Evidence of Blood [Large Print] [Library Binding]

Thomas H. Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1992

Edgar Award winner Thomas H. Cook has earned acclaim and a growing legion of fans for his brilliantly styled, intensely evocative thrillers.  Now, in his most seductive suspense novel yet, he draws us into a world of love, betrayal, and murder from which one man can find no escape.

"It's better to know, don't you think?...  No matter what the cost?"

Forty years ago in Sequoyah, Georgia, Charles Overton was sentenced to die for the murder of a young woman, even though her body was never found.  But the prosecution had all the ammunition it needed: a blood-stained dress and a jury out for vengeance....  

Now true-crime writer Jackson Kinley is coming home to grieve for an old friend.  But Sequoyah sheriff Ray Tindall's death has left many questions: Why had he reopened the Overton case...  and then, without explanation, shut it down?  What was he looking for?  And what did he find that he couldn't bear to reveal?  The search for answers leads Kinley into a small-town web of corruption, secrecy, and lies--and finally into the darkest corners of the human heart, where the terrible truth lies...in the Evidence of Blood.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cook's splendid novel finds a true-crime writer back in his rural Georgia hometown to attend the funeral of its sheriff, whose last investigation he seeks to complete.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Lush-languaged Cook (Sacrificial Ground, Blood Innocents), in a pared-down mode. True-crime writer Jackson Kinley returns to Sequoyah, Georgia, first for his grandmother's funeral, then for that of his best friend, Ray, who died while seemingly obsessed with the years-ago murder of teenager Ellie Dinker. Charles Overton, the man electrocuted for her murder, was the father of Ray's lover, Dora. Or was he--either Dora's father, that is, or a murderer? As Kinley follows Ray's trail (word-by-word reading of the original trial transcript; interviews with witnesses; visits to the supposed crime scene), discrepancies appear and facts blur. Facts or merely wishes? The closer Kinley comes to the truth, the more he disrupts his own life and long-held assumptions regarding his father, his mother, and, above all, his grandmother, all of whom, incontrovertibly, revelation by painful revelation, are drawn into the tale of poor Ellie Dinker, her pregnancy, her unsuccessful abortion, and its aftermath. Gripping southern drama, with its byzantine family trees, old wives' tales, and overheated memories. One of the better Cooks to date. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 589 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company. (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560543280
• ISBN-13: 978-1560543282
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,867,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

THOMAS H. COOK was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, in 1947. He has been nominated for the Edgar Award seven times in five different categories. He received the best novel Edgar for The Chatham School Affair, the Martin Beck Award, the Herodotus Prize for best historical short story, and the Barry for best novel for Red Leaves, and has been nominated for numerous other awards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BLOODY GOOD READ, June 18, 2001

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evidence of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of Cook's finest works to date. As we get involved with Jackson Kinley and his search for the truth behind a 30 year old crime, we find ourselves intrigued and mystified. As Kinley researches old court transcripts, interviews people, and starts putting the pieces together, we enter a labyrinthine maze of vast proportions.

Cook, whose specialty has been journeying back to previous crimes, outdoes himself in manipulating the reader into finding many suspects and many possible solutions to the question: did an innocent man die in the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit? Was a murder even committed? Who is behind the suspected cover-up?

Although the ending does have an air of ambiguity, when revisiting the novel mentally, one can see how everything ties together in the end.

A superb work by Mr. Cook.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solves the real puzzle: the mystery of self, June 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Evidence of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

"It's better to know--isn't it?" This is the question haunting Jackson Kinley, a writer of true crime accounts who returns home to an old friend's funeral and finds himself the inheritor of his friend's search for the truth about a crime almost thirty years old. What really happened to the young girl whose bloodstained dress was found draped over a tree on the mountainside? The man executed for her murder is believed to be innocent by his daughter. As Kinley begins his investigation into the past, he discovers that the details of the fatal day don't make sense. The secret life of the powerful in a small town comes out into the harsh light of judgement. Most important, Kinley begins to discover aspects of himself he had buried, or never explored--a capacity for love, a night of terror and breathlessness long ago, and ultimately, the reason why he has spent his years talking to those strange, frightening people in whom there is "something missing" -- a something that would have prevented them from murdering and torturing other human beings. Cook is a fine writer, and this is an excellent story of psychological suspense. One wonders, as Kinley traces this ancient wrong, and makes his way to the interior of his own motivations, whether Cook himself is working his way into--or out of--a personal heart of darkness that compels him, like his main character, to explore the tragic secrets of the past. If so, he makes the interior expedition a worthwhile journey for his readers, as well as for himself.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Labyrinth of Evidence, March 16, 2001

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evidence of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

Cooke is in fine form in first-person narrated "Evidence of Blood." The writing is leaner, and anti-hero Jackson Kinley is more likable than the usual Cooke protagonist. Kinley is closed off from all but logical deduction, yet not a Sherlock Holmesian mock-up. He clearly has done all one man can possibly do to remove himself physically, emotionally and mentally from his birthplace Sequoyah, GA. He has one of the most unusual occupations I have happened across in the mystery genre. He successfully writes in-depth true crime books about the horribly depraved killers. Why he does this would make an interesting side topic.

When Kinley returns to his hometown for the funeral of his best friend only a month after he has buried his grandmother, he is hoping his stay will be a short one. However he is drawn into the investigation of a 30 year-old trial that his friend has been researching before his untimely death. Just to stay off the beaten path, Cooke assures us (via the narrator) that the friend did not come to an untimely end; he died a perfectly normal death.

The mystery of a man executed for killing a teenaged girl is meticulously unraveled. Kinley studies trial transcripts, interviews witnesses, visits sites all presented in an appealing manner. As usual, Cooke gives people instant recall of events that happened 30 years ago, which I found implausible. But this is a small quibble. The book builds in intensity until the entire community is in some way involved. Always in the background is the gray malevolence of the person or persons who schemed to execute an innocent man. Cooke forces us to think logically along with his narrator, and we join him in his repeated thought: "Do you really want to know?"

The finale left me with a few unanswered questions; but this is typical of the author and makes his books star material for discussion groups. Everyone will have a slightly different take on the ending. I recommend this engrossing book.