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One thing that I took away after reading Michael Connelly‘s The Poet was how well he can make the plot twist and turn and then twist an turn some more.
In The Poet Jack McEnvoy, a reporter for The Rocky Mountain News, is struggling to understand why his brother, a decorated police detective, and husband and loving father, would take his own life. The only way he knows how to deal with the pain is to write about.
As he plunges into the last moments of his brothers life, and the reasons that drove him to such dramatic ending, Jack discovers that his suicide wasn’t a suicide at all, but a murder. The investigating detectives on the case of Sean McEnvoy‘s suicide assumed that he became depressed as a result of not being able to solve the brutal murder of a small child in Denver. When the frustration became to much, he drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park, drove past a ranger station, parked his car and took his own life. At least that is what everyone thought. After all, the forest ranger manning the ranger station said that when Sean‘s car drove into the deserted parking lot, he was alone, but lack of gun powder residue on his gloves and later testinomy by the ranger that Sean was wearing only one glove when he found him, but both later on when the police arrived, lead to the unlikely explanation that the police detective was murdered.
When Jack diggs deeper, he learns that this is a pattern that has been played out several times before, leading him to conclude that a serial killer has been at work, completely undetected and operating for several years.
Soon, after the FBI gets involved and Jack finds himself on the inside of the investigation, a suspect emerges. A man trained in the art of hypnosis – so he is able to easily subdue his victims – and jailed for child molestation, has been on the lose. His M.O.? Kill the first victim as bait to get a police detective involved in the case, and then kill him or her as a way for the killer to replay a senario from his childhood where he was molestated and finally able to kill his assalent, a police detective. By committing these crimes, the man now known as The Poet can relive the euphoric feeling of freeing himself from his abuser and delivering the ultimate form of punishment, death.
Soon, however, it becomes clear to Jack, after The Poet is killed by his own hand, that while The Poet was certainly responsible for the killings of the children, he may not been responsible for the killings of the police detectives, and that someone as yet unknown might have been using the first killing as a way to cover their own murders. The hunt begins anew.
In short, it doesn’t get any better then Michael Connelly. The man is a master at unpredictability, an excellent quality to have when you are writing a crime novel.
Ratings (out of 5):
I have always wanted to write the science fiction/murder mystery that could beat any stand-alone science fiction or mystery story. Eh, the day will come. In the meantime, the biggest issue that I have is how to balance my reading when it comes to science, science fiction, murder mystery or crime fiction. When you think about there is a lot there to consume, take in, and read. There is learning the science that goes behind the science fiction and then there is reading the science fiction which helps me find my style and voice. It’s the same thing with crime fiction, but I also have to understand law as well as get into the mind of a cop, and – even darker – the mind of a career criminal or killer. This means even more reading.
I have already mention the books that I want to read this year to help me find my science fiction voice, now I have compiled a list of books that will help my understand crime, crime fiction and the mind of the a criminal. But
this can also be helpful on other ways.
When I think about what drives a story, I think about the characters. Characters, after all, are more interesting then even the coolest spaceship or plot device. I mean, take Zombies, for example, Zombies are interesting but the stories about them are nothing without the conflict that arises between two or more characters that must somehow find a way to live together despite their differences and given their current life and death struggle. Easier said then done.
So here is a list, as best as I can compile at this point, of crime fiction and non-fiction that is on my “to read” list for this year:
- The Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
- Journey Into Darkness by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
- The Poet by Michael Connelly
- The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly
- Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
I have to say that I really like the mix of fiction and non-fiction as well as the mix classic mystery fiction and current mystery fiction.
I love murder mysteries. Who doesn’t. Anyway, here is one that I trudged up from the depth. Enjoy. Original
“Same guy?” A voice asked from over detective Brenner’s right shoulder.
“It would look that way,” he replied, turning slightly to see who was behind him. With relief he saw it was detective Hoyle and not one of the other detectives who looked upon Brenner with hungry eyes after he was picked as the lead detective on the first murder case that Id-liphia has seen in many years.
“Another copy cat?” Hoyle asked, already knowing that answer.
Brenner nodded. “Single stab wound to the chest – “
“And the one last week was a slit throat, committed in the own victims apartment.” Hoyle stated cutting off Brenner. “So the next one will either be a hanging or -“
“It will be a jumper.” Brenner said, standing up from his crouched position, putting his notebook that he was using to take notes back into his pocket. “It will be a jumper. Whoever is doing this is not only following the M.O. of the previous killer he is also following in what order the crimes where committed. The original murders always happened on the days of rest, and so far so have these two.”
Detective Hoyle looked down at the watch embedded in his right wrist to note the date.
“The original murderer killed the vic in his apartment first and ten days later the vic in the alley just like. . .” he motioned to the android lying dead up against the wall.
“Is this the same alley then? Because if it is then we know from which overpass the next victim will be thrown from.” Hoyle said without waiting for a reply.
“If it were only that simple, but it won’t be the same bridge, just like the last vic was found in a different apartment.”
“Any leads, Jake?”
Brenner felt a bit of a cringe when Hoyle used his first name. The only time a detective used another detectives first name was when he was trying to say we need you to solve this one and solve it quick. But he didn’t have any leads. In a city filled with over 80 million people to have even a narrowed down list would still leave millions as suspects, or at best a few hundred thousand.
“I haven’t the first clue who could be responsible, John. This town hasn’t seen a murder in years, we just don’t get enough practice at trying to ketch any killers. But if you are saying something like I better do something and do it quick, well, all I can say is that I’m doing my best. I’m the only one who has experience on a murder case around here, and let me tell you it is no walk in the park.”
Hoyle started to say something as Brenner brushed past him.
“Where you going to say something detective?” Brenner asked.
“Nobody is pressuring you. We all are pressured from someone or another. I am pressured from the captain and he is pressured by the Mayor.” Taking Brenner by the arm detective Hoyle led him over a secluded door way where they could have more privacy. “People are getting jumpy, since when has an android killed another android?”
“Brenner had no answer.
“Now, are you sure this isn’t the work of some humans scavenging for food?”
Brenner nodded his head.
“How are you so sure?”
“Because I am,” Brenner answered back, locking eyes with the other detective.
“That’s not good enough, Jake, and you know it.”
“Humans are stupid. That’s how I know.” Brenner shouted out as detective Hoyle began to walk away. “They don’t kill methodically like this. The scavenge for food and kill if they have too, but mostly only each other. These killings have purpose, forethought, and planning. None of those things even suggest the work of a human.”
“I hope you right, Jake, I hope your right.”
“I do too. If it is a human we have a bigger problem, because down there,” Brenner pointed to the sewer grate across the street, “there are twice as many of them. We’ll never know who it was was.”
This was my first Tony Hillerman book, and after reading The Dark Wind it most certainly won’t be my last. I will be returning for more.
The Dark Wind is the story of a Navajo Reservation cop by the name of Jim Chee. He is the new guy in town and new on the beat. His first crimes come in the form of a windmill vandalizing and a murder. Having no luck solving the murder as the flesh on the corpses hands and feet are stripped away, Chee turns to staking-out the windmill in hopes of catching the culprit in the act. Instead, Chee happens to be in the right place at the right time to witness a plane crash. Rushing to the scene, Chee begins to think about how odd is it for a plane to have landed on a remote piece of rock in the Arizona desert, all without landing lights. immediately Chee begins to suspect that the plane crash is drug related.
After Chee arrives at the scene he hears scurrying up a cliff face but is unable to catch the person fleeing. On further inspection of the plane, Chee find two dead people on board but no drugs. The plot begins to thicken even more when the CIA gets involved, treating the incident as a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Why would they think this? Because a set of lamps, used to guide the plane on to the landing strip on the ground, lead straight to a vertical rock outcropping, meaning that the case not only involves drugs but murder.
This was the first Tony Hillerman book that I have read, even though I have been told to read his books before. The Dark Wind was just under three hundred pages, but with the non-stop action that kept me turning page after page, it felt like I had read just a few dozen pages and left me wanting more. I think I’ll be pulling another Tony Hillerman book off the shelf here to continue the adventures of the Jim Chee, the Navajo reservation cop.
Rating (Out of 5):
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