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Title: Robbers: A Novel by Christopher Cook ISBN: 0-425-18346-7 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.19 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Publishers Weekly Review
Comment: (The following pre-release review was published in the fiction section of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY on October 9, 2000) --- The harsh, foreboding essence of rural Texas dominates Cook's bloody, bittersweet debut novel, charting the adventures of two criminal drifters and their pursuer ... The boys' aimless adventure eventually includes Della, a woman who patterns her life on women's magazines and desperately aspires to middle-class respectability ... as crafty Texas Ranger, Rule Hooks, picks up their scent. Hooks, a tracker by training and instinct, relies on modern police methods as well as his gut instincts to sniff out his prey. Cook's plot tumbles from scene to scene with jarring brilliance, the pathos of his characters lending his otherwise brutal world a certain beauty. His imagery is striking, almost lyrical ... This gritty crime drama is not for the faint of heart, but Cook¹s prose sets it a notch above many like novels. The publisher compares the book to the work of James Lee Burke; if booksellers push this comparison, or if they aim the title at a hip, youthful readership, it could make out like a bandit.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lone Star Noir
Comment: "Robbers" is an astonishing debut novel. Cook is as easy with his craft and characters as if he had been at this for years. The East Texas honky-tonk, just-getting-by-but-not-quite, the On the Road ambiance is the warp and weave of this book.
Ex-cons Eddie and Ray Bob, "runnin' buddies," stop at a convenience store for cigarettes. Eddie is a penny short of the price, and the stuffy clerk is adamant, and Eddie shoots him. It is hard to tell who is more amazed, Eddie or the victim. Eddie carefully lays down four one dollar bills and goes back to the car whereupon Ray Bob rushes back, cleans out the till (and retrieves Eddie's four dollars) grabs snacks, cartons of cigarettes and sandwiches. When he ambles back to the ragtop Caddie (stolen?), he announces, "You can't steal from a dead man." Their odyssey has begun, a rampage of raiding convenience stores and leaving dead clerks. They are shot with luck, as there never are any witnesses and things go well until they pick up Della, who has had a spot of trouble of her own.
Ray Bob is vicious, highly intelligent psychopath who is jealous of Della coming between him and his runnin' buddy. Eddie, a sweet dim bulb with the soul of an artist, is clearly over his head with the murderous Ray Bob and infatuated with Della. Della, an almost "babe" (her eyes are too close together) is a combination of low down schemer and "what's a nice girl like me doing with thugs like you."
You get to know these three like members of your family (though you wouldn't want to admit you knew them.) There is a Texas Ranger grimly trying to trail him, and victim's husband who is a religious zealot and a gun nut who is following the ranger, but Ray Bob, Eddie and Della are blissfully unaware. Texas wraps around you like a sandy scarf. You think this is going to end up like the gunfight at OK Corral, but Mr. Cook has many surprises in store before you reach that last page. When you close the book, you will think long and hard about justice, in the abstract and in the particular.
"Robbers" is wonderfully written, and I would choose it as my second favorite book of 2003 (after "Life of Pi"). There have been many comparisons made from Faulkner to James Lee Burke, but I'd have to say Mr. Cook has his own unique voice, and a very good one it is.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating: 5
Summary: Robbers
Comment: Christopher Cook captures the essence of "Natural Born Killers" on the road again. Complex writing that sails through your consciousness makes this a must read for those hot, Texas nights. There are layers of subtle nuance for the well-read reader as well as good solid writing for the not so well-read person. I highly recommend this book.
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Title: The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips ISBN: 0345440196 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Handsome Harry : A Novel by James Carlos Blake ISBN: 0060554789 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Red Grass River : A Legend by James Carlos Blake ISBN: 0380792427 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 25 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell ISBN: 0452283302 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: A World of Thieves : A Novel by James Carlos Blake ISBN: 0060512474 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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