Profile: Mystery Writer Thomas Cook

Billy Watkins, on the Mississippi ClarionLedger.com website, reports that Thomas Cook, a Southerner who has become one of the top mystery/crime writers in the country, says his readers often tell him his endings catch them off guard. Cook's latest book, The Cloud of Unknowing , was published this month, and was hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a bravura performance".

Watkins notes that Cook is one of those rare writers who lets his imagination take the story wherever it wants to go on that particular day - and still wind up with a non-wandering plot line. When asked about writing with an outline, Cook replied, "I have none. Another writer once said that writing without an outline is sort of like driving your car on a road you're not familiar with ... your lights illuminate a curve here, a curve there. But you don't know what's around any of them. I find that an exciting way to develop a book."

In 1997, Cook won an Edgar Award for his mystery The Chatham School Affair. He's been nominated five other times. His book Red Leaves, published in 2006, won the Barry Award as the top original paperback private investigator novel. His book Evidence of Blood was made into a movie by Showtime.

Read the rest of Watkins' profile of Thomas Cook here.

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