I found the first 107 pages of the book to be compelling and effective at developing the characters and setting the scene. It is from this point that the action shifts into gear and gains momentum that carries through to the various suspects, and hits full speed at the final twist in the story line that reveals the identity of the murderer. A masterful piece of storytelling on its own merits - you don't have to have read previous books to completely understand the characters - it is clear, concise and compelling.

If this is an accurate representation of Michael Connelly's work, he could quite possibly move into the Grisham, Ludlum, Baldacci stratosphere in my mind. Good read.

Paperback
501 pages
4 hours, 45 minutes