Abandoned by Booklikes

Not too much to say here except this was kind of middling. This was one of the earlier Connelly books and he ended up inserting these characters into the larger Bosch world novels later on. They definitely worked better in a Bosch book than a Jack McEvoy book. I think it's because I honestly did not care for Jack. Some of his insights as we find are incorrect. He ends up doubting everything and everyone and is focused on not getting pushed out of the investigation. I also have to call BS that a reporter would even be allowed into a FBI manhunt for a serial killer but of course it makes sense when you get to the ending. 

"The Poet" follows Jack McEvoy who is left reeling after his twin brother's suicide. When Jack starts digging though, he ties his brother's investigation into a cold case to links to other suicides of police with cases they could not solve. When Jack stumbles upon a probable serial killer, he is pulled into the FBI investigation. He meets Special Agent Rachel Walling and her boss/supervisor Robert Backus along with some other FBI agents. Connelly also explores another point of view in this story, we follow William Gladden who is a pedophile that a link to the cases that Jack and the FBI is trying to solve.

The character of Jack, eh. I really didn't care for him. Comparing him to Bosch he was definitely just okay. Having an entire book about him and his hunt for the truth was kind of boring. I think mostly because Jack's reasons for staying involved with the case were not really noble. He says it's for his brother, but really it's for the story and glory of what he is getting involved with. His "insights" into things was laughable too. He goes and pesters people and starts notes, but when he is working with Rachel and others, they are the ones who are putting things together. I also didn't like the relationship with Rachel, probably because Jack was questioning it and her almost immediately about what did it mean and were they together. He seemed to be written in a way to fit whatever Connelly was trying to do and not really as a developed character. The Jack we meet at the beginning of the book didn't really seem the relationship type.

The other characters are so-so with regards to development. Gladden was developed very well and his sections were hard to read. I think the book would have worked better if we didn't see inside his head though. Just make the focus be on Jack like it usually is on Bosch for the Bosch books.

The writing was all over the place. I have to say certain things didn't make sense and the flow didn't help things. Jumping from Jack to Gladden was a lot to wade through (this book was 528 page) and I was glad to be done.

The setting of the book jumps all over and I can't even recall the cities/states right now. The ending didn't really work. Things get resolved with regards to the Poet in "The Narrows" though and I liked that one much better, I gave it 4 stars. I will read the next book in the McEvoy series soon, that's called "The Scarecrow."