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American/Cozy Mysteries

Essays: § Cozies: An Especially American Art Form § When is a Cozy not a Cozy?
Kenneth Abel § Cold Steel Rain	Alina Adams § Murder on Ice	Donna Andrews § The Penguin Who Knew Too Much	Nevada Barr § High Country
Larry Beinhart § The Librarian	Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns (editors) § A Merry Band of Murderers	Meredith Blevins § The Hummingbird Wizard	Lawrence Block § The Burglar in the Rye
Jan Brogan § A Confidential Source	Judy Clemens § The Day Will Come	Joan Coggin § Who Killed the Curate?	Jeffrey Cohen § As Dog is My Witness § Some Like it Hot-Buttered
Thomas Cook § Into the Web	Gordon Cotler § Artist’s Proof	Casey Daniels § Don of the Dead	Diane Mott Davidson § Dark Tort § Double Shot
Aaron Elkins § Good Blood	Sharon Fiffer § Buried Stuff	Kate Flora § Stalking Death	Christine Goff § A Rant of Ravens
Denise Hamilton § Last Lullaby § Savage Garden § Sugar Skull	David Handler § The Cold Blue Blood	Charlaine Harris § Grave Sight § Grave Surprise § Shakespeare’s Counselor	Rosemary Harris § Pushing Up Daisies
Ellen Hart § An Intimate Ghost § The Iron Girl § Night Vision	Libby Fischer Hellmann § An Image of Death § A Picture of Guilt § A Shot to Die For	Martha C. Lawrence § Ashes of Aries	Marc Lecard § Vinnie's Head
Laura Lippman § To the Power of Three	Mary Logue § Maiden Rock	Margaret Maron § Last Lessons of Summer	Sujata Massey § Girl in a Box
Alexander McCall-Smith § The #1 Ladies Detective Agency	Deborah Morgan § The Marriage Casket § The Weedless Widow	Marcia Muller § Cyanide Wells	Kem Nunn § Tijuana Straits
Nancy Pickard § The Virgin of Small Plains	David Skibbins § Eight of Swords	Jessica Speart § Blue Twilight	Julia Spencer-Fleming § All Mortal Flesh § A Fountain Filled With Blood § I Shall Not Want § In the Bleak Midwinter § Out of the Deep I Cry § To Darkness and to Death
Denise Swanson § Murder of a Sleeping Beauty § Murder of a Barbie and Ken § Murder of a Snake in the Grass	Sarah Stewart Taylor § Judgment of the Grave § Mansions of the Dead § O’ Artful Death § Still as Death	Elaine Viets § Dying to Call You § Just Murdered § Murder with Reservations § Murder Unleashed § Shop Till You Drop

Into the Web, Thomas Cook, Bantam, $6.99.

Thomas Cook is one of the underappreciated treasures of American crime fiction. Although an Edgar winner in 1997 for The Chatham School Affair, he's never achieved the popularity he deserves, maybe because his books are atmospheric, psychologically oriented stand-alones, with more in common with the works of Brits like Barbara Vine and Minette Walters than that of U.S. series writers like Sue Grafton or Michael Connelly.

Cook's latest, Into the Web, is a wonderful example of his craft, a beautifully written tale of memory, murder and guilt which also features a clever, surprising, yet thoroughly plausible plot. In it Roy Slater returns from California to Kingdom County, the impoverished Appalachian community that he grew up in and couldn't wait to get out of, to nurse his brutal father through his final illness. Although Roy, a bookish teacher, now leads a life completely different from his hardscrabble boyhood, he's never really escaped Kingdom County or the bloody crime that suddenly erupted there. Once home his thoughts are inevitably drawn back to the double homicide his brother allegedly committed years ago, and as he fumblingly begins his own investigation, long hidden secrets are slowly and tantalizingly revealed, secrets that, although old, are far from dead, and which have deadly implications for the present.

Along with spellbinding suspense, Into the Web features Cook's lyric prose as well as a masterful depiction of a place where poverty makes social distinctions ever more pronounced and class warfare even more violent. Without a single wasted or pretentious word Cook manages to entertain while at the same time engaging larger themes of love, corruption and death, daring to be - gasp - profound in a genre too easily satisfied with the merely escapist.

His previous book Moon Over Manhattan was a "comic thriller" written with (or for) talk show host Larry King, presumably for the bucks, and Into the Web is a paperback original, which makes me a little anxious about Cook's commercial fortunes in today's avaricious publishing climate. So I implore you, if you like intelligent, well written crime fiction buy and read Into the Web, both for Thomas Cook's profit and your own.

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