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Somehow I've managed to miss out on Michael Connelly, but that's an error I shall be ratifying with all speed. THE POET had me hooked. I should admit at the outset that I'm a sucker for books featuring journalists, but that's offset by an urge to scuttle very fast in the opposite direction when, yawn, yawn, yet another serial killer yarn hoves into view. Jack McEvoy is a crime reporter on the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. He's done OK career-wise, but hasn't quite made the jump onto a big paper. Suddenly he ends up with the story of his life -- but not in the way he would have wanted. Jack's twin brother Sean appears to have committed suicide. He'd been working on a disturbing murder case, so his colleagues don't seem surprised when he's found dead in a car in a snowy park. But Jack isn't convinced and starts to poke around. Before long he finds there's a surprising rise in police suicides -- but that these may really be the work of a serial killer. All the deaths have been accompanied by enigmatic suicide notes, so Jack starts rooting through books to track down these quotes. Enter Rachel Walling, an enigmatic FBI agent. Jack strong-arms his way onto the enquiry, and, from his privileged eye-witness position beside Rachel, watches and reports -- and occasionally breaks ranks -- as the investigation unfolds. The police deaths turn out to stretch the breadth of the country, and Jack has to balance the demands of the news desk against tipping the killer's hand. Connelly is a superior storyteller. The pacing is perfect, the characterisation vivid and the plotting masterful. The fact he's been a journalist shows -- the newspaper way of life is totally convincing. Headline news, from my point of view, is the fact he doesn't dwell on the killings (unlike the likes of Mo Hayder) so for most of the book I forgot this was another runner from the serial killer stables. A word of warning -- do not read Connelly's new sequel, THE NARROWS, before reading THE POET (and that includes averting your eyes from the dust jacket in the bookshop), or you'll end up spitting tacks when you find out whodunit in the first book!
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2004
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