Sandrine's Case
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4.5 • 11 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this Edgar Award finalist and “slow-burning, intricate” thriller, a professor falls for his wife all over again . . . while he stands trial for her murder (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Samuel Madison always wondered what Sandrine saw in him. He was a meek, stuffy doctoral student while she was a beautiful bohemian with limitless talent and imagination. On the surface their marriage seemed tranquil: jobs at the same small liberal arts college, a precocious young daughter, and a home filled with art and literature. But then one night Sandrine is found dead from an overdose—and Samuel is accused of poisoning her.
As secrets about their tumultuous marriage come to light in the courtroom, Samuel must face a town and media convinced of his guilt, a daughter whose faith in her father has been shaken to its core, and astonishing revelations about his wife, who never ceased being a mystery to him.
Sandrine’s Case is a “gripping, moving, and elegiac” novel about the evil that can lurk within the heart of a seemingly ordinary man (Michael Connelly).
“Cook plays with and against the conventions of the noir mystery to craft a novel deeper and richer than the genre would seem to allow.” —The Columbus Dispatch
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this slow-burning, intricate thriller from Edgar-winner Cook (The Crime of Julian Wells), Sam Madison and his wife, Sandrine, both professors at Georgia's Coburn College (he of literature, she of history) and parents of a grown daughter, appear to have a solid marriage. But below the surface there are problems, which culminate in Sandrine's death from a cocktail of Demerol and vodka. While the coroner rules the death a suicide, the police suspect foul play and soon zero in on Sam as his wife's killer. The local prosecutor is so certain of Sam's guilt that he seeks the death penalty. In the course of the murder trial, which runs from unexpected revelations on the witness stand to torrents of legalese as the attorneys jockey for power, Sam reflects on his relationship with the brilliant, beautiful, and vexing Sandrine. Through Sam's memories, Cook pulls off the tricky task of rendering Sandrine a lover of ancient history, particularly Cleopatra, and the intricacies of language as vividly as if she had never died. This crime novel, one of his best, builds to an unforeseen, but earned, climax.
