The Poet

Rating:
Summary: Quality Pulp!
Review: Well, if there is such a thing. Just the antedote to all the depressing fiction and memoirs I have been reading lately. I couldn't put it down and I had no idea who the culprit was, right up to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Unmissable!
Review: The Poet is a departure from Michael Connelly's excellent Harry Bosch series, and better too - fresher and less predictably politically correct. The hunt for the Poet moves at a blistering speed, and the greatest puzzle, how the killer gained the trust of the victims, remains a mystery until the very end. As others have said, there is probably just one twist too many at the end, but for sheer pace and excitement this remains an unmissable read.

Rating:
Summary: ending not credible
Review: This was a teriffic book until the final chapters, when the author tacks on a "surprise" ending that is almost entirely disconnected from the body of the novel. It read as if Mr. Connelly had run out of creative steam at that point, but felt the need to add a final twist to the story (an otherwise time-honored device). He takes a fairly well-defined character and completely changes that characterization in the final pages, essentially creating a new character with only the most tenuous link to his/her (I won't give it away) former self. It didn't work for me.

Rating:
Summary: Is Connelly always this good?
Review: Who can satisfy me now after experiencing Michael Connelly's "The Poet"?

Rating:
Summary: It is an awesome thriller,the best book since The RainMaker.
Review: You never even come close to what the ending is until you've read it.I would recommend it to anyone who is into reading.

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Summary: CONNELLY DOES IT AGAIN!!!!!
Review: I HAVEN'T READ A CONNELLY BOOK I DIDN'T LIKE, AND THE POET IS CERTAINLY NO EXCEPTION. THE POE TIE-IN MADE IT EVEN MORE INTERESTING TO ME SINCE I TEACH ENGLISH, BUT THE PLOT ITSELF WAS EXTRAORDINARY. IT KEPT ME GUESSING UNTIL THE VERY END. WILL THERE BE ANOTHER CHAPTER FOR JACK AND RACHEL?

I ONLY HAVE BLOODWORK TO GO BEFORE ANGEL FLIGHT COMES OUT. MY ADVICE IS IF YOU'VE READ ONLY THE HARRY BOSCH BOOKS, TREAT YOURSELF TO THE POET. IT'S GREAT!!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, though too many twists!
Review: I thought this was an extremely well-written, exciting page-turner, I literally couldn't concentrate on anything else until I had finished it! The characters were sympathetic and very well drawn. The only flaw, in my opinion, was that there were too many twists at the end, but otherwise this is the best thriller i've read in the last year or two.

Rating:
Summary: Strangely unaffecting
Review: Michael Connelly has made a name for himself as one of the premier mystery writers today. "The Poet," a non-series effort, is about a serial killer who has been murdering police detectives and making the deaths look like suicides. The title of the novel is the killer's nom, taken from the fact that the deaths were accompanied by quotations from the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The notes, originally assumed to be suicide notes, were all in the victims' handwriting.

The protagonist is a reporter whose brother was one of the victims. The reporter injects himself into the investigation and accompanies FBI agents as they seek out the killer through a maze of pedophilia and internal leaks. When it becomes clear that one of the investigative team has leaked the story to the press, the reporter begins to suspect various members and wonders whom to trust.

What begins as an impressive setup does not last for "The Poet." Connelly does do a wonderful job of keeping the story tight and of keeping his characters from making absurd choices (a problem from which far too many mystery novels suffer). But the writing itself is not all that good, and the story never fully engaged me. In retrospect, I can see the efforts to which Connelly went to tie together complex points, but while I was reading it, I never fully embraced either the characters or the story.

Rating:
Summary: A spellbinding thriller with a heart-in-your-mouth ending!
Review: What an excellent book! I have to go along with the crowd on this one and say that it was a well written, researched and deviously plotted thriller. The storyline captivates and contains enough twists to keep you turning the pages while not getting confused as to what's going on. The story's conclusion raises the heart rate!.

Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful Connelley Book.When's the next one coming?
Review: Michael Connelley is one of the three or four best mystery writers in the US today. He ranks with Robert Parker, Stuart Woods, and James Lee Burke as one of our most superb mystery writers.

As I said, I can hardly wait for his next book and sincerely hope he returns to his character Harry Bosch, whom I've grown to really enjoy!

If you haven't read all of his books go to the book store tonight. You won't be sorry.