SEPTEMBER 2012 - AudioFile
This haunting mystery begins with a best friend’s inexplicable suicide, which leads the protagonist into a labyrinth that eventually takes him to a shadowy secret kept by his aging father. Narrator Traber Burns is adept with the haunting material in this story of the 1970s Dirty War in Argentina. His simple declarative voicing takes listeners flawlessly into the troubled hearts of Cook’s latest champions. Burns’s timing and pacing are all listeners need to feel the passions of the two main characters locked in this unfolding mystery. M.C. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
The suicide of unhappy true crime writer Julian Wells propels this spellbinding thriller from Edgar-winner Cook (The Quest for Anna Klein). As literary critic Philip Anders tries to piece together his closest friend’s final days, Philip discovers that Julian may have been planning to return to Argentina, where years earlier, on a visit, the pair met a young woman, Marisol, whose subsequent disappearance haunted Julian. It’s obvious that Julian never stopped searching for Marisol, and as Philip follows his trail, he wonders how much Julian really knew and whether guilt for an unknown transgression fueled his lifelong sorrow. Cook threads the narratives of Julian’s unsettling oeuvre throughout Philip’s increasingly obsessive journey to unearth the reason behind his friend’s decision to end his life. The stories of real-life criminals—from a 17th-century Hungarian countess with a penchant for torture to notorious Soviet-era serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, the subject of Julian’s last manuscript—add to the aura of unease. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
"A striking example of a suspense writer working at the top of his form." —Los Angeles Times
"[A]n intelligent and elegant work." —The Wall Street Journal
BookPage
Reader Traber Burns’s mature voice is a perfect match for Philip, and he makes the most of the material.”
—Library Journal
Los Angeles Times
[Cook] knows how to spin a seductive tale.”
—Booklist
Booklist
[Cook] knows how to spin a seductive tale.”
—Booklist
Library Journal - Audio
"There is no more haunting a story than that of an unsolved crime," declares protagonist Philip Anders as he unravels the mystery behind his lifelong friend Julian Wells. Unfortunately, the crime may haunt those two, but not so much the listener. Following Julian's suicide, Philip embarks on a quest to learn what prompted his friend to row a boat to the middle of a pond and slash both wrists. The investigation takes Philip to France, England, Buenos Aires, and beyond, but he unearths the answer in his own New York City apartment through his elderly father. Cook relates the horrors of foreign politics, in which there are no rules and your best friend will sacrifice you to save himself. Ultimately, this is a story of those with and those without a conscience. Reader Traber Burns's mature voice is a perfect match for Philip, and he makes the most of the material. VERDICT Those who like mysteries steeped more in human nature than twists and turns will enjoy the fine writing here, while fans seeking action will be bored. Buy where Cook is popular. ["Most readers won't be surprised by the denouement, but Cook's thoughtful writing is the real payoff here," read the review of the Mysterious Pr: Grove/Atlantic hc, LJ 7/12.—Ed.]—Mike Rogers, Library Journal
Library Journal
When true-crime writer Julian Wells commits suicide, his lifelong friend Philip Anders can't help but think he could have done something to stop it. Anders looks for answers in his memories and in Wells's books, which chronicle some of the worst serial killers and massacres in history. But all the clues lead to a trip that Anders and Wells took to Argentina as young men. They met a guide, Marisol, who became one of the many "disappeared" in Argentina's Dirty War. Throughout, Philip has to confront the fact that he didn't really know Julian and begins to question whether he ever knew anyone at all. Cook (The Quest for Anna Klein) has a graceful writing style, with philosophical asides and allusions to classic literature, and Anders is a decent, though naive, companion on this journey. VERDICT For mystery lovers who enjoy the trail of clues, even when there isn't a huge mystery. Most readers won't be surprised by the denouement, but Cook's thoughtful writing is the real payoff here. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/12.]—Devon Thomas, DevIndexing, Chelsea, MI
Kirkus Reviews
Cook's 27th dip into his fictional characters' troubled past asks why an expatriate writer took his own life. Before he rowed out to the middle of a pond and slit his wrists, Julian Wells' most notable legacy was his shelf of meticulously researched true-crime studies of notorious serial killers. His death, however, creates a more poignant legacy for his sister Loretta, a failed actress and copy editor, and his old friend Philip Anders, a reviewer whose father, like Julian's, was a State Department functionary. Why would Julian have chosen to kill himself during a particularly quiet period of a largely uneventful life? Taking his cue from the dedication of Julian's first book--"For Philip, sole witness to my crime"--Philip retraces his friend's steps over three continents and 40 years, focusing at length on a trip the two of them took to Argentina, a rare journey that was not designed to produce background material for one of Julian's books. He recalls their friendship with Marisol Menendez, a guide to Buenos Aires who vanished into the deep shadows of the Casa Rosada during the dirty little war of the 1980s. As he interviews an activist priest, a Casa Rosada contact of his father's, and a Russian agent who earned the sobriquet the Rostov Ripper, Philip can feel himself getting closer to one of those grimly climactic epiphanies so characteristic of Cook (The Quest for Anna Klein, 2011, etc.). This time, however, the big reveal seems neither inevitable nor weighty enough to justify the weight of the portentous buildup. This sprawling update of Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios lacks the baleful focus of its model, or of the most successful of Cook's own nightmare excavations of the past. Wait till next year.
