Böcker av Michael Cook

Detective Jon Bones Sullivan, mourning the loss of his partner, Frank Collazo, moves into Frank's old house. Was he looking for a reason to stay close to his old friend? Or was Bones running from his past? Bones Sullivan's father died when he was only eighteen years old. When he did, Bones and his mother were finally rid of the man who had physically and verbally abused them for years. The death of a husband and father would normally create an unfillable void, but not when the decedent was a monster. Bones and his mother could now move on with their lives and try to forget the man they grew to hate. The man wouldn't forget them, however, and George Sullivan was not done tormenting Bones, who, after the death of his mother, inherited the family home. It was an unforgiving home and, in the case of Bones Sullivan, unforgettable. Running from the memories of his father, Bones is thrust into a case that would haunt him and release the skeletons that had been hidden in the family closet for years. Editorial Review: Criminal Activity Blog: Elias J. McClellan - Crime Writer Detective Jon "Bones" Sullivan fights to simply make it through each day. Recovering from physical and emotional wounds tied to a shootout that left his partner dead, day-to-day is the best he can do. Then he is confronted by the specter of death, another loss in his police family, and the return of a woman he let go. Bones dives head-first back into his job to preserve his sanity. However, neither Candace Weatherby's return nor the specter of death is a coincidence. Both events are heralds of a killer on a mission of retribution and tribute played out across North Philadelphia. Bones is Michael Cook's fifth book in the Falconclaw series. In the course of five books, he has explored a range of sub-genres, cozy to mystery to police procedural-and now serial-killer thriller. Book one was Frank and Penny (based on actual North Philly detectives). Then, we met the second generation Frank and Penny (spiritual descendants in contemporary circumstances). Now, the baton has been passed to Bones Sullivan. "...Sylvia Langham walked down those steps and into oblivion." On the heels of the aforementioned death in the family, Bones is thrilled to be reunited with Candace, even as she takes on a consulting job that puts her on the streets among the very people Bones chases. All too soon, they are investigating the disappearance of a preschool teacher, snatched off the street. Then, visions begin to point Bones toward something more than random abductions and subsequent killings. Only the dead know Brooklyn Thomas Wolfe wrote his famous commentary on Brooklynites and their borough in 1935. Yet the idea is as fresh as morning coffee in Cook's world. Both cops and robbers, good guys and bad, are directed as much by lessons of the dead as they are by their own mortality. Only the haunted know the ghosts of North Philly. Haunted by generational abuse and unrelenting loss, Bones knows Philadelphia through and through, which brings us to the star of the story. The backbone that unites all five books of Cook's Falconclaw saga is the City of Philadelphia. Rustbelt trauma and end-of-the-gilded-age reality dot each characters' emotional landscape and every twist and turn of the undead streets of Philadelphia and the walking ghosts who populate them. History informs day-to-day life for the scrappy survivors in Nicetown and Franklinville. History permeates the 39th District. Cook's sense of place is only exceeded by his ability to subvert expectations. Place, tone, and tension make for a breakneck pace. Fans of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee will thoroughly enjoy Cook's work.

FalconClaw - Fraternal is book four in the FalconClaw Detective Series but can also be read as a standalone novel. This continuing saga finds Detective Frank Collazo dealing with loss and the search for the maniacal killers laying waste to the mean streets of North Philly in the fall and winter of 2021. In the words of retired FBI Criminal Profiler Douglas Cantrell, 'A good friend once told me that every relationship has an expiration date. That friend was Frank Collazo, and he was right. With the loss of his father, Salvatore, at the age of only fourteen, Frank learned far too young that sometimes death ended relationships with a finality that slowly drained one's soul of any desire or willingness to carry on. He used to say that the notion of 'til death do us part' was a tragedy because someone always dies first. The living half of the relationship has to go on surviving. To go on drifting and wandering through life, its maze of uncertainty, and its caldron of loneliness and despair. Frank would learn at a young age that the survivor who lost a loved one would sometimes wallow in hopelessness and misery, almost wishing for death. Frank knew he wouldn't live forever, and that thought was the only thing that kept him going, marching through his agonizing pain and unbearable sadness. Editorial Review: Criminal Activity Blog: Elias J. McClellan - Crime Writer Michael Cook's FalconClaw Fraternal takes us back to Philadelphia, the 39th District, and to our old friend, Detective Frank Colazzo. Unfortunately, it is no longer Frank's Philadelphia. Talon and Genesis, abandoned kids working from abandoned buildings, have taken ownership of the shadows and the streets. Like Frank and Jon "Bones" Sullivan, Frank's new partner, the cops, and Talon and Genesis, the killers, are all bound by the past. All wounded by family horror, loss, and pain. While the previous books gave us bits and pieces of familiar comfort in steamed heat and joint-aching cold on snowy mornings, winter desolation of dread permeates Fraternity, even in mid-May, where we begin. The specter of death dogs Frank's heels as he hunts the killers hunting him and other police through the dark-night Philly streets. Every killing, every dead cop, takes a toll on Frank. Even as his friends Doug Cantrell and Captain Beatrice Jackson attempt to save him, Frank dives deeper into his investigation. Truly, he has nothing else. Exiled from his family home, alienated from new cops stumping for political advancement and old cops who see Frank as bad luck, all he has is the hunt for the killers before they kill any more of his family-in-blue. That is both Fraternal's greatest strength and heart-aching weakness-isolation. No one is safe, and Cook deftly reminds us of this with every twist and turn. We miss Penny (Frank's wife and one-time police partner) as much as Frank does. His pain is our pain as well. But between sleeping in cars and dodging intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and fears, Frank hunts the hunters. The job, the only handle on life and his mental health keeps Frank moving even as it takes years off his life. Therein lies Cook's other balancing act: character development and writing development. Frank Collazo is steadfast and dedicated, just as we remember him. But Frank's world has shifted. Cook's writing reflects the shift, the pain, and the trauma. We feel it right along with Frank. Where his previous books were target-locked on the hunters, Frank and Penny, here we never lose touch with the predators. Cook steps out on the tightrope of his story and trusts his balance as a storyteller. It's a risk that pays off in a taut, visceral story. Philadelphia natives will delight at recognizing factual events and factual people who fill out this fiction work. FalconClaw Fraternal is a thrilling read for a dark and stormy night.

After three bestselling novels, Mikala Stewart moves from Oxford, England to New York City to better promote her books in person. She meets a tall, good looking gentleman, who holds the hotel elevator door for her and her mother. After exchanging a few pleasantries, they part, going their separate ways. Liam Foster moves to New York City to work in his parents' law firm NYC office. He's eating dinner alone yet again when he and Mikala recognize each other from the hotel elevator years earlier and they have dinner together. After talking into the evening, Liam insists on escorting Mikala home safely where asks her out for that Saturday night. They begin dating then, a month later, she's gone several weeks for book signing tour. After three bad breakups, Mikala wonders if Liam will be there to greet her, not knowing he ran into an ex-girlfriend, Danielle Phillips, while back in Franklin on a business trip. Danielle wants him back and what Danielle wants, she gets.

If you like The Shining, The Sixth Sense, or Shutter Island, you'll love this book. In the winter of 1974, Old Man Winter came calling, again. In August of '74, Detective Penelope Bryce had just won her four-year legal battle with the City of Philadelphia and finally earned her Detective Badge. Her first case ended up being her last. Penny's new partner, Detective Frank Bruno, was wrestling with his own demons when he came across Old Man Winter himself, Garrison Winter. The grizzled detective would finally meet his match. Detectives Bryce and Bruno would attempt to chase down the man they suspected in the disappearances of nine elderly people across seven states and five decades. Who was the phantom, the ghost, or the devil that they were chasing? Only death would answer their question. Editorial Review: Criminal Activity Blog: Elias J. McClellan - Crime Writer Michael Cook's Old Man: Winter Heavenly Gates, begins with a murder. An old fashioned Columbo-style murder. Yes, yes I stand by that analogy. Cook's story is set in 1974, after all. However, the scope quickly expands as the death count mounts. Based on isolated actual events, OMW tracks the proto-investigation of murders dating back 50 years, as stumbled upon by newly-minted detective Penelope "Penny" Bryce. If this sounds similar to Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs, that is a healthy comparison. But where Harris takes the modern interstate to his destination, Cook takes the back alley. The first female detective in the Philadelphia Police Department, (and that as the result of a lawsuit) Penny is snubbed by her own commander and suffers hazing at the hands of her fellow detectives, except for Frank Bruno. Frank, emotionally crippled by grief, sees professional enthusiasm and strong instincts for the job in Penny and takes the rookie detective under his wing. Cook's brilliance is in the tone of the time. In the first pages Cook gives the reader a nose full of antiquated attitudes as potent as the distinct smell of the cold northeast winter. More than "just the way it was," the attitudes are all the more jarring once you realize that this is what women still face, today. Then there is the technology or lack thereof. Penny and Frank dance a cat-and-mouse tune through snowbound cars (with windows off of their crank-up track) and steam-heat-musty offices. As they begin to suspect they're actually after a serial killer, (still new terminology in '74) Frank turns to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. But the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit is barely two-years old. While Thomas Harris' FBI (Clarice Starling, Will Graham, and Jack Crawford) are highly skilled, motivated, and boy-scout capable, Cook's FBI, especially agents in the BSU, are tentative and still finding their way. We've become so accustomed to crime scene investigations through movies, television, and books, it's easy to forget that actual scientific investigation, like the BSU, was in its infancy. DNA would not be used for another 12 years. So, following Penny and Frank as they leg-work this investigation only adds to the suspense. However it is apparent early on this isn't a police procedural. Contrary to the cover, it's not quite a psychological thriller, either. What OMW is then is a mystery of perception and a test of faith. Which brings us to our killer. I won't spoil the ending here, obviously. Suffice to say, the clues are there from the beginning, marking our path like a map to the eventual reveal. And an unsettling conclusion. Those who enjoy a good who-done-it but have a low gore point will love OMW. Cook writes against most established tropes. The Columbo analogy really does stand up in this regard. There is no graphic violence, no sexual violence, no misogyny and only passing reference to a murdered child.

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