The return of the poet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The return of the poet (English: The Narrows) is the 14th novel by the American crime novelist Michael Connelly . It is the 10th book in the Harry Bosch series, published in 2004 (German 2005).

action

Rachel Walling, an FBI agent, was instrumental in the prosecution of a serial killer called "The Poet". He could be convicted of the tenacity of journalist Jack McEvoy and it turned out that the poet was none other than Walling's manager at the FBI, Robert Backus. Backus managed to escape and it was unclear whether he was still alive. The FBI was looking for a scapegoat and had transferred Walling to North Dakota, later to Rapid City, South Dakota. There she receives a call: "The poet is back", he has buried six bodies near Las Vegas and, obsessed with power, even led the FBI there.

Simultaneously: Terry McCaleb, the former FBI profiler, died of heart failure on his boat. However, his wife suspects that someone has tampered with his heart medication and therefore asks Harry Bosch to investigate her husband's death. Bosch finds files in McCaleb's boat, including those of the poet, and suspects that the poet murdered McCaleb. One trail leads to Zzyzx in the Mojave Desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Bosch drives there and meets the FBI investigators who are digging up the bodies of the poet's victims!

Rachel Walling is also present when he is questioned. Both outsiders in the FBI investigation, they band together and pursue Backus on their own. The tracks that Backus deliberately lays lead them to Clear, Nevada, where Backus lived for 4 years in a trailer under the name Tom Walling (!). In this trailer they find a dead person. While investigating the trailer, Walling triggers an explosion prepared by Backus, which Walling and Bosch narrowly escape. In the trailer, Bosch finds a half-burnt receipt from a bookstore, which finally gives him an idea of ​​the poet's next step.

Ed Thomas, the former LAPD cop, has a bookstore in Los Angeles. He was also targeted by the poet in 1996. Now he is lured by Backus: Backus offers a collection of books for sale under a false name. Bosch and Walling follow Thomas to the house of the alleged book collector, where Backus has already overpowered Thomas. Bosch intervenes. But Backus can escape again. During the pursuit, both fall into a concrete channel of the Los Angeles River, which leads to raging masses of water because of the storm of the century in 2004. Backus drowns after a fight and Bosch barely survives.

Bosch later finds out that McCaleb probably wasn't murdered by Backus. He probably killed himself using placebos instead of his medication to make his death look random. He wanted to spare his wife and children the financial ruin of the medical expenses that he saw to come because his second heart was on the verge of failure.

Remarks

  1. ↑ This prehistory of the book happened in 1996 and is told in the novel The Poet by Michael Connelly.
  2. ↑ Main character of the novel The Second Heart by Michael Connelly, as well as an important character in Darker Than the Night .
  3. ↑ In Bosch's youth these gullies, which were dry in themselves and which swelled to form real torrents in heavy rain, were called “The Narrows”, hence the original title of the novel.

background

After September 11th, Connelly says that the terrorist attacks had devastating effects on many people in various ways and that the world has become more unsafe for himself. He originally intended to leave the killer from his novel ' The Poet ' unscathed in his fictional world. Now he has changed his mind: "It was my wish not to have this evil out there". That is why he wrote 'The Return of the Poet'.

reception

Publishers Weekly considers the novel to be one of Connelly's masterpieces. The review particularly points out that Connelly brings together an explosive plot, colored characters, and a meticulous portrayal of police work. The New York Times ranks The Return of the Poet as Connelly's best novel since No Angel So Pure . In the Los Angeles Times , the reviewer emphasizes that Connelly created "a fascinating world for his hero, a reflection of the West Coast, somewhere between fiction and fact." The Krimicouch does not consider this novel to be a highlight of the Bosch series: In the eyes of Michael Drewniok, Harry Bosch is a little too at peace with himself in this novel, the intensity is lacking. "His attacks against arrogant FBI officers lack the bite because they never seem really dangerous." Nevertheless, he considers 'The Return of the Poet' to be worth reading.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lewis Beale: Reality is noir enough , in: LA Times, May 7, 2004
  2. ^ Publishers Weekly: The Narrows
  3. ↑ Janet Maslin: Hieronymus Bosch, Detective, Shines His Light Into the Noir in: NYT, May 3, 2004
  4. ↑ Dick Lochte: City of dreams? Well, that's just Bosch LA Times, May 16, 2004
  5. ↑ Michael Drewniok: Scavenger hunt with corpses Krimi couch.de, July 2005