The Poet FROM OUR EDITORS
A cunning, poet-quoting serial killer of unprecedented savagery executes one homicide cop after another, each of whom is haunted by a murder case he didn't crack. Reporter Jack McEvoy is hot on the case because his brother was the first victim, and he could be next. From the first page, this novel is a riveting rush of a story, an investigation that leaps from the superheated pressures of a major newspaper following a national story to the centers of the FBI's most secret operations.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Jack McEvoy specializes in death. As a crime reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, he has seen every kind of murder. But his professional bravado doesn't lessen the brutal shock of learning that his only brother is dead, a suicide. Jack's brother was a homicide detective, and he had been depressed about a recent murder case, a hideously grisly one, that he'd been unable to solve. McEvoy decides that the best way to exorcise his grief is by writing a feature on police suicides. But when he begins his research, he quickly arrives at a stunning revelation. Following his leads, protecting his sources, muscling his way inside a federal investigation, Jack grabs hold of what is clearly the story of a lifetime. He also knows that in taking on the story, he's making himself the most visible target for a murderer who has eluded the greatest investigators alive.
SYNOPSIS
Denver Post crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide-detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how: he starts work on an investigative report about police suicides.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In a departure from his crime novels featuring LAPD's Harry Bosch, Connelly (The Last Coyote) sets Denver journalist Jack McEvoy on an intricate case where age-old evils come to flower within Internet technology. Jack's twin brother, Sean, a Denver homicide detective obsessed with the mutilation murder of a young woman, is discovered in his car, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot, with a cryptic note written on the windshield. Jack's investigation uncovers a series of cop suicides across the country, all of which have in common both the cops' deep concerns over recent cases and their last messages, which have been taken, he quickly determines, from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. As his information reopens cases in Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, New Mexico and Florida, Jack joins up with a team from the FBI's Behavioral Science Section, which includes sharp, attractive agent Rachel Walling. Connections between the dead cops, the cases they were working on and the FBI profile of a pedophile whom readers know as William Gladden occur at breakneck speed, as Jack and the team race to stay ahead of the media. Edgar-winning Connelly keeps a surprise up his sleeve until the very end of this authoritatively orchestrated thriller, when Jack finds himself in California, caught at the center of an intricate web woven from advanced computer technology and more elemental drives. (Jan.)
Library Journal
The Edgar Award-winning Connelly (The Concrete Blond, Audio Reviews, LJ 9/1/94) introduces us to Jack McEvoy, Denver journalist. While investigating the suicide of his twin brother, a detective, McEvoy finds the death was actually a cleverly disguised murder. As he digs deeper, he becomes enmeshed in a nationwide FBI hunt for two psychopathic pedophiles, one a con and the other a literati cop. The majority of the narrative is told in the first person by McEvoy, while scenes depicting the murderers are rendered in the third person. This makes the tale a bit awkward to follow, yet Connelly is able to realistically show us both criminal and police psychology. Although the plot is somewhat contrived, the author weaves a very engrossing tale. Reader Buck Schirner displays his great versatility by giving each character a convincing voice. This is a fine reading of a mostly fascinating mystery.Michael T. Fein, Catawba Valley Community Coll., Hickory, N.C.
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