Streets of Fire [Hardcover]

Thomas H. Cook (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this expert, relentless detective novel by the author of Flesh and Blood and last year's Edgar-nominated Sacrificial Ground , the sweltering, angry summer of 1963 in Birmingham, Ala., serves to make every crime a powderkeg of racial tension. As the rest of the police force is being called upon to hose demonstrators, to arrest marching schoolchildren and even to take notes on Martin Luther King's speeches for their inflammatory content, detective Ben Wellman investigates the rape and murder of a deaf 12-year-old black girl. Wellman's boss wants him to make a minor show of concern without really pursuing the criminal, the black community greets his efforts with mistrust and skepticism, and his fellow cops, most of them rednecks and racists, view his dedication as misplaced. As Wellman probes further, he discovers that all sides have reasons to hope that the case remains unsolved. Cook doesn't use the civil rights movement merely as a conveniently atmospheric backdrop; he weaves it through the plot in sharp, unexpected ways, never letting his focus stray too far from Wellman's dogged attempt to find an elusive killer. Paperback rights to Warner Books; movie rights to Hollywood Pictures; Preferred Choice and Detective Book Club selections; BOMC and Mys terious Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Set in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1963, amid the social upheaval of the Freedom Marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., this powerful crime novel evokes all of the emotionalism that prevailed at the time. The body of a little black girl is found in a shallow grave in a football field in Bearmatch, a poor black district of the city. Homicide sergeant Ben Wellman uses all of his tolerance and training during the investigation, which meets with resistance and prejudice from the police and the black community. Cook, nominated for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Sacrificial Ground (LJ 3/1/88), reaffirms his ability to create realistic characterization and vivid narrative, then wrap it all up in a tightly plotted, cleverly clued mystery. Sure to be one of the big books of 1989. BOMC and Mystery Book Club featured alternates; Preferred Choice Book Club main selection.
- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1ST edition (September 11, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399134905
• ISBN-13: 978-0399134906
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,055,027 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten simple decency? Retrieve your memory here!, September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Streets of Fire (Paperback)

"Let righteousness flow like a mighty river, and justice roll down like an everlasting stream..." Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights marches in Birmingham with those Biblical words. In Thomas Cook's novel, Streets of Fire, we find the city of Birmingham as it was during those days, a city parched and thirsting for righteousness and justice. The novel gives a fascinating and stirring portrait of the city in those tense and exciting days. But as "all politics is local" so, Ben Wellman finds, justice resides first in the individual geography of the heart. Wellman, a police officer, World War II veteran and loner, takes refuge from the political turmoil of the marches by investing himself deeply to solve a single, vicious crime. A little girl from the city's Bearmatch neighborhood is found buried in an arid ballfield. His absorption in this single crime leads him--and those around him--to confront deeper patterns of bigotry, exploitation, and political manipulation in others, and in themselves. The plot is complex, but satisfying and dramatic in its conclusion. Cook's writing, in this as in later novels, offers many beauties, as well as a quality of serious, plain good prose. In this novel, the idea that overarches the plot development is that of water, or drought. Cook reflects the distortions of an unjust way of life in an arid ballfield, a filthy, dried-out storm drain that holds a man's murdered body, a leaking roof, the torrent of water from the city's fire hoses, the tide of emotion rising within Wellman, which will carry him forward into a new life. If the novel has a fault, it's that the several minor characters around Wellman in the Birmingham police department are not well distinguished one from another. Since plot development hinges on several of these characters, their vague outlines sometimes make it difficult for the reader to figure out who is doing what to whom. This novel takes the reader back to a cleaner time in the national memory--a time when great evil was certainly done, but also a time when simple decency seemed the best way to respond. Cook's main character is the sort of man who says little, but doggedly does much, by simply being considerate of others, firm in his allegiance to human dignity, passionate in his defense of innocence. For Wellman, "race relations" are just human relations. He insists on treating them that way. He distinguishes only between vicious and virtuous behavior, awarding contempt to the first and honor to the second evenhandedly. The complexities and evasions and institutionalized resentment and restitution that mar race relations in our time are not part of this novel. It takes us back to a simpler time, when we hoped we could all be judged by the content of our character. It was a great pleasure--a deep satisfaction in fact--to be reminded once again how men of my father's generation addressed these evils: by just behaving with impeccable decency.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A NEED TO READ BOOK, March 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Streets of Fire (Paperback)

I HAVE JUST FINISHED THIS COULDN'T PUT DOWN BOOK. I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS EXCELLENT! IT WAS WELL WRITTEN, HISTORICAL, THOUGHT-PROVOKING, AND A BOOK I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ON MY SHELVES TO SAVE FOR MY CHILDREN TO READ SO THEY CAN UNDERSTAND THE HORROR AND HISTORY OF THAT PERIOD. THIS BOOK IS ONE I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern Mystery from the 60's, May 20, 2004

By 

Judith Hodges (GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Streets of Fire (Hardcover)

Streets of Fire is historical fiction. It tells the heart break of a South that needs to change. I enjoyed the fact that the book was from both ends of the debate. The mystery almost takes a backseat to the racial fights going on in the book. But it is still a great mystery.