In 1952 a little girl is found brutally murdered in a park. A vagrant named Smalls who lives in a conduit is brought in for interrogation. The two detectives have slim evidence but know the man is guilty of hiding some crime and they have only twenty-four hours to make him confess. If he admits nothing - they have to let him go free.

Nearly ten years earlier another little girl was similarly killed and her father is one of the interrogators.

Thomas Cook creates an atmosphere which draws you into the bleak room and the desperate men - those seeking justice and those hiding secrets. Each chapter begins with a clock face making you aware of the passing time - the deadline drawing nearer and nearer - and with it the need for answers. You want to cry out, “ Tell them!” You recognize the necessity for Truth so that the innocent will not suffer unjust punishment. As the hours pass you empathize with the detectives and the thorny path they follow. Their mission is to separate Truth from Falsity and punish the guilty. Both are lonely men resolved to succeed without sacrificing integrity, a difficult prospect.

Unlike conventional television police shows where you know the hero will bring the right man to justice within an hour’s time slot here you are not so certain. As the hours/pages pass so does your quest to see this through, to know who killed the little girl. She, her mother, the witnesses who saw her last, the homeless men who wander the playground become real to you and you share their anguish, doubts, and fears.

When you read the final pages you, too, will breathe a sigh of relief that, “It is finished.”

--Jane Davis