Poetic Justice, a complicated but important thriller, by Dan Antion

Follow the breadcrumbs! –a reviewer commented

From Amazon: Trevor Barcroft enlists the help of crime and mystery writer Brody Thompson to help solve his father’s murder — a murder the police and the FBI have been ignoring for five years. Trevor is convinced he knows who killed his father. Brody doesn’t agree, but he becomes convinced that there is much more to the story than anyone is sharing. He takes a strong interest in the murder and a series of related crimes.

Rascal Todd wants to help, but her editor keeps her away from the story. Why? What was Wilson Barcroft doing at Gateway Park the night he was killed? Who is the mysterious Poet? What do the odd bits of poetry he has spread around tell us? Is the Poet still alive? Will he survive? Will Brody and Trevor find the answers—will they survive?

Join Rascal and her friends and coworkers as they try to help from the sidelines without becoming targets in an ever-growing list of deadly crimes. Real life turns out to be far more dangerous than any fiction Brody could create as the history of a war long over comes back to haunt the city of Pittsburgh.

Consistent with previous books by this author, this is a character-driven story with an ensemble cast. Some characters will be familiar to readers of Antion’s other novels. Some are new faces that you might just come to love. The addition of poetry by Willow Willers provides an interesting mechanism driving this story forward, and driving Brody Thomson into dangerous territory.

My comment

Poetic Justice is a complicated thriller, but an important one leading back to “a war we never even tried to win” and reasons buried decades earlier. The characters are also complex, including the Poet who was in hiding and clues he left as short poems. Solving all the tangles was made more difficult by “pressure from miles above and years before,” as one character put it. Also fascinating is the story at the end of how Willow Withers was brought on board as the coauthor of this compelling story. (My husband, who has Parkinson’s) is a veteran of the Vietnam war, so I was especially interested in this story.)

The Author

Dan Antion was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up and attended college in the area around western Pennsylvania. Dan has written and published the popular No Facilities blog since 2011. A lifelong interest in writing became a reality after he retired from a successful 42-year-long career in information management. Knuckleheads, published in June 2022, is the first book in the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. This story introduces the main characters in the series. . .

Dan lives in Connecticut with his wife, a few pets and all the wildlife they can feed.

The poet: London born Willow Willers is retired and lives in Berkshire, Southern England. Along with her husband and a steady stream of foster dogs mainly Guide Dogs for the Blind. Willow is mother to three sons all grown and flown and two fast growing grandsons.