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In this tight, suspenseful tale of a race against the clock to get a confession out of the chief suspect in the death of young Cathy Lake, every cop has his own private burden, his own reason for wanting to crack Albert Jay Smalls wide open and confirm him as the killer. Jack Pierce has the memory of his own murdered daughter and the promise he made to Cathy's mother. Norman Cohen has the vision of the terrible things he saw at the liberation of a concentration camp, the certain knowledge of the presence of evil in the world. Thomas Burke, the chief of police, has a dying son who's been dead to him for a long time. Cook weaves the tragedies of all their lives almost seamlessly into the last 12 hours of their interrogation of the suspect; when it's over, if there's no confession, they must let Smalls go. This suspenseful thriller showcases Cook's skill at interpreting the psychological complexities of his well-drawn characters and his ability to turn an otherwise ordinary police procedural into a tense, haunting, and resonant novel. --Jane Adams
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