The Crime of Julian Wells

This haunting mystery begins with a best friend's inexplicable suicide, which leads the protagonist into a labyrinth that eventually takes him to a shadowy secret kept by his aging father. Narrator Traber Burns is adept with the haunting material in this story of the 1970s Dirty War in Argentina. His simple declarative voicing takes listeners flawlessly into the troubled hearts of Cook's latest champions. Burns's timing and pacing are all listeners need to feel the passions of the two main characters locked in this unfolding mystery. M.C. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

June 25, 2012
The suicide of unhappy true crime writer Julian Wells propels this spellbinding thriller from Edgar-winner Cook (The Quest for Anna Klein). As literary critic Philip Anders tries to piece together his closest friend’s final days, Philip discovers that Julian may have been planning to return to Argentina, where years earlier, on a visit, the pair met a young woman, Marisol, whose subsequent disappearance haunted Julian. It’s obvious that Julian never stopped searching for Marisol, and as Philip follows his trail, he wonders how much Julian really knew and whether guilt for an unknown transgression fueled his lifelong sorrow. Cook threads the narratives of Julian’s unsettling oeuvre throughout Philip’s increasingly obsessive journey to unearth the reason behind his friend’s decision to end his life. The stories of real-life criminals—from a 17th-century Hungarian countess with a penchant for torture to notorious Soviet-era serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, the subject of Julian’s last manuscript—add to the aura of unease.