Cookie Cutter

This the author's, Sterling Anthony, first novel. He lives and works in Detroit, Michigan.

wpe1.jpg (11217 bytes) Cookie Cutter
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Author: Sterling Anthony
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc.
Date Published: October 1999
Format: Trade Cloth

"If you see him you will not know him. If you greet him, it may be too late. For every image you have of a murderer--he will defy it. And he will make you pay..."

About The Book
For the Shaw family, the nightmare begins in a small, ranch-style house outside a dusty Alabama town. A black man in his late twenties. A white woman in her teens. And an unborn baby, about to emerge into a scene of horrific, fear-driven violence.

Thirty years later, the crime committed in Alabama resurfaces in the Motor City--and detective Mary Cunningham is spearheading the investigation. Haunted by the demons of her past, and by the painful choices she has made as a black professional woman on her way to the top, Mary knows she is not searching for just another loser with a knife. The man she is looking for is smart, plotting his murders with cool precision and leaving behind one taunting clue: a single cookie, black on the outside and white inside, pressed into his victims' hands.

Then Mary and her fellow detectives get their break and come face-to-face with the murderer. But Mary can never guess the twisted history that is driving her suspect, or how his political connections will affect the case, or why she herself could be his next, perfect prey.

A work of stunning psychological suspense featuring one of the most complex villains in recent literature, Cookie Cutter is more than a compelling thriller. It is also a gritty, passionate tale of family and lovers, crime and politics, and the black experience in America--on both sides of the law.

Review - Hank Wagner
The horrific events of Cookie Cutter have their ironic origin in an act of love some 30 years past. In that rendezvous, a young black mortician named Isaac Shaw has sex with a white girl, the confused Annie Parsons, daughter of Bent Fork, one of Alabama's most prominent and powerful citizens. Annie is impregnated, but she conceals this from everyone, including her lover, until the birth is imminent. Moments after revealing her pregnancy to Shaw, the distraught teenager gives birth to their child in the funeral home in which he was conceived. Tragically, she dies in childbirth, leaving Shaw with a newborn baby.

A page-turner by any standards, Cookie Cutter is at once a thriller, a twisted family saga, and a commentary on the cancer of prejudice that permeates American society. An auspicious debut from a promising first-time novelist, this is a rare animal among suspense novels, a book that forces you to question your own worldview even while you're being entertained.

Anxious to conceal his involvement, Shaw hides Annie's body inside another patron's coffin and concocts a tale explaining the baby's presence, telling his barren wife that the child was left on his doorstep with a note requesting that he care for him. Isaac's wife immediately falls in love with the baby, and the Shaws subsequently adopt the child, whom they name Eugene.

Shaw's deceit unravels a few years later as his wife and, unbeknownst to him, his son, discover his infidelity. The disclosure rocks his marriage, and utterly unsettles his son, who is already subjected to the taunts of black classmates due to his light coloring. Eugene also carries the burden of his father's sins against his absent mother. The conflicted Eugene, who thinks of himself as black on the inside even though he is white on the outside, develops a maniacal hatred of other blacks he deems Oreos, blacks who in an earlier time would have been referred to as Uncle Toms. He carries his hatred with him when his family settles in Detroit, where his father quickly establishes himself as a player in local business and politics.

As an adult, Eugene is fiercely proud of his black heritage, utilizing predominantly black themes in his popular artwork. His hate, having festered for three decades, begins to emerge in violent ways, compelling him to attack those he deems to have betrayed their race by capitulating to whites. Using a ceremonial African blade as a weapon, Eugene murders an auto executive, a radio personality, and a political activist who advocates the destruction of equal opportunity. In recognition of his practice of leaving an Oreo Cookie in the hands of each victim, the police quickly brand him "The Cookie Cutter."

His exploits bring him into direct conflict with Detective Mary Cunningham, who's also suffered prejudice -- a black woman, she's had to struggle to succeed in the male bastion of law enforcement. Distracted by her own identity problems, Cunningham is not very efficient in tracking the Cutter down, relying on a stroke of luck to identify the killer. Even then, she doesn't have the proof necessary to bring him in. Cunningham decides to offer herself as bait, a decision that may prove lethal.

Cookie Cutter is billed as "a novel of psychological suspense," and is mostly successful on that level. This is a hard-hitting tale, brimming with sudden violence and mayhem, that utilizes an engaging cast of credible, realistic characters. Anthony also throws in some stomach-turning surprises, as when he at one point reveals just how Eugene accomplishes the uncanny level of realism he achieves in his paintings. But Anthony's aim is higher than mere entertainment; the book can be taken as social commentary as well. Exploring the mindsets of his characters, Anthony deals with the irrationality of prejudice, at the same time asking the questions, What does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be white? Who decides? Doing so, he reveals extremes and subtleties. Eugene acts irrationally, striking out against those who don't meet his standards of blackness; Cunningham misses several opportunities to capture Eugene because she assumes the killer will resemble her preconceived notion of what a black man should look like. Even supporting characters lend a hand. When Cunningham accuses her Italian partner of stereotyping blacks, he counters that his insights are just as valid as hers, reminding her that she is not the only one who has to deal with stereotypes surrounding her ethnic origins.