A Cold Case - Hardcover

In the late 1990s Andy Rosenzweig, an inspector for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, reopened the case of a double murder that had taken place in 1970. The identity of the killer had never been in much doubt. Witnesses had pointed the finger at Frankie Koehler, a habitual and violent gangland criminal. Koehler’s whereabouts for more than a quarter of a century were in doubt. He had disappeared on the night of the murders and many people believed him dead. Rosenzweig didn’t and, as a result of his obsessive persistence in pursuing this case, Koehler was finally tracked down in his new life on the West Coast and arrested. Now in his 60s, he was prepared to confess and to reveal something of what had driven him to kill.

Philip Gourevitch, author of the prize-winning account of the genocide in Rwanda, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families, has used the case to fashion a book which he clearly intends to be more than just another true crime drama. He wants us to read A Cold Case as a meditation on, and analysis of, "the criminal mind". Certainly the book works as a gripping narrative. Gourevitch is an exceptionally talented journalist and A Cold Case, which demands to be read at one sitting, is a brilliant combination of intelligent research and cool, clean prose. Whether the story can carry the extra weight with which he wants to load it, is much less certain.--Nick Rennison

"Gripping, first rate . . . beyond the outright suspense here . . . is a meditation on the very essence of crime."-Janet Maslin, "The New York Times" "This terse, eloquent book reminded me of many of the classic European novels, because the expected end is not the end at all. The mystery, it turns out, is not how these murders occurred or how the killer was caught but, rather, the nature of crime itself."-Scott Turow "Part study of the criminal mind, part appraisal of the strange mechanics of justice, it is a trenchant, pithy, atmospheric book."-"Times Literary Supplement" "The book's province lies somewhere between those of Cain and Camus . . . Matthew Arnold said a novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life . . . An inversion applies here: a piece of life by Philip Gourevitch is a work of art."-Jonathan Kiefer, " San Francisco Chronicle" "Gourevitch is one of the finest journa " Gripping, first rate . . . beyond the outright suspense here . . . is a meditation on the very essence of crime." -- Janet Maslin, "The New York Times" " This terse, eloquent book reminded me of many of the classic European novels, because the expected end is not the end at all. The mystery, it turns out, is not how these murders occurred or how the killer was caught but, rather, the nature of crime itself." -- Scott Turow " Part study of the criminal mind, part appraisal of the strange mechanics of justice, it is a trenchant, pithy, atmospheric book." -- "Times Literary Supplement" " The book's province lies somewhere between those of Cain and Camus . . . Matthew Arnold said a novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life . . . An inversion applies here: a piece of life by Philip Gourevitch is a work of art." -- Jonathan Kiefer," San Francisco Chronicle" " Gourevitch is one of the finest journalists working today; his portrait of gangland in New York in the 1960s is brilliant." -- Sebastian Junger " Using a snappy, terse prose style that mimics a police procedural . . ." A Cold Case" is a lively, vastly readable book." -- John Freeman," The Denver Post" "Gripping, first rate . . . beyond the outright suspense here . . . is a meditation on the very essence of crime."--Janet Maslin, "The New York Times" "This terse, eloquent book reminded me of many of the classic European novels, because the expected end is not the end at all. The mystery, it turns out, is not how these murders occurred or how the killer was caught but, rather, the nature of crime itself."--Scott Turow "Part study of the criminal mind, part appraisal of the strange mechanics of justice, it is a trenchant, pithy, atmospheric book."--"Times Literary Supplement" "The book's province lies somewhere between those of Cain and Camus . . . Matthew Arnold said a novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life . . . An inversion applies here: a piece of life by Philip Gourevitch is a work of art."--Jonathan Kiefer," San Francisco Chronicle" "Gourevitch is one of the finest journalists working today; his portrait of gangland in New York in the 1960s is brilliant."--Sebastian Junger "Using a snappy, terse prose style that mimics a police procedural . . ." A Cold Case" is a lively, vastly readable book."--John Freeman," The Denver Post"