The Interrogation by
Thomas H. Cook
hbk out August 02
Published by Orion
at £16.99
Something different from the redoubtable Thomas H Cook. Gone is the
elegiac tone of Breakheart Hill, The Chatham School Affair and Places in
the Dark. Gone too is the middle-class, small town ambience of his
recent work. In their place comes something perhaps less 'literary' but
with a new urgency and a concern with the dispossessed and those often
invisible members of our society on whom we so depend.
But some things don't change. There are two interrogations in this
book. One occurs as a prologue in which the skill of cops Norman Cohen
and Jack Pierce is demonstrated as they set about eliciting a confession
from a child-killer. Eleven years later, confronted by a similar
situation (instinctual knowledge that they have the right man, no direct
evidence), the interrogation that forms the backbone of the book takes
place. No confession in twelve hours or the suspect goes free.
Once again then the past is a major player in the book. Once again in
fact (like Places in the Dark) the book's 'present' is in the past - but
not comfortably, for there are many icy echoes of our own time (spooky,
for instance, that I read this book as Huntley and Carr were being
questioned, against a deadline, in the Holly Wells/Jessica Chapman
investigation).
But the book's new interrogation proves frustrating. In spite of
circumstantial evidence, Albert Smalls, a vagrant living in an abandoned
drainage pipe close to the crime scene, steadfastly maintains his
innocence. Perhaps the key is that Smalls has no apparent past."He has to
have come from somewhere..." remarks Cohen early on, "...everybody has a
past".
Those around him on the other hand have more past than they can handle.
Chief of Detectives Burke, for instance, has failed as a father and
remembers an interrogation of his own, Cohen has recent memories as a GI
liberator of the Nazi concentration camps, whilst Pierce's own daughter
fell victim to a child murderer.
Pace may stutter a little in the first fifty pages or so as Cook lays
the groundwork. But he is also at pains to outline the pressure to
produce a result that the police so often face in these circumstances.
As the book proceeds however he combines all of these flashbacks, plot
strands (and more) into a compelling narrative, one that builds in 'real
time' to a violent and bloody conclusion. Would that the over-rated
narrative that comprised TV's recent 24 had displayed the same
sophistication!
Finally the book's remarkable last page (and scrupulously delivered)
surprise will leave you wondering at the arbitrary nature of the
investigative process and the elusiveness of real justice. After the
disappointing Places in the Dark a return to form for Cook. Don't miss.
