The Good Reader Blog

The Good Reader Blog
Source of the painting - Couch on the Porch, Cos Cob, Frederick Childe Hassam, 1914

Monday, April 7, 2025

Book Review: The Poet by Michael Connelly (Jack McEvoy #1)

The Poet The Poet by Michael Connelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jack McEvoy is a Denver newspaper crime reporter.  His twin brother Sean was a police detective who apparently commited suicide.  Jack investigates and discovers some inconsistencies, which leads him to research the suicides of other police officers across the country.  This brings him to the FBI and he ends up getting embedded in their nationwide search for a serial killer. 

I am a long-time fan of Michael Connelly's and have read all of his Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard series.  This is the first book in his Jack McEvoy series and was written in 1996.  The reader is taken back to experience pay phones, dial-up modems, and fax machines as methods of communication.  The reader has a peak at his life as a crime reporter prior to starting to write novels.   I was fascinated by his description of research methods and questioning involved in a story.  This book is long (about 600 pages) and very detailed, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.  However, the story grabbed me on the first page and didn't get go until I finished the final paragraph -- what a roller coaster ride!

Read more of my reviews at https://thegoodreader13.blogspot.com/.

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