The City When It Rains

A photographer struggles to understand a stranger's suicide
There's nothing special about the woman's death. It comes over the police radio like any other sad story: a woman found on the sidewalk, killed after plunging from her apartment. But something about the gruesome scene grabs David Corman's attention. A freelance photographer with a defunct marriage and a career on the skids, he fixates on this mysterious death. Though near starvation, the woman had been buying formula to feed to a baby doll. Before she leapt, she tossed the plastic child out the window. David photographs the dead woman and her pretend child; although he's jaded, the strange scene stirs his compassion, and he begins researching her past. He's convinced that his job has shown him the worst the city has to offer. But learning the truth behind this futile suicide will teach David that New York is even uglier than he imagined.

Thomas H. Cook (b. 1947) is the author of nearly two dozen critically lauded crime novels. Born in Fort Payne, Alabama, Cook published his first novel, Blood Innocents, in 1980 while serving as the book review editor of Atlanta magazine. Two years later, on the release of his second novel, The Orchids, he turned to writing full-time. Cook published steadily through the 1980s, penning such works as the Frank Clemons trilogy, a series of mysteries starring a jaded cop. He found breakout success with The Chatham School Affair (1996), which won an Edgar Award for best novel. His work has been praised by critics for his attention to psychology and the lyrical nature of his prose. Besides mysteries, Cook has written two true-crime books, Early Graves (1992) and the Edgar-nominated Blood Echoes (1993), as well as several literary novels, including Elena (1986). He lives and works in New York City.