Trivia / The Poet

• Character Narrator: In the usual sense, but also in a meta sense: The audiobooks of the previous Harry Bosch novels had all been narrated by Dick Hill. Presumably because the main character of this novel is different and is also the narrator, the audiobook narrator changes to Buck Schirner for this one.
• Creator Thumbprint: The name McEvoy has been used as a throwaway detail multiple times in Connelly's first 4 novels. Here, he finally gives it not only to an actual character, but the star of the story.
  • Somewhat less glaring is the climax taking place in a cantilever house in the Hollywood Hills and Jack mentioning a helicopter flying by while he was out, both fairly frequent elements of the Harry Bosch novels.
• Early-Bird Cameo: If a title can be said to have one, the final chapter told from Backus' point of view includes the phrase "lost light," which would later become the title of a Harry Bosch novel.
• Technology Marches On: Practically every time computers or digital cameras are mentioned. Gladden makes bail and escapes a return to prison because the Santa Monica PD doesn't have a computer to run his prints and has to hand-carry the prints to the LAPD. Gladden then logs on to the internet and compares the squealing noise of a cellular modem to a devil plunging into hell. An FBI agent takes photos of a corpse with a Polaroid camera that spits out prints. The Rocky has just started experimenting with digital cameras. A crucial plot point, in fact the solution to the mystery, turns on an anonymous note the Serial Killer sends to the FBI—by fax. The topper, though, is probably from Thorson telling Jack about the "first digital bust" ever made:
  "Guy had something like 500 different photos on his computer. Christ, he needed a double hard drive."