Putnam, 1991 ISBN 0-399-13565-0
Avon, 1991
A Long Cold Fall was Sam Reaves's debut effort and earned widespread acclaim as a strong first novel ("…a smartly paced mystery, full of terse, adrenalized action and punchy writing", according to People). The book introduces Cooper MacLeish, a Chicago taxi driver who survived a tour with the army in Vietnam and has never quite settled to anything since then. In A Long Cold Fall Cooper learns of the apparent suicide of Vivian Horstmann, an old flame from whom he has heard nothing for many years. Cooper tracks down her runaway son, who he suspects may be his, and the boy insists it was no suicide. Cooper's efforts to establish the truth bring him into the sights of some very unpleasant people, and he will need all his hard-earned toughness to survive.
Serpent's Tail (UK), 1991
Éditions du Seuil, (France) as Le Taxi Mène L'Enquête, 1992
Hayakawa (Japan), 1993
Aufbau Taschenbuch (Germany) as Ein herbstlicher Fall, 1994
Uitgeverij Areopagus (Netherlands) as Val Dood! 1994
Reader's Chair (audio), 1994