Novelist Cook ( Night Secrets ) here turns to nonfiction to tell of the murders of two teenage girls in the Alabama-Georgia border area in 1982 by 18-year-old Judith Neelley and her 29-year-old husband, Alvin. Both victims were kidnapped; at least one was tortured. Judith Neelley was reckoned a coldhearted sadist during her trial, though her defense attorney attempted to depict her as a battered child and wife. The strategy failed. The jury found her guilty and recommended a life sentence, overturned by the judge in favor of the death penalty. She is awaiting execution, the youngest woman to be condemned to death in this country; her spouse is serving two life terms. Strong writing, particularly in the portrait of the South's urban Tobacco Roads, enhances the book's grisly appeal. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Novelist Cook ( Streets of Fire , LJ 8/89, Sacrificial Ground, LJ 3/1/88) narrates the true-crime account of convicted killer Judith Neeley's exploits in the Alabama countryside, which included shooting and pushing 13-year-old Lisa Millican over a cliff after injecting her six times with Liquid Drano. Readers expecting both the keen sensitivity and the amazing detail with which Truman Capote imbued his In Cold Blood (to which the publisher compares Cook's account) will find this sadly lacking. However, this popular treatment of a sensational topic will have its own supporters among public library readers. Recommended where interest warrants.-- Christy Zlatos, Northeastern Univ. Libs., Boston