The Poet & the Private Eye

Published in celebration of Dylan Thomas' 100th birthday. New York, 1953. A private investigator takes on a tail job for Time Magazine. His quarry is a poet, newly arrived from the UK, who is suing the magazine for libel. The private eye has never heard of him, but he will soon. The mark is the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. And in three weeks time, Mr. Thomas will be dead. Based on true events The Poet & the Private Eye is a beautifully written work of historical fiction lamenting the sad end of a brilliant poet. "Gittins mines Thomas' real-life last days for these obvious lessons with sensitivity and devotion."--Kirkus Reviews "[An] inventive tale. . . Gittins paints a moving portrait of a talented man feted by the same public complicit in his death."--Publishers Weekly "It's a coming-of-age story, really, as our PI, who has never heard of Thomas in the beginning, comes to sympathize with him and even falls under the sway of his poetry."--Booklist, Nov. 15, 2014 "The tone here is conversational, making the narrator utterly believable."--Library Journal, Oct. 15, 2014