Trivia

Pen name was "Bruce Alexander." He wrote historical novels about a blind 18th-century Englishman and also a 20th-century Mexican-American detective.

Son-in-law of pianist Victor Aller.

Served as a translator in the U.S. Army in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1950s.

Cook's first book (of 23) was "The Beat Generation", published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1971. In 1977 he wrote a biography of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. It was made into a film in 2015. In 1973 he wrote a musical history "Listen to the Blues." In 1983 he authored "Brecht in Exile", about the German writer Bertold Brecht. In 1993 he wrote "The Town That Country Built: Welcome to Branson, Missouri".

His first novel was Chicago-based Sex Life, in 1978.

He wrote four novels featuring Los Angeles detective Antonio "Chico" Cervantes: Mexican "Standoff" (1988), "Rough Cut" (1990), "Death as a Career Move" (1992), and "Sidewalk Hilton" (1994). He also wrote a series of 11 novels about the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding, the real-life founder of London's first police force: "Blind Justice" (1994) ,"Murder In Grub Street" (1996) , "Watery Grave" (1998) , " Person Or Persons Unknown" (1998) , "Jack, Knave & Fool" (1999) , "Death of a Colonial" (2000) , "The Color of Death (2001) , "Smuggler's Moon" (2002), "An Experiment in Treason" (2003), "The Price of Murder (2004) and "Rules of Engagement (2006)".

Joined the editorial staff of the National Observer in Washington D.C. in 1967, and covered movies, books, and music. When that newspaper folded, he became book editor of USA Today, the Detroit News, and then the Los Angeles Daily News (from 1984 to 1990). He was a senior editor at Newsweek. In the meantime, he was writing as a freelance, selling to such publications as the National Catholic Reporter.

Earned a degree in literature from Loyola University in Chicago.

After his death in 2003 saw the publication of "Young Will: The Confessions Of William Shakespeare" and his last Fielding novel, "Rules of Engagement", which his widow and the writer John Shannon finished.