The Poet: A Novel by Michael Connelly

This is an early Connelly, written in 1996, and it is a terrific story about twin brothers, but mostly about Jack McAvoy, the writer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. His brother, Sean, was a detective in Denver who met with an untimely end, and Jack decides to pursue the investigation, a decision that does not make happy the local cops or the FBI. The cops and feds don’t trust reporters, who after all, want a story that might not be flattering to the cops. It looked like Sean committed suicide, a slam dunk case for the cops, but Jack could not accept that his brother would ever do that. Jack works his way through various law enforcement people, family members, and another reporter as the truly sick serial murderer continues his actions, focusing on the molest and murder of little boys and then the murder of the detectives who work on the boys’ murder cases. All of the detectives appeared to have killed themselves, and Jack shows they did not. The title comes from the suicide notes, all of which include a clause from poems by Edgar Alan Poe. Connelly develops some great personalities in the FBI, notably the boss, Robert Backus and the beautiful but dangerous agent, Rachel Walling. This book had a couple great twists at the end that I did not see coming. Connelly remains in my power rotation.