Into the Web was nominated for an Edgar as "best paperback." It's typical of Cook's best work: something has happened in the past, and the reader slowly learns the details. Sometimes the book's narrator already knows what happened, and sometimes he doesn't. In this one, the narrator knows some of what happened, but not all of it. Everything is revealed a little at a time over the course of the book.
Roy Slater is a high school teacher in California, and he returns to Kingdom County, West Virginia, to nurse his father through his final illness. We gradually find out why he left in the first place, what happened to his brother (and why), what happened to the woman he loved, and what happened in his father's life. Cook has a nice way of foiling expectations at the same time he lets us see the inevitability of it all. The pieces fall into place and fit perfectly. A nice job, better than a lot of hardcovers. Check it out.
2 comments:
How do I email Thomas Cook? I know this is a silly email, but I have just discovered his books and LOVE them.
He doesn't have a website, so I'd suggest a snail-mail letter to his publisher. It's slow, but it usually works.
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