The Interrogation

Rating:
Summary: A Stylistic Gem
Review: The Interrogation is a departure from Thomas H. Cook's terrific, but more leisurely recent thrillers. A hard-boiled, police procedural would seem an unlikely showcase for his elegant prose. Nonetheless, he has pulled it off. There are passages in this book as moving and gorgeously rendered as any you will read in any book in any genre. The plot is a twisting, turning labyrinth that holds our interest, but the memorable turns of phrase and the masterful use of language floating effortlessly above the sordid subject matter are what make us regret our arrival at the final moving sentence.

Rating:
Summary: The ending...what?
Review: This is my read of a novel by Thomas Cook and suffice is to say that this is a beautifully written novel with much fluency and detail. However, I was a little disappointed with the end of the book as well as the course and development of plot. Although I will not reveal any plot here or the ending of the book, be it that Mr. Cook missed some points in terms of the psychology of mental disease such as that that the main player appears to suffer and the course and ultimate ending of book, that for me was quite surprising in a way and also disconcerting in that it broke the natural development of the whole plot. The end comes out of nowhere in a sense after pages and pages of "interrogation" and investigation apparently in the wrong direction.

Rating:
Summary: SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS, BUT...
Review: This is really a wonderfully realized and written book. Cook has become the master of those "flashback, here's what happened" books, and this one is his best. It is almost Dickensian in its use of coincidence and happenstance events, each leading to a tragic denouement. The interrogators, Pierce and Cohen, are richly drawn, flawed characters, each with secrets to live with and deal with. There is a sense of ominous tragedy in each of these characters; Thomas Burke, the Chief of Police, has his own tragedy: his vagrant/dope addicted son is dying; we have the characters of Eddie and Terry--garbage collectors. Eddie feels guilty because he has to work the night shift while his daughter is at home sick; Terry is the boss' son and doesn't want to even be associated with Eddie; there are so many characters whose twisted lies and deceptions lead them irrevocably toward doom. And of course, we have Jay Smalls, the man the police think killed little Kathy Lake in the park. Did he?
The resolution of this is mouth-dropping, but logical. My only reservation is why was Jay Smalls like he was? What happened to him when he was a youth? Cook lets us make our own decisions on this one.
This, however, is one heck of a read!

Rating:
Summary: SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS, BUT...
Review: This is really a wonderfully realized and written book. Cook has become the master of those "flashback, here's what happened" books, and this one is his best. It is almost Dickensian in its use of coincidence and happenstance events, each leading to a tragic denouement. The interrogators, Pierce and Cohen, are richly drawn, flawed characters, each with secrets to live with and deal with. There is a sense of ominous tragedy in each of these characters; Thomas Burke, the Chief of Police, has his own tragedy: his vagrant/dope addicted son is dying; we have the characters of Eddie and Terry--garbage collectors. Eddie feels guilty because he has to work the night shift while his daughter is at home sick; Terry is the boss' son and doesn't want to even be associated with Eddie; there are so many characters whose twisted lies and deceptions lead them irrevocably toward doom. And of course, we have Jay Smalls, the man the police think killed little Kathy Lake in the park. Did he?
The resolution of this is mouth-dropping, but logical. My only reservation is why was Jay Smalls like he was? What happened to him when he was a youth? Cook lets us make our own decisions on this one.
This, however, is one heck of a read!

Rating:
Summary: SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS, BUT...
Review: This is really a wonderfully realized and written book. Cook has become the master of those "flashback, here's what happened" books, and this one is his best. It is almost Dickensian in its use of coincidence and happenstance events, each leading to a tragic denouement. The interrogators, Pierce and Cohen, are richly drawn, flawed characters, each with secrets to live with and deal with. There is a sense of ominous tragedy in each of these characters; Thomas Burke, the Chief of Police, has his own tragedy: his vagrant/dope addicted son is dying; we have the characters of Eddie and Terry--garbage collectors. Eddie feels guilty because he has to work the night shift while his daughter is at home sick; Terry is the boss' son and doesn't want to even be associated with Eddie; there are so many characters whose twisted lies and deceptions lead them irrevocably toward doom. And of course, we have Jay Smalls, the man the police think killed little Kathy Lake in the park. Did he?
The resolution of this is mouth-dropping, but logical. My only reservation is why was Jay Smalls like he was? What happened to him when he was a youth? Cook lets us make our own decisions on this one.
This, however, is one heck of a read!

Rating:
Summary: An instruction manual would be more exciting
Review: This novel was described as a "desperate race against time" and a "gripping journey into the darkest corners of the human soul". I found it to be a slow-paced, dreary attempt to make a jumble of inept, uninteresting characters into a story which leaves the readers bewildered about why they wasted their time reading it. It is impossible to bond in any way with any of the characters; the interrogation - broken up by other story lines which serve as a relief but not much else - is interminable, and the ending is about the most depressing ending possible. All in all, I found myself wondering, for this I slogged through this book? I listened to it on CD's, and but for the excellent narration of George Guidall would have given up on it long before. As is was, I still had to skip one of the disks just to get through with it.

Rating:
Summary: An instruction manual would be more exciting
Review: This novel was described as a "desperate race against time" and a "gripping journey into the darkest corners of the human soul". I found it to be a slow-paced, dreary attempt to make a jumble of inept, uninteresting characters into a story which leaves the readers bewildered about why they wasted their time reading it. It is impossible to bond in any way with any of the characters; the interrogation - broken up by other story lines which serve as a relief but not much else - is interminable, and the ending is about the most depressing ending possible. All in all, I found myself wondering, for this I slogged through this book? I listened to it on CD's, and but for the excellent narration of George Guidall would have given up on it long before. As is was, I still had to skip one of the disks just to get through with it.

Rating:
Summary: Must read - not a wasted word.
Review: To describe this as a crime story understates the depth of character development and the motivations in what is a dark story richly told. It is the subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways that the motives for the characters behaviors are revealed. Thomas Cook manages to bring you into the minds and souls of his characters with all their hidden strengths and flaws. It is also a period piece that requires you to think about the place and time that these events occur and perhaps how differently the story would be if it happened today.
Simply put, this book is in my top 10.

Rating:
Summary: Must read - not a wasted word.
Review: To describe this as a crime story understates the depth of character development and the motivations in what is a dark story richly told. It is the subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways that the motives for the characters behaviors are revealed. Thomas Cook manages to bring you into the minds and souls of his characters with all their hidden strengths and flaws. It is also a period piece that requires you to think about the place and time that these events occur and perhaps how differently the story would be if it happened today.
Simply put, this book is in my top 10.

Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: Unlike "Chatham School Affair" which was a deliberately paced book played out over time and to me was best read over several days, "Interrogation" is a twelve hour timeline thriller that compelled the reader to the next page. The story has so many unexpected twists and quirks that the end leaves the reader wanting the resolution, but that is left up to the reader.