It's been a while since I read a book I liked this much. I picked it up as a filler for a heavy-duty non-fiction I'm reading and finished it right away. Although I wanted to, I didn't look ahead or skim through any parts. Cook's writing is good enough to keep reading; he doesn't pad it by putting in details you don't need. He just keeps the action moving.An eight-year-old girl's body has been found in the park near the lake. The woman who found the body had been frightened by a strange, wild-looking man and had called for the police. She met them on the path at the point she'd been frightened; they left her to follow the path she said the man had taken and found a bum sleeping in a culvert just a little ways away. Suddenly the woman screamed and one of them returned to discover she'd found the body.Case easy, right? Bum found in culvert with picture drawn on wall that appears to be the little girl - very good likeness. Take him in with 24 hours to hold him or let him go. Everyone is sure he did it, but he keeps insisting (of course, they say, the guilty ALWAYS say they're innocent) that he didn't do it and that he had suspected there was a man who watched the children. Mothers frequently in the park with their children report they never saw a strange man, so the police dub him "the Invisible Man" and don't believe the suspect. Detectives Pierce and Cohen are assigned to the case and now have only 12 hours to crack the suspect. Chapters are given in blocks of time passing. At the start of each chapter is a shadow clock across the pages that reflects the time passing.Ok. Did the guy do it? I'm not going to spoil it. But as well as a good, fast plot, Cook has created all manner of characters who share one thing - they feel incompetent, helpless in their lives; they are looking for something to "save" them: Pierce's daughter was murdered; Cohen, a Jew, was in WWII and saw first hand what the Nazis did to Jews; a garbage collector, a single father, works nights and feels guilty about not being able to give his daughter the life and attention she should have; the suspect, a young man, who calls himself "scum" and refuses to tell the police anything about his past and appears to be hiding something; among others.This isn't a one-sided cop/murder story; it's a whole world of real people doing real things, suffering real hurts, showing real feelings. Just when you think things are going straight forward, they shift off in a direction you hadn't expected, just like real life.I'll definitely be reading more of Cook's work. I only hope that it's as good as this one.
1952, 7:00 p.m., Anytown, USA -Police detectives Jack Pierce and Norman Cohen have only 11-hours for a final interrogation of Albert Jay Smalls. Smalls - a young vagrant who lives in a drainpipe, trying to live by selling things he finds - is the prime suspect in the murder of 8-year-old Catherine Lake. But, the police don't have enough evidence to hold him. A true race against time for detectives Pierce and Cohen. They have 11-hours to get more evidence, a confession, something . . . or the suspect walks!Speaking of time . . . the detectives had 11-hours; I finished this book in 7! Reached the 1/2-way mark before going to bed. Next morning, put on the coffee and started reading again. Author Thomas H. Cook kept pulling me in further and further. This is my first book by Cook and I WILL read him again.
What do You think about The Interrogation (2002)?
The Interrogation, by Thomas H. Cook. B-plus.Downloaded from audible.com.I didn’t like this book as well as the others I have read by this author. What I usually like about this author is that his books are like puzzles. Pieces fit together. One seemingly harmless episode leads to the next and everything connects in the end. This book was different, but compelling in its own way.In this book we have two homicide detectives who are on the trail of a serial murderer and pedophile of little girls. Another little girl has been murdered, and the police believe they may be on the trail of the murderer this time. However, there is no physical evidence to connect the man to the victims. They arrest him but are only going to be able to hold him over night to question him. The interrogation begins with the police desperate to get him to confess. As the book goes along, several other people are introduced as possibilities for the murders, but the police are focusing mainly on the one man they’re interrogating. This book actually depicts the tragedies of several men who suffered great pain, and who may or may not have blamed the wrong person. Actually the reader has more of the pieces than any of the characters in the book, but even the reader can’t be totally positive about what happened. It’s a very compelling read, full of tragedy and pain, and different than books I’ve read from Cook previously.
—Kathleen Hagen
Not my favorite however it is a good read, and with a surprise ending but not what i would have liked. My question is did the suspect......or did the superintendent............ the suspect. Read it and find out
—Keiran Broadhurst
This was the most depressing story I've ever read, but it reflects the way a lot of real murder investigations usually play out.The police never discovered who committed the crime, but the reader did, b/c the murderer named himself but was shot by a guy who took justice into his own hands.At the end the police officer, who failed to find enough evidence to try the suspect under interrogation, pursues another lead. Which is the wrong one, b/c the person who did it is dead.
—Vicki G
