Master of the Delta

by: Thomas H. Cook

Published by: An Otto Penzler Book/Harcourt, Inc

Reviewed by Barbara L. Fielder

The master of the genre, Thomas H. Cook, is back with another well-written, well-plotted crime novel with fascinating and gritty characters. For Cook fans this book is well worth the wait. From a modern setting, the author takes you back into a dark past and carries you into a future that is not fully clear as to its meaning until well into the book. As you read, you discover how the future, in which the author catapults you, allows to you to follow the flawed characters as their lives unfold in strange and unlikely ways.

His story piques your interest from the first page as he describes his main character, Mr. Jack Branch, a schoolteacher in the classic sense. He has an unusual array of students in his first class of the day. The students and this classroom experience is his particular focus.

Jack takes great delight in covering a macabre range of stories, and his intent is to take his students into reading of the evil, dark, and sinister. His stories delve into cruel and heartless characters that deserve the worst possible fate, and those who have suffered at the hands of the merciless who deliver misery in its many forms. This bloody macabre focus in a different story would seem out of place. However, Cook weaves this shocking detail into his story with little effort that makes an immense impact.

Jack is a proper and foppish man. His personality is vividly dramatized in the moments and times spent with his father, the Master of Great Oaks.

You’ll discover the relationship Jack has with his father becomes borderline estranged as Eddie Miller, one of his first-period students, develops an interest (albeit at Jack’s urging) with his father. The purpose is for Eddie to gain insight into his dark past, a past that only Jack’s father can shed light. The mystery continues from there and makes for great summer reading.

Cook’s crime writing style is unique. You’ll discover after reading several pages Cook swiftly transports you into a delightful storytelling rhythm, one in which you can easily become accustom.

Armchair Interviews says: Long-time Cook fans will be thrilled and this book will make many new fans.