Michael Connelly’s The Poet 

Cover of The Poet

is a thriller and a good one. There is not much to say bad about it. Connelly’s theme resounded recently in a story broken by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper examined 175,000 deaths. 1,000 were labeled as suicides and the vast majority do not undergo forensic testing.  Connelly asked the same question: Are they really suicides or foul play gone undetected?

The one thing I would say that is not believable about the Poet was the scene where the assumed-to-be poet makes a call to an attorney while in jail. The amount of detail in that call would make any sane defense attorney scream. Unless that particular jail did not record phone calls, and most do, the district attorney’s office just got easy information. That scene equates to committing a crime in Wal-Mart or Sams. Candid camera time!

The reporter as an insider in a FBI investigation is believable once you get to the end. I loved the offering coffee scene near the end. Was it Starbucks?