BOOKLIST
December 2008
By Bill Ott, Editor & Publisher
“Robbers remains one of my favorite first novels of the last decade. More, please, sir.”
BOOKLIST – Starred Review
October 15, 2000
By Bill Ott, Editor & Publisher
Eddie and Ray Bob are runnin’ buddies, and they run for all they’re worth, through Texas and Louisiana, in this high-octane first novel. Eddie starts shooting first, but it’s really sociopath Ray Bob we have to worry about… Then there’s Della, a hairdresser who hitches a ride in the runnin’ buddies’ ragtop caddy, and naturally, three’s a crowd…
This may sound like a cross between Natural Born Killers and Will and Grace, but, in fact, it’s something very different. Cook takes the noir chase novel (there’s a persistent Texas Ranger on the boys’ trail) on some remarkable detours. Yes, we feel the pathos of white-trash lives gone wrong, but soon enough, we’ve forgotten the big picture; we’re runnin’, too.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
November 15, 2000
First-timer Cook, a former journalist and human-rights activist, serves up “running buddies” Ray Bob and Eddie, who follow up their prison stint with a killing spree motivated by a need for cold beer, pocket money and an amorality so deep it must have been implanted prenatally. Their demonic swathe through most of Texas leads them to Della.
Meantime, Texas Ranger Rule Hooks and his tracking dog Lucky are closing in, as is another old-time lawman, out to avenge a relative who became one of the buddies’ victims.
Della, whose mentors are drawn from soap operas and the sleazier talk-show hosts, is appallingly funny, while Ray Bob’s behavior makes a powerful case for capital punishment without trial.
