The Poet

Rating:
Summary: A crime reporter's dream job
Review: There is some effectively atmospheric writing in this rather mediocre thriller, but it takes incredibly long to gain any momentum. The protagonist's access to police work is beyond all credibility, and although Mr. Connelly creates a couple of nice twists the poet's identity surprises nobody familiar with the genre. I think the author might learn something from the hysterical absurdities of Patricia Cornwell. In other words, Mr. Connelly seems to take himself much too seriously as a writer.

Rating:
Summary: The Poet
Review: This was a good book, of course I don't read many and end up thinking most i read are good books.

It was about this serial killer named the poet, who got a rush from killing homocide detectives. He (the poet) used grotesque murders of innocent children(they are molested and mutilatet), or girls who worked with children(also mutilated) to lure his homocide detectives in. Once they got depressed from obsessing over the murders and not finding the culprit, the poet capped them and made it look like a suicide.

Then, this reporter's brother is one of the victims of the strike from the poet's right hand. He investigates more into it, and discovered someone is nocking off police officers.

When I first started reading it, I found it interesting how the writer followed the trail of the Poet, and even bothered to tell us his name, and what he was up to. This is a fairly good book. Like I said, I dont read many, so i dont know if I can fairly justify the goodness of it. It had a couple of twists, which I ran across, like his later book I had read before, "Bloodwork" (which I still havent seen). And, the reason I had read that is because I wanted to see the movie.

I still don't get how you can shoot yourself in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun. And about me not reading alot, I usually just read up until the last few pages, which wasnt true about this book.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This has to be the best Connelly book I have tackled yet! I could not put it down.

The Poet begins when homicide journalist Jack McEvoy's twin brother (a Homicide Detective), kills himself. To confront grief in his own way, Jack decides to do what he does best, and write about what happened. It is during his investigations he discovers clues which lead him to believe that his brother died in suspicious circumstances.

In a trail of red herrings which spans across the States, Jack follows clues to piece together the puzzle of his brothers death. Aided by an inventive range of characters (including the cliched bombshell, intelligent, alluring female lead), Jack discovers the shocking truth about what really happened that day.

A word of warning to the faint hearted, 'The Poet' contains a myrriad of references to child abuse which you might find offensive. Despite this, the book is tastefully written, and is extremely suspensful. I often found myself wondering how on earth Connelly came up with this stuff though.

For crime lovers, I thoroughly recommend this one. I love Harry Bosch, but I have to say that 'The Poet' topped all others I have read. Don't miss the fascinating note by Stephen King at the start - was a great prelude to a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Going in the "donate" pile
Review: Luckily, this was not my first Connelly book, or I wouldn't bother to read any others. I know he writes a better book. This one was engaging up until the end, at which point Connelly must have put his manuscript aside for awhile, then realized that he was about to miss a deadline so shot off a few final twists and chunked it to his editor. The ending is so contrived it could have been cribbed from a high school English paper.

Additionally, in the edition that I have there are so many typos and grammatical errors that it became distracting to read, and leads me to think Connelly has become a book-a-year writer, and isn't putting in that much effort.

Rating:
Summary: Two Twists Too Many
Review: The Poet has 425 pages of excellent character development , detail and exicitement... each page drawing you into the suspenseful story line. Problem is: the book has almost 500 pages.

In those final 75 pages, Connelly manages to utterly suspend the reader's belief in the plot and the characters. The final chapters are marked by inexplicable, in comprehensible, and improbable twists; a complete lack of coherence; and a failure to tie off loose ends.

Call me a cynic, but the ending reads as though an after thought, perhaps prompted by a literary agent seeing a payday in the form of a 3rd rate Hollywood screenplay.

It will be a long time before I would entrust another 6 hours of my reading time to Connelly based on this disappointing treatment of his very capable skills.



Rating:
Summary: As an introduction to Michael Connelly...
Review: This was my first Connelly book, and safe to say I'm totally hooked.
From reading about his other books, this is one of his non-Bosch books, and as such, was a fortunate place to begin.

What we have here is an old-fashioned page turner. A bare bones summary would be a Denver reporter loses his twin brother cop to suicide, purportedly over a particularly disturbing, unsolved homicide. As he copes, the reporter learns about a number of police suicides, with several seeming related.

At that point in the novel, it becomes a struggle to put the book down. I had to remind myself to slow my reading so I wouldn't miss anything, yet I was tearing through the pages as fast as I could. You won't want to be bothered by anything else for a few hours.

The manhunt is breathlessly told, and becomes scarier as you peek into the mind of the perpetrator. Comparisons to "Silence of The Lambs" are understandable, but unfair. Honestly, this book isn't as good as THAT one, but it doesn't miss by much. Lector is nothing like the Poet; they're two different animals.

The final quarter of the book is best read at night, or better yet, like 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, with only a lamp illuminating the page. It's a bit thrilling when the pieces fit together so unexpectedly yet neatly. There's a satisfying click to each piece of the puzzle as it fits into place.

Here's my big problem: the paperback edition I read ends with a several-page peek at his recent book, "The Narrows." If I'm not mistaken, characters from this book make it into that one, but somehow dovetails with his other books, of which there hae been seven or eight in between.

My problem then is that I have one heck of a lot of reading to do...

Rating:
Summary: worth reading if you have read his better Bosch books first
Review: This book started off interesting enough. I was engaged for the first few chapters and then it became very predictable and tired... as though Connelly were going through the motions after he set up an interesting premise. The characters here have nothing to do with Bosch in this book, but interestingly they find themselves in a later Bosch novel, I think it was `The Narrows.' Connelly seems to be enjoying combing his earlier work without Bosch and tying everything together, which is admirable.
I think that Connelly is getting to the end of his career as a writer. And this saddens me. Primarily because he never wrote a book that truly meets his talent head on. I wish that he had allowed for himself to struggle a little bit more as an author. I think that the great character known as Harry Bosch and all of the neat tied up ends of every book are fine and all, but it's not enough. Even though his stories walk the edge of something dangerous they never break any literary boundaries as Hammett and Chandler did in their own day. The Bosch works might even surpass these two luminaries in some aspects, but Connelly has had decades of other authors to feed upon and add to the flavor of his plots. Thus these books are slightly underwhelming. Besides Lawrence Block, I think that Connelly had one of the best chances to overcome the predictability of our contemporary thrillers. He has not yet done so. Instead he constantly tries to grapple with what I assume are his own doubts by sending every novel needlessly over the top into a stereotypical 1980's shoot-em out cop drama. So sad.

This is a fine read unto itself, I give it three stars and think that if you have read the better Bosch books by Connelly, this book will not let you down too hard. In fact it is an enjoyable time consumer.


Rating:
Summary: Great novel from an Edgar Award Winner
Review: Connelly is an Edgar Award winner (an award for great mysteries that is named after Edgar Allen Poe, the creator of they mystery genre) and, for me, that is usually a great recommendation as an author.

The book concerns Jack McEvoy, a reporter whose specialty is covering murders for his newspaper. This time, the story is about his twin brother, a cop and a presumed suicide who left a disturbing note consisting of a single line from Poe. McEvoy does a lot of digging and discovers that there have been a string of police suicides across the country with "Poe" suicide notes. Soon, he's on the case with an FBI task force and the chase is on to catch the killer they've nicknamed "The Poet."

This really is a well-written book. The first 100 pages are slow and wallowing in self-reflection and insecurity, as is appropriate for those left behind in the wake of a suicide. Once McEvoy finds the clues leading to a different conclusion, the book picks up in pace until it races along. The ending is full of cliffhangers and I was surprised.


Rating:
Summary: Great book until the end...
Review: This was a very thought out, excellent suspense novel. However, the ending totally blew it. I would have rated this a 5 until the last 40 or so pages. Connelly should have gone with his first idea, not his second. I loved the characterization of the book, althought Jack was weak when it came to women. The story line was very interesting. A killer on the loose, abuses and kills children, then the investigating officers supposedly commit suicide. Jack discovers a pattern and discovers these are homicides not suicides. So he follows the FBI around, unwelcomed. The story progresses nicely and builds up. But when the conflict starts to resolve, it unravels. I was disappointed in the end but I still think it was a good book. I'm still not giving up on Connelly since his Bosch series is fantastic.

Rating:
Summary: Unfulfilled potential
Review: I had been hearing great things about this book for years, so I finally decided to go ahead and read it. I expected it to be much better than it turned out to be. As it started out I was completely enthralled, and thought I was in for a really great story. As the story progressed it began to drag, and there were a few too many far-fetched twists and turns. By the last 1/4 of the book, I had to force myself to keep reading.
I'm going to give The Narrows a shot; hopefully it's an improvement.