Wednesday, September 03, 2014

What is Thomas H. Cook reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Thomas H. Cook, author of A Dancer in the Dust.

His entry begins:
My reading has a tendency to be very varied. I routinely go from fiction to nonfiction and from a classic I had neglected to something quite recent. Over the last month, for example, I have read and am pleased to recommend It's Raining Frogs and Fishes by Jerry Dennis, a fascinating compendium of scientific information, everything from why the sky is blue to the quite unbelievable feat of migration accomplished by hummingbirds...[read on]
About A Dancer in the Dust, from the publisher:
Twenty years ago, Ray Campbell, now a cautious risk-management consultant, was a well-intentioned aid worker dedicated to improving conditions in Lubanda, a newly independent African country. He is forced to reconsider that year of living dangerously when a friend from his time in Lubanda is found murdered in a New York alley. Signs suggest that this most recent tragedy is rooted in the far more distant one of Martine Aubert, the only woman Ray ever truly loved and whose fate he’d sealed in a moment of grievous error: “In Lubanda, twenty years before, I’d rolled the dice for a woman who was not even present at the table, and on the outcome of that toss, a braver and more knowing heart than mine had been forfeited.”

Martine Aubert was a white, native Lubandan farmer whose dream for her homeland starkly conflicted with those responsible for its so-called development. But Ray’s failure to understand Martine’s commitment to her country had placed a noose around her neck, one tightened by a circle of vicious men, cruel taunts, and whistling machetes. It is Ray’s return to the passion he’d once felt for Martine that makes A Dancer in the Dust the enthralling and moving story of two loves: Ray’s love for Martine Aubert, and Martine’s love for a homeland that did not love her back.
Learn about Thomas H. Cook's top ten mystery books and his five top books on the writing life.

Visit Thomas H. Cook's website.

Writers Read: Thomas H. Cook.

--Marshal Zeringue