Books I Have Written
LONEWALKER
The novel Lonewalker is out, and in our office, where several copies are waiting for a good home. It will be followed in about front end curso online a month’s time by the novel A Murder of Wolves, which is currently out for reviews.
Lonewalker was originally published in March of 2006 under the title Blood Trail, in a special limited edition by Dennis McMillian Publications, and garnered high praise from reviewers.
This is what Publishers Weekly had to say about it at the time, in a starred review:
“Ben Tails (aka “Mr. Slide”) leaves a bloody trail indeed in Cook’s gripping tale of a modern warrior’s journeys from Montana to Vietnam and other parts of Asia, always returning home, always searching. His skills as hunter and marksman turn him into a deadly sniper, while his Vietnam War experiences leave him disillusioned and aware that he has been manipulated for evil purposes. He stays for years in Asia, where he learns Mandarin and does his best to suppress the violent side of himself he calls Mr. Slide. Tails’s core values make him far more interesting than the run-of-the-mill action hero, and when one of the rare people he trusts lures him from Montana to Japan for a simple job selling motorcycles—and sussing out bad guys—Mr. Slide may have to reappear. Tails soon discovers that he’s being used as a pawn in a deadly and vicious high stakes game. Graphic violence, penetrating, incisive analysis of complex cultural and historical events and one man’s heroic defiance make Cook’s long overdue second novels (after 1988’s Graveyard Rules) an event to celebrate. This is a writer with something to say and immense skills with which to say it.” Read More
Gary J. Cook is a somewhat reclusive writer who lives in the middle of an Indian reservation in Montana. He is a U.S. Marine combat veteran and a former sheriff’s deputy with years of experience working undercover. He worked several years for a Chinese Import/Export company in Taipei and was a tenured professor at a Japanese university. He has been shot, stabbed, run over by his own motorcycle, severely chastised by a band of irate Motorcycle Chicks, and brought down by enemy fire more than a few times in helicopters. No one is more surprised than he that he is still around. Read More
Inari Publishing is excited to announce
the publication of our first two novels,
two books by Montana author Gary J. Cook.
LONEWALKER
The novel Lonewalker is out, and in our office, where several copies are waiting for a good home. It will be followed in about a month’s time by the novel A Murder of Wolves, which is currently out for reviews.
Lonewalker was originally published in March of 2006 under the title Blood Trail, in a special limited edition by Dennis McMillian Publications, and garnered high praise from reviewers.
This is what Publishers Weekly had to say about it at the time, in a starred review:
“Ben Tails (aka “Mr. Slide”) leaves a bloody trail indeed in Cook’s gripping tale of a modern warrior’s journeys from Montana to Vietnam and other parts of Asia, always returning home, always searching. His skills as hunter and marksman turn him into a deadly sniper, while his Vietnam War experiences leave him disillusioned and aware that he has been manipulated for evil purposes. He stays for years in Asia, where he learns Mandarin and does his best to suppress the violent side of himself he calls Mr. Slide. Tails’s core values make him far more interesting than the run-of-the-mill action hero, and when one of the rare people he trusts lures him from Montana to Japan for a simple job selling motorcycles—and sussing out bad guys—Mr. Slide may have to reappear. Tails soon discovers that he’s being used as a pawn in a deadly and vicious high stakes game. Graphic violence, penetrating, incisive analysis of complex cultural and historical events and one man’s heroic defiance make Cook’s long overdue second novels (after 1988’s Graveyard Rules) an event to celebrate. This is a writer with something to say and immense skills with which to say it.”
Fellow author Rick DeMarinis had this to say:
“If Graham Green had grown up in the western Montana mountains, and if he had served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the Marines, and if he had been an undercover cop for several manic years, he might have written BLOOD TRAIL. Mr. Cook’s novel about an unredeemable world convinces, and it convinces because the author, like Graham Greene, knows the subject first hand.”
For a number of reasons, the book was never released in paperback—until now. The author has changed the title to “Lonewalker” and the manuscript was freshly edited for this first publication from Inari Publishing.
A MURDER OF WOLVES
The second title, A Murder of Wolves, is a new novel from Gary J. Cook, presenting the story of Joe Big Snake Person (Joe Big) and James Longstreet Lambier (Barney) who, seconded to a special Federal anti-terrorist unit, are viciously assaulted by a group seeking to buy computer chips used in the weapons and guidance systems of drone aircraft.
The two men sense forces at work reminiscent of the cold-blooded manipulation they experienced as special warfare operatives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places scattered around the globe. Motivated by a desire for revenge, Joe Big and Barney set out to discover the reasons for the assault (and to solve the riddle of pack mules killed high on a mountain trail, apparently by a new, extremely lethal nerve agent). The former Force Recon Marine and Green Beret eventually come to understand that they have been recruited as pawns in a callous power struggle that includes factions with the will and the means to take on the Government itself.
Welcome to the world of Joe Big and Barney. The residents of this world—Quinn McBride and Mrs. Walker, The Death Devo; Harold and Tanya and the Big Man; Paul Cyr, Roy White Owl, and Tom Lonewolf; Pick and the Redhead; Mickey and Mei and Sometime Sam; Ben Tails and The Wolf Last Seen—are (chillingly) real and the author knows them well.
Joe Big and Barney, both wounded in service to their country, are two of the best that America produces. And when the beauty of the mountains and plains explodes into savagery, these two warriors are forced to rely on lessons learned and abilities honed in nasty little battles around the globe to survive a conspiracy more potentially lethal than anything in their experience.
The action is non-stop. The characters, both male and female, are never foils, and never who you think they are. You’ll know this as soon as you start reading. The pace and the tension will keep you reading far longer than you intended.
But make no mistake. The author has bigger fish to fry. In A MURDER OF WOLVES, Gary J. Cook takes you into a world that you only thought you knew. His mission is to examine the people who fight our wars today, both at home and abroad. Montana represents American ideals and mythology like no place else, and the author takes full advantage of this to examine everything from Native American mythology to the way in which the rich and famous have corrupted small-town communities. The constant juxtaposition of civilization and history with wilderness becomes a metaphor for America and how America reacts to the world today. As Publishers Weekly has said, this is a writer with something to say and immense skills with which to say it.
This novel’s outline, as is the case with Cook’s previous novel, LONEWALKER, sounds like standard thriller/adventure/mystery fare. But A MURDER OF WOLVES is anything but standard and seldom what it appears to be. You don’t read one of Cook’s stories so much as you take a trip with him. Climb in. Fasten your seatbelt. And hang on. You’ll never look at the world the same again.
FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, Inari Publishing offers a special pre-publication price of $20.00 for both of these novels, when ordered through our website. Each will eventually carry a retail price of $12.99.
 Murder of Wolves $12.99 |
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Gary J. Cook
Gary J. Cook is a somewhat reclusive writer who lives in the middle of an Indian reservation in Montana. He is a U.S. Marine combat veteran and a former sheriff’s deputy with years of experience working undercover. He worked several years for a Chinese Import/Export company in Taipei and was a tenured professor at a Japanese university. He has been shot, stabbed, run over by his own motorcycle, severely chastised by a band of irate Motorcycle Chicks, and brought down by enemy fire more than a few times in helicopters. No one is more surprised than he that he is still around. As far as he is concerned, the fact that he also has a talent for writing is proof positive that the Universe has a bent sense of humor.
