George Gates, a former travel writer whose son was murdered by an unknown assailant, now writes for a small-town New York paper, still mourning and still angry. A retired cop piques his curiosity about the unsolved disappearance of a woman 20 years ago. When a newspaper assignment sends him to 12-year-old Alice, dying of progeria, the two attempt to solve Katherine Carr's disappearance by studying an autobiographical story she left behind. Edgar Award winner Cook (Master of the Delta) has delighted readers with varying topics and characters in two dozen novels, which are often more concerned with the mystery than the perpetrator. Here he ponders the question of whether an evil man really gets away with his crime. Cook skillfully interweaves mundane, often tragic events with the unseen, even darkly fanciful side of reality. In the end, Gates is left hoping for hope in this complex story within a story within a story. Recommended.Roland Person, ret., Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

George Gates, who once toured the world as a travel writer, churns out fluff pieces for his local paper and spends his nights alone, imagining what he'd do to the person who murdered his eight-year-old son seven years before and is still at large in Cook's eerily poignant novel. When Arlo McBride, a retired missing persons detective, tells Gates about the unsolved disappearance of reclusive poet Katherine Carr 20 years earlier, Gates is intrigued. Cook (Master of the Delta) seamlessly intertwines the short story Carr left behind-about a woman also named Katherine Carr-with Gates's growing obsession with Carr's fate. When his editor suggests that Gates write a profile of Alice Barrows, an orphan girl dying of progeria (premature aging), he discovers that Alice is an avid detective fan, and together they form an unlikely partnership. Adept at merging past and present plot lines, Cook eloquently examines the often cathartic act of storytelling. Author tour. (June) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

George Gates, a former travel writer whose son was murdered by an unknown assailant, now writes for a small-town New York paper, still mourning and still angry. A retired cop piques his curiosity about the unsolved disappearance of a woman 20 years ago. When a newspaper assignment sends him to 12-year-old Alice, dying of progeria, the two attempt to solve Katherine Carr's disappearance by studying an autobiographical story she left behind. Edgar Award winner Cook (Master of the Delta) has delighted readers with varying topics and characters in two dozen novels, which are often more concerned with the mystery than the perpetrator. Here he ponders the question of whether an evil man really gets away with his crime. Cook skillfully interweaves mundane, often tragic events with the unseen, even darkly fanciful side of reality. In the end, Gates is left hoping for hope in this complex story within a story within a story. Recommended.-Roland Person, ret., Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Cook, the author of 21 novels, has been nominated for the Edgar seven times and won once (for The Chatham School Affair, 1996). His latest is as much an investigation into character as it is a cold-case mystery. Hero George Gates has been completely broken by the kidnapping and murder of his eight-year-old son seven years ago. Gates is a former travel writer, much given to writing about places where people disappeared. Now he salves his psyche by writing totally innocuous small features for the local paper. A chance meeting at a bar with the detective who organized the search parties when Gates' son went missing leads Gates into a new interest, a cold case that has obsessed the detective for two decades. Retired missing-persons detective Arlo McBride shows Gates the poems and journal that the 31-year-old missing woman left behind, and both men are pulled into reopening the case. The action tends to crawl, but the characters are rich and fascinating. Give this one to fans of Kate Atkinson's acclaimed When Will There Be Good News? (2008).--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2009 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.