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William J. Cook
William Cook is a retired mental health therapist, who now has the time to play with his grand-children and write. He is fascinated with moral dilemmas, with the choices that people feel forced to make.
His first novel, Songs for the Journey Home, is a spiritual quest, an epic saga that spans the iconic events from 1962 to 2012. His second book, The Pieta in Ordinary Time and Other Stories, is a salad of short fiction, ranging from the droll to the thrilling. His novel Seal of Secrets has been described by a beta reader "as full of twists and turns as a corkscrew about to open a bottle of very fine wine." Visit him at www.authorwilliamcook.com. |
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The Catholic Church's Seal of Confession prevents a sexual predator from being brought to justice. Native American policeman Charley Whitehorse, and his partner Tony Esperanza, pursue him as he cuts a swath of terror across the Pacific Northwest.
In the quaint coastal town of Driftwood, Oregon, the killer kidnaps young Kaitlynn Denhurst. When her mother Chloe learns that the man she loves shares a terrible secret with the kidnapper, she must use her own courage, strength, and wits to rescue her daughter.
In a story one reader describes as having "more twists than a corkscrew about to open a bottle of fine wine" and another says is "relentless in its suspense," a web of murder, deceit, and betrayal leads to a heart-pounding confrontation on Newport's Yaquina Bay Bridge.
SEAL OF SECRETS
A DRIFTWOOD MYSTERY 
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The short story, "Eye of Newt," originally published in the collection, Catch of the Day, is the suspenseful second installment of The Driftwood Mysteries. It is both epilogue to the novel, Seal of Secrets, and prologue to the forthcoming novel, Woman in the Waves.
The formerly quiet town of Driftwood, Oregon, has barely recovered from the ravages of the ex-convict Raven, after a pulse-pounding showdown on the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. Now Dr. Sterling Friese, Professor of Biology at Pacific Crest University, is using his knowledge of the life sciences to plot the perfect murder. Dean Arlon Wasserman, long suspicious of Friese's extracurricular activities, has hired Invictus Investigations to expose the philandering teacher. Friese will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening, even if it means killing his own boss. Hot on his trail, Police Officers Charley Whitehorse and Tony Esperanza will do all in their power to bring the brilliant and ruthless man to justice.
EYE OF NEWT
A DRIFTWOOD MYSTERY |
In a heartbeat, Professor Peter Bristol's obsessively-ordered life is turned completely upside down.
During his weekly walk on the beach, he is helpless to prevent a young woman in a bridal gown from being swept out to the sea.
Was she real? Or was she the product of unresolved grief for his late wife?
As he embarks upon a mission to find the answers, he uncovers a plot of murder and deceit at the university where he teaches--a nexus of evil far deeper and darker than anything he could have imagined.
The woman in the waves was only the beginning.
WOMAN IN THE WAVES
A DRIFTWOOD MYSTERY |
The pulse-pounding fourth installment of The Driftwood Mysteries.
When the crabbing boat Johnny B. Goode is lost with all hands in a ferocious January storm, Officer Charley Whitehorse, “The Tracker,” believes it was not an Act of God, but an act of murder.
At the same time, young women are disappearing up and down the Oregon coast. The latest, Patricia Carmody, has vanished without a trace on her way to audition for a movie.
As Whitehorse and his partner, Tony Esperanza, scramble to untangle the web of clues, they tumble into a plot of human trafficking, vicious killings, and international conspiracy.
Pour yourself a drink—coffee, tea, wine, or something stronger—turn off your phone, and fasten your seat belt. The ride is about to begin.
DUNGENESS AND DRAGONS
A DRIFTWOOD MYSTERY |
Jonas Hall is having the worst day of his life. Over morning coffee he sees television news of a bank robbery gone terribly awry. A cell phone video of the event has gone viral on the Internet, and he discovers that the unnamed hostage killed in the aborted robbery had been his best friend fifty years ago when both attended St. Dunstan's Seminary as adolescents studying for the Catholic priesthood.
After Jonas gets to his job as a mental health therapist in a local clinic, he is summarily escorted from the premises and placed on administrative leave when two young female patients of his come forward to claim that he sexually abused them during the course of psychotherapy.
To add insult to injury, he returns home that day only to be served divorce papers from his second wife.
With his personal and professional life in shambles, Jonas embarks on a quest to find out what happened to his best friend Step in the decades since his friend's expulsion from St. Dunstan's. How did Step wind up at the wrong end of a bank robber's gun? The journey leads from a small Connecticut town to the teeming streets of Brownsville in New York City; from the sprawling civil rights March on Washington, D.C. to the folk music and coffee houses of Albany in upstate New York; from the chaos of the shootings at Kent State in Ohio to the lush Willamette Valley, pristine forests and rivers of western Oregon.
Part coming-of-age story, part saga of fall and redemption, Songs for the Journey Home looks at the contemporary crisis of faith that many people experience when they try to reconcile the ideals of the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life. Jonas must confront his own bitterness and unbelief, the faith he rejected in the face of all that happened at the seminary, his self-loathing and his counterfeit relationships as a therapist.
At times grim and gritty, at other times lyrical in its prose, Songs for the Journey Home spans the fifty years from 1962 to 2012 in an adventure of love and loss, treachery and murder, failure and heroism. It challenges the reader to examine the fundamental question of philosophy and spirituality : If this is what I know, then how shall I live ?
SONGS FOR THE JOURNEY HOME
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*What happens when Seattle is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust?
*When all a young boy wants for Christmas is the left hand he lost in an automobile accident the year before?
*When a woman travels to San Diego to commit suicide after the overdose death of her only son?
*When a young man plots to humiliate his attorney father, running for public office, by taking a job in an adult shop?
*When a psychiatrist's bipolar patient invites him to become his copilot when the aliens come back for him in their time-space ship?
*When a priest hears the confession of a serial killer and is helpless to prevent him from killing again?
These and ten other stories are a smorgasbord of short fiction, inviting the reader on a journey of droll humor, philosophical contemplation, suspense, and terror.
Pour yourself a glass of Oregon Pinot or a cup of hot black coffee and enjoy!
THE PIETA IN ORDINARY TIME
AND OTHER STORIES |
Featuring the second installment of the Driftwood Mysteries, "Eye of Newt," the compelling epilogue to the novel, Seal of Secrets
What happens when:
* A college professor uses his knowledge of biology to plot the perfect murder?
* A woman retrieves the childhood memories of her mother's murder?
* A prominent scientist is hired to translate an ancient document that will change the history of the world?
* A man is forced to relive the worst moments of his life?
* A father must prevent his Gestapo daughter from betraying his Jewish wife?
* A dying WWII veteran reveals what really happened when he was shot down behind enemy lines?
* A discontented man surrenders his life to the crows that inhabit his neighborhood?
The 17 stories in this collection are paths through a darkened wood. Some lead to gruesome death; others, to healing and redemption. All are marked by surprises along the way. Seasoned with humor and grace, they become reflections on what is most important in life.
So come--embark on the journey.
But don't say you haven't been warned.
CATCH OF THE DAY
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