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The Poet
(Samantha Jazz Series #1)
by
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones brings a fresh, modern take to the thriller genre that will keep you guessing until the very end.
“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.” -Jean Cocteau
Some call him friend or boss.
Some call him husband or dad.
Some call him son, even a favorite son.
But the only title that matters to him is the one the media has giv ...more
“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.” -Jean Cocteau
Some call him friend or boss.
Some call him husband or dad.
Some call him son, even a favorite son.
But the only title that matters to him is the one the media has giv ...more
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Mass Market Paperback, 385 pages
Published
March 9th 2021
by Entangled: Amara
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Start your review of The Poet (Samantha Jazz, #1)

The sexy little cover and blurb for this book made me think it was gonna be a wicked and intense thriller but it's actually a police procedural, and it's a pretty good one too 3.5⭐
There's a serial killer on the loose and as the body count keeps rising the only thing the victims seem to have in common is the piece of paper with lines of poetry that have been stuffed in their mouths.
The lead investigator in the case has gone mysteriously MIA so badass Detective Samantha Jazz takes over and sudden ...more
There's a serial killer on the loose and as the body count keeps rising the only thing the victims seem to have in common is the piece of paper with lines of poetry that have been stuffed in their mouths.
The lead investigator in the case has gone mysteriously MIA so badass Detective Samantha Jazz takes over and sudden ...more

Another exciting, heart throbbing, gripping wild train ride!
A serial killer nicknamed “Poet” because of the written words who left behind during the crime scenes and Detective Samantha Jazz, a corrupt police’s daughter is assigned the case after the first detective investigates the case vanished into thin air!
Samantha knows about poetry and as soon as she starts digging more, getting closer to finish the puzzle the murderer behind she realizes she might know the perpetrator and from the begin ...more
A serial killer nicknamed “Poet” because of the written words who left behind during the crime scenes and Detective Samantha Jazz, a corrupt police’s daughter is assigned the case after the first detective investigates the case vanished into thin air!
Samantha knows about poetry and as soon as she starts digging more, getting closer to finish the puzzle the murderer behind she realizes she might know the perpetrator and from the begin ...more

The Poet was a slow read for me. Not sure what it was but I really couldn’t connect with the main characters. It starts off with a murder in a bookshop so right up my alley. A serial killer with a love of poetry and an obsession with the lead Detective.
It felt like the police were so focused on one suspect for most of the book. The ending was ok but it wasn’t a book that I would want to read a sequel to.
Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for my copy of this book to read.
It felt like the police were so focused on one suspect for most of the book. The ending was ok but it wasn’t a book that I would want to read a sequel to.
Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for my copy of this book to read.

Jan 03, 2021
Chris C - A Midlife Wife
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
mystery,
contemporary-fiction,
cop-fiction,
reviews,
thriller,
suspense,
entangled-publishing,
crime
Oh yeah! Jones at a whole different level. Excellent cop thriller.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jones takes us on a journey that will grab a hold and take you for a wide ride with The Poet.
While it seems to start a bit slow and come off as a simple cop fiction novel, don't let that fool you. Typical of Jones, the further you get into this story, the more things change and twist around. What seems to be a dead-end all of a sudden becomes something more sinister and dives right into the psychological genre of a ...more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jones takes us on a journey that will grab a hold and take you for a wide ride with The Poet.
While it seems to start a bit slow and come off as a simple cop fiction novel, don't let that fool you. Typical of Jones, the further you get into this story, the more things change and twist around. What seems to be a dead-end all of a sudden becomes something more sinister and dives right into the psychological genre of a ...more


THE POET IS LIVE!
I can't believe this day is finally here! THE POET is HERE! It's on bookshelves everywhere (Walmart, Target, B&N, etc.), it's available on your ereader, and it's available to listen to (narrated by the amazing Scott Brick and Brittany Pressley).
This book is such a labor of love of mine. Yes, it's a thriller, but it very much has my voice intact. I hope you'll take a chance on this book and help share in my celebration this week!
Don't miss the amazing giveaway I have down below f ...more

3.5 stars.
The Poet follows a detective who takes on a case where the murder victim had been found with a piece of paper crumpled inside his mouth, containing a sinister 3-line poem.
This was a good read. The identity of the killer wasn’t as surprising as I’d hoped it would be but the police procedural part was well-executed.
The Poet follows a detective who takes on a case where the murder victim had been found with a piece of paper crumpled inside his mouth, containing a sinister 3-line poem.
This was a good read. The identity of the killer wasn’t as surprising as I’d hoped it would be but the police procedural part was well-executed.

I like how the characters were presented, but I did not feel it's a thriller, more police procedural/crime. Detective Jazz has to solve a complicated case, a serial killer that loves poetry. Not many people understand pietry, thats why Samanta Jazz is called to find the killer. I liked the plit, but, in my opinion, to much talk, less action.
Thank you Netgalley for this Arc. ...more
Thank you Netgalley for this Arc. ...more

Edge of your seat, heart racing suspense!
Have you read the Lilah Love Series by Lisa Renee Jones? If you have you're going to want to dive into this one as well. This series starts off with Detective Samantha Jazz being assigned a case to find a serial killer after the Detective that was on the case suddenly relocates to a different town. Sam has a special skill set that makes her perfect for this case, she knows her Poetry better than anyone else on the force.
There is a killer on the loose and ...more
Have you read the Lilah Love Series by Lisa Renee Jones? If you have you're going to want to dive into this one as well. This series starts off with Detective Samantha Jazz being assigned a case to find a serial killer after the Detective that was on the case suddenly relocates to a different town. Sam has a special skill set that makes her perfect for this case, she knows her Poetry better than anyone else on the force.
There is a killer on the loose and ...more

I love mysteries, so I was happy to get this one to read in advance. My joy, however, was short-lived because the mystery fell flat for me. It was all a very dark story involving a quirky police detective named Samantha Jazz and a serial killer nicknamed The Poet. Samantha is basically a loner, with few relationships and kind of a flat character. The Poet is crafty and determined to capture Samantha in his net, since she is his ultimate victim. I liked the varying points of view, from Samantha t
...more

A crime that is a poetic challenge…
A man is killed in Austin, Texas in a strange fashion, by a killer who leaves no traces. The assigned detective mysteriously leaves the force after just three days on the case and cannot be reached. The next detective is assigned for one reason, her employment records said she ran a poetry club in college.
Detective Samantha Jazz has not only an interesting last name, she has an appreciation for and a deep understanding of poetry. Her years of decoding the meani ...more
A man is killed in Austin, Texas in a strange fashion, by a killer who leaves no traces. The assigned detective mysteriously leaves the force after just three days on the case and cannot be reached. The next detective is assigned for one reason, her employment records said she ran a poetry club in college.
Detective Samantha Jazz has not only an interesting last name, she has an appreciation for and a deep understanding of poetry. Her years of decoding the meani ...more

Review of Advance Reading Copy eBook
A serial killer stalks the city, leaving a paper containing bits of poetry in the mouths of his victims. Austin Detective Samantha Jazz, assigned to the case after the original investigator vanishes, soon identifies a suspect and relentlessly sets out to prove her case.
But what if her suspect is not the culprit, after all? And what will happen when Sam finally realizes that the poetry messages left at the scene of each crime are messages to her?
Told from the v ...more
A serial killer stalks the city, leaving a paper containing bits of poetry in the mouths of his victims. Austin Detective Samantha Jazz, assigned to the case after the original investigator vanishes, soon identifies a suspect and relentlessly sets out to prove her case.
But what if her suspect is not the culprit, after all? And what will happen when Sam finally realizes that the poetry messages left at the scene of each crime are messages to her?
Told from the v ...more

This is a great page turner! It's fast-paced when it needs to be and slower-paced when it should be. I liked the relationship between Lang and Jazz, their dialogue was for the most part funny and has a lot of crude humor.
I will say that a lot of the book is spent on someone who is clearly not the correct suspect and a lot of bad goes down because of this mistake and I spent most of those sections saying (out loud) WHY ARE THEY GOING AFTER THIS PERSON WHO IS OBVIOUSLY NOT THE RIGHT PERSON!???
I fo ...more
I will say that a lot of the book is spent on someone who is clearly not the correct suspect and a lot of bad goes down because of this mistake and I spent most of those sections saying (out loud) WHY ARE THEY GOING AFTER THIS PERSON WHO IS OBVIOUSLY NOT THE RIGHT PERSON!???
I fo ...more

After a prologue and two chapters of this book, I returned to NetGalley to check the reviews, blinking, confused. Not many feedbacks there, but then again, maybe this novel was recently added. I’d been drawn to this book by its eye-catching cover and its promising, intriguing blurb, and I want to be grabbed by it the same way—kidnapped, holding tight to my chair, my knuckles white, maybe breathing hard—but so far it’s not happening. 5% in and I already want out. This rarely happens to me. I pers
...more

Feb 24, 2021
Carvanz
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
abcd,
mild-violence,
thriller,
mild-angst,
mysteryish,
tough-heroine,
suspense,
fbi-police,
not-a-romance,
some-action
Oh my gosh! This was one intense read!

Samantha was one gutsy heroine. I loved that she wasn’t so hardened and crude as some heroines in law enforcement are created to be. She was fierce enough to know she could get the job done, but never mean or rude to those around her. Her relationship with her partner and her ex shed a light on who she truly was inside and I liked everything about her.

This has a lot of drama to it. Once it starts there is no slowing down. It never bogs or gets repetitive. In ...more

Samantha was one gutsy heroine. I loved that she wasn’t so hardened and crude as some heroines in law enforcement are created to be. She was fierce enough to know she could get the job done, but never mean or rude to those around her. Her relationship with her partner and her ex shed a light on who she truly was inside and I liked everything about her.

This has a lot of drama to it. Once it starts there is no slowing down. It never bogs or gets repetitive. In ...more

hate that life gets in the way when you want to tell the world how obsessed you are about a book. I LOVED THE POET! This is my second book by Lisa Renee Jones. I did read If I Were You in 2015 and inhaled it in two days and this has just reignited my need for more by the author. The Poet was an extraordinary gripping read that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time from page one to the very last. I finished the first 68% in two days then life got in my way and I needed to put it down. Sa
...more

He watches her from afar, the master teaching the student. Sometimes he punishes her, other times her rewards her, all the time he tortures her.
The Poet leaves them naked and bound with poetry shoved in their mouths. A gift to Detective Jazz, a special message just for her.
The Poet is a serial killer obsessed with Jazz and as the bodies pile up, she begins to see, how deep this obsession goes.
The Poet is deeply disturbing, and a total mind game, that makes your head spin. The Passages writte ...more

Young detective, a corrupted cop daughter, is called to take over one murder case from a detective that vanished into thin air. It is potential serial murder where murderer is leaving lines from poems and she is the only in the police that has education in poetry.
From that point we have a police procedural story where Detective Samantha Jazz is solving The poets secret. with help of her partner and colleagues.
The murderer is watching her, stalking her, and murders that are happening are somehow ...more
From that point we have a police procedural story where Detective Samantha Jazz is solving The poets secret. with help of her partner and colleagues.
The murderer is watching her, stalking her, and murders that are happening are somehow ...more

Police procedural/thriller - on book tour.
Detective Samantha Jazz has a new case and it’s because she has a poetry background. The killer left his victim dead with a few lines of poetry placed in their mouth. Her partner is Ethan Langford and they have a good working relationship. He’s protective of her because her cop father died and he turned out to be corrupt. The story had a lot of potential, a murder at a bookstore, poetry analysis and a smart female detective who lives on popcorn, wine and ...more
Detective Samantha Jazz has a new case and it’s because she has a poetry background. The killer left his victim dead with a few lines of poetry placed in their mouth. Her partner is Ethan Langford and they have a good working relationship. He’s protective of her because her cop father died and he turned out to be corrupt. The story had a lot of potential, a murder at a bookstore, poetry analysis and a smart female detective who lives on popcorn, wine and ...more

The Poet.... this book is a Detective thriller. Sam Jazz is chasing a serial killer. But little does she know he has plans for her!
I enjoyed this book. For some odd reason it took me awhile to finish it. I thought I was never going to finish it. LoL
The characters I just loved Detective Lang I absolutely loved his role in the story.
Sam & Langs relationship was nice (brother/sister) type. Even tho I found myself wishing they would hook up. (A can dream right)?
These were type of characters I cou ...more
I enjoyed this book. For some odd reason it took me awhile to finish it. I thought I was never going to finish it. LoL
The characters I just loved Detective Lang I absolutely loved his role in the story.
Sam & Langs relationship was nice (brother/sister) type. Even tho I found myself wishing they would hook up. (A can dream right)?
These were type of characters I cou ...more

Being that this is a murder mystery/thriller only it was ok. I can tell Lisa did her research and getting into the killers head...she really did a good job. Sadly I think we can all guess the killer from the prologue. It just wasn't surprising at all. I'll still check out Lisa's work. I LOVE this cover!
I received this book at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. ...more
I received this book at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. ...more

3.5 stars. I was invested in who the killer was, but I think the book could have been pared down a lot. A lot of time was spent on phone calls and dead end leads, which suggests that a lot of research went into how police handle such cases, but doesn't necessarily make for the best read. Halfway through, I felt as though I were reading in order to get to the reveal just because there was a lot of unnecessary footwork involved. This was a pretty straightforward serial killer mystery with interest
...more

First off, I need to thank Netgalley for getting me a copy of this book soo soo early. I’m going to start off by saying that I had no idea that one of my favorite ‘Romance’ writers also wrote in other genres. Perhaps I should have dug into her more, but Lisa Renee Jones has managed to keep me so entertained over the years that I felt no need until I ran out of series to follow.
Anyhow, we have a thriller on our hands here, The Poet is a murder / serial killer mystery that takes so many different ...more
Anyhow, we have a thriller on our hands here, The Poet is a murder / serial killer mystery that takes so many different ...more

Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for letting me read an ARC of this book.
The premise was quite interesting and sounded exciting, and that's why I requested a copy of this book. But I had a hard time getting into it. It took me forever to read the first 25% of the book, because it didn't have a lot of action and it started sounding repetitive. It was also a bit confusing, to the point that I didn't know what they were talking about at times. Jumping from one case to the other, from on ...more
The premise was quite interesting and sounded exciting, and that's why I requested a copy of this book. But I had a hard time getting into it. It took me forever to read the first 25% of the book, because it didn't have a lot of action and it started sounding repetitive. It was also a bit confusing, to the point that I didn't know what they were talking about at times. Jumping from one case to the other, from on ...more

4.5⭐
The Poet is a well-written and plotted police procedural. That captured my interest from the start, as Detective Samantha Jazz takes over the hunt for a serial killer she has nicknamed 'The Poet'.
And with an interesting mix of characters, police politics, and the recent death of Sam's dad, who happened to be a dirty cop. This was a captivating read; and one that certainly kept me guessing.
Would happily recommend.
**I was kindly provided with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest rev ...more
The Poet is a well-written and plotted police procedural. That captured my interest from the start, as Detective Samantha Jazz takes over the hunt for a serial killer she has nicknamed 'The Poet'.
And with an interesting mix of characters, police politics, and the recent death of Sam's dad, who happened to be a dirty cop. This was a captivating read; and one that certainly kept me guessing.
Would happily recommend.
**I was kindly provided with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest rev ...more

There is a serial killer who leaves words of poetry in the victim's mouths. Detective Samantha Jazz is tasked with investigating this case after the previous detective goes missing. She names this killer The Poet. What she doesn't know though is that he is doing all of it for her.
I have mixed feelings on this one. Okay,starting with the things I liked. I really liked Sam as the protagonist. Cold and distant when she needs to be but still very human at heart. I liked her partner Lang and the dyna ...more
I have mixed feelings on this one. Okay,starting with the things I liked. I really liked Sam as the protagonist. Cold and distant when she needs to be but still very human at heart. I liked her partner Lang and the dyna ...more

Short Take: Like a porn with no nudity.
Duckies, the weather is gross, this book was dumb, and I am over EVERYTHING. I’ve spent almost two weeks trying to read this thing, and I finally decided to just power through & hope it would redeem itself in the end, but it didn’t. The only good thing about having so little payoff is that there wasn’t much buildup either.
In The Poet, Detective Samantha Jazz (and I just can’t with that name, good grief) is hunting a serial killer with a fixation on poetry. ...more
Duckies, the weather is gross, this book was dumb, and I am over EVERYTHING. I’ve spent almost two weeks trying to read this thing, and I finally decided to just power through & hope it would redeem itself in the end, but it didn’t. The only good thing about having so little payoff is that there wasn’t much buildup either.
In The Poet, Detective Samantha Jazz (and I just can’t with that name, good grief) is hunting a serial killer with a fixation on poetry. ...more

First off, I need to thank Netgalley for getting me a copy of this book soo soo early. I’m going to start off by saying that I had no idea that one of my favorite ‘Romance’ writers also wrote in other genres. Perhaps I should have dug into her more, but Lisa Renee Jones has managed to keep me so entertained over the years that I felt no need until I ran out of series to follow.
Anyhow, we have a thriller on our hands here, The Poet is a murder / serial killer mystery that takes so many different ...more
Anyhow, we have a thriller on our hands here, The Poet is a murder / serial killer mystery that takes so many different ...more

In the last third of the book, Detective Samantha Jazz thinks “…something about this doesn’t feel like the end. Something feels wrong.” That statement describes how I felt throughout the entire book.
The novel felt like it was simply following a chosen narrative, merely going through the motions as all the pieces were fit into a specific template. Samantha tells us all about who she is during regular info dumps. Overall, she falls into the category of super smart (at one point she states “I have ...more
The novel felt like it was simply following a chosen narrative, merely going through the motions as all the pieces were fit into a specific template. Samantha tells us all about who she is during regular info dumps. Overall, she falls into the category of super smart (at one point she states “I have ...more

The Poet is a gripping first entry into a new detective series that I will be sure to return to once there are more available. After reading the description I was interested but I didn't get my hopes too high as some crime novels can be somewhat dissappointing at times however The Poet exceeded my expectations by a long shot. It had a great pace that kept me interested, as well as a highly enjoyable plot that had me double checking that my doors were locked at night.
Samantha Jazz was a pretty l ...more
Samantha Jazz was a pretty l ...more
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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series. Suzanne Todd (producer of Alice in Wonderland) on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful, complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy - a modern girl we all can identify with.
In add ...more
In add ...more
Other books in the series
Samantha Jazz Series
(2 books)
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