Twenty-five years ago, Tiger Woods achieved the greatest feat in golf history: the Tiger Slam. Now, for the first time, the award-winning author of Tommy's Honor delivers a riveting account of Tiger at his most brilliant--dominating the game in a way we will never see again.

In 1997, as every schoolchild knows, Tiger Woods won the Masters by the largest margin in history, becoming the first Black player to win a major championship. Four years later, the world watches with breathless anticipation as he returns to Augusta National, aiming for a milestone no other golfer has ever achieved: four professional Grand Slam triumphs in a row.

In The Tiger Slam, Kevin Cook delivers a gripping, inside-the-ropes account of an astonishing streak of victories that left Woods's rivals scrambling to keep up. Readers will hear from many of golf 's biggest names--Tiger's caddie, his coach, his opponents, his idols, and others, all offering fresh insight into the electrifying highs of his victories and the obstacles on and off the course that threatened his relentless pursuit of perfection.

We join Tiger at the beginning of his Slam: the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach. In a notoriously grueling tournament designed to bring golfers to their knees, who could even dream of winning by a record margin of fifteen strokes? Tiger could. We follow him to the hallowed grounds of St. Andrews a few weeks later for the 2000 Open Championship, where he transforms his game to meet the singular demands of the links. Still only twenty-four, he leaves the Old Course as the youngest player ever to complete a career Grand Slam.

We proceed with Tiger to the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, where he fights a spectacular Sunday duel with a player he grew up idolizing, ending with a playoff that changes the course of golf history. Finally, we return to legendary Augusta National, site of his record-breaking first major championship, to see if he can be the first to sweep all four majors. Dogged by reports of an early-season slump, facing a supposedly Tiger-proofed course, golf's superstar tees off against his two fiercest adversaries in an unforgettable final round.

The Tiger Slam is the epitome of greatness in sport, a feat as exhilarating today as it was twenty-five years ago. In fact, it's even more so, now that we know we'll never see its like again--such dominance is unthinkable in modern golf's era of parity. Kevin Cook invites us to close our eyes and remember a young champion at the peak of his powers: unmatched raw strength, single-minded focus, strategic genius, and utter fearlessness. The Tiger Slam takes readers behind the scenes in the thrilling months when Tiger Woods took an ancient game to new heights.

Named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2023

A news-making account of the war between David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the FBI, and how their standoff launched today's militias

In 1993, David Koresh and a band of heavily armed evangelical Christians took on the might of the US government. A two-month siege of their compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a firefight that killed seventy-six, including twenty-five children. America is still picking up the pieces, and we still haven't heard the full story.

Kevin Cook, who revealed the truth behind a mythic, misunderstood murder in his 2014 Kitty Genovese, finally provides the full story of what happened at Waco. He gives readers a taste of Koresh's deadly charisma and takes us behind the scenes at the Branch Davidians' compound, where the new Christ turned his followers into servants and sired seventeen children by a dozen wives. In vivid accounts packed with human drama, Cook harnesses never-reported material to reconstruct the FBI's fifty-one-day siege of the Waco compound in minute-to-minute detail. He sheds new light on the Clinton administration's approval of a lethal governmental assault in a new, definitive account of the firefight that ended so many lives and triggered the rise of today's militia movement. Waco drew the battle lines for American extremists--in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's words, Waco started this war. With help from sources as diverse as Branch Davidian survivors and the FBI's lead negotiator during the siege, Cook draws a straight line from Waco's ashes to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and insurrections yet to come.

Unmissable reading for anyone interested in the truth of what happened in Texas three decades ago, Waco Rising is chillingly relevant today. Here is the spark that ignited today's antigovernment militias.

The dramatic story of a legendary 1979 slugfest between the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, full of runs, hits, and subplots, on the cusp of a new era in baseball history

It was a Thursday at Chicago's Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions--the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers--until they combined for thirteen runs in the first inning. The craziest game ever, one player called it. And then the second inning started.

Ten Innings at Wrigley is Kevin Cook's vivid account of a game that could only have happened at this ballpark, in this era, with this colorful cast of heroes and heels: Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Bruce Sutter, surly slugger Dave Kingman, hustler Pete Rose, unlucky Bill Buckner, scarred Vietnam vet Garry Maddox, troubled relief pitcher Donnie Moore, clubhouse jester Tug McGraw, and two managers pulling out what was left of their hair.

It was the highest-scoring ballgame in a century, and much more than that. Cook reveals the human stories behind a contest the New York Times called the wildest in modern history and shows how money, muscles, and modern statistics were about to change baseball forever.

Bringing to life golf's founding father and son, Tommy's Honor is a stirring tribute to two legendary players and a vivid evocation of their colorful, rip-roaring times.

The Morrises were towering figures in their day. Old Tom, born in 1821, began life as a nobody--he was the son of a weaver and a maid. But he was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, the cradle of golf, and the game was in his blood. He became the Champion Golfer of Scotland, a national hero who won tournaments (and huge bets) while his young son looked on. As Keeper of the Green at the town's ancient links, Tom deployed golf's first lawnmower and banished sheep from the fairways.

Then Young Tommy's career took off. Handsome Tommy Morris, the Tiger Woods of the nineteenth century, was a more daring player than his father. Soon he surpassed Old Tom and dominated the game. But just as he reached his peak--with spectators flocking to see him play--Tommy's life took a tragic turn, leading to his death at the age of twenty-four. That shock is at the heart of Tommy's Honor. It left Tom to pick up the pieces--to honor his son by keeping Tommy's memory alive.

Like the New York Times bestseller The Greatest Game Ever Played, Tommy's Honor is both fascinating history and a moving personal saga. Golfers will love it, but this book isn't only for golfers. It's for every son who has fought to escape a father's shadow and for every father who had guided a son toward manhood, then found it hard to let him go.

Named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2023

A news-making account of the war between David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the FBI, and how their standoff launched today's militias

In 1993, David Koresh and a band of heavily armed evangelical Christians took on the might of the US government. A two-month siege of their compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a firefight that killed seventy-six, including twenty-five children. America is still picking up the pieces, and we still haven't heard the full story.

Kevin Cook, who revealed the truth behind a mythic, misunderstood murder in his 2014 Kitty Genovese, finally provides the full story of what happened at Waco. He gives readers a taste of Koresh's deadly charisma and takes us behind the scenes at the Branch Davidians' compound, where the new Christ turned his followers into servants and sired seventeen children by a dozen wives. In vivid accounts packed with human drama, Cook harnesses never-reported material to reconstruct the FBI's fifty-one-day siege of the Waco compound in minute-to-minute detail. He sheds new light on the Clinton administration's approval of a lethal governmental assault in a new, definitive account of the firefight that ended so many lives and triggered the rise of today's militia movement. Waco drew the battle lines for American extremists--in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's words, Waco started this war. With help from sources as diverse as Branch Davidian survivors and the FBI's lead negotiator during the siege, Cook draws a straight line from Waco's ashes to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and insurrections yet to come.

Unmissable reading for anyone interested in the truth of what happened in Texas three decades ago, Waco Rising is chillingly relevant today. Here is the spark that ignited today's antigovernment militias.

Winner of the American Astronautical Society's 2021 Eugene M. Emme Award

The untold story of a national trauma--NASA's Challenger explosion--and what really happened to America's Teacher in Space, illuminating the tragic cost of humanity setting its sight on the stars

You've seen the pictures. You know what happened. Or do you?

On January 28, 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America's Teacher in Space, was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember.

Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures--leading from NASA to the White House--that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning. Cook takes readers inside the shuttle for the agonizing minutes after the explosion, which the astronauts did indeed survive. He uncovers the errors and corner-cutting that led an overconfident space agency to launch a crew that had no chance to escape.

But this is more than a corrective to a now-dimming memory. Centering on McAuliffe, a charmingly down-to-earth civilian on the cusp of history, The Burning Blue animates a colorful cast of characters: a pair of red-hot flyers at the shuttle's controls, the second female and first Jewish astronaut, the second Black astronaut, and the first Asian American and Buddhist in space. Drawing vivid portraits of Christa and the astronauts, Cook makes readers forget the fate they're hurtling toward. With drama, immediacy, and shocking surprises, he reveals the human price the Challenger crew and America paid for politics, capital-P Progress, and the national dream of reaching for the stars.

The 1947 World Series was the most exciting ever in the words of Joe DiMaggio, with a decade's worth of drama packed into seven games between the mighty New York Yankees and the underdog Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Jackie Robinson's first Series, a postwar spectacle featuring Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, and President Harry Truman in supporting roles. It was also the first televised World Series--sportswriters called it Electric October.

But for all the star power on display, the outcome hinged on role players: Bill Bevens, a journeyman who knocked on the door of pitching immortality; Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto, bench players at the center of the Series' iconic moments; Snuffy Stirnweiss, a wartime batting champion who never got any respect; and managers Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton, each an unlikely choice to run his team. Six men found themselves plucked from obscurity to shine on the sport's greatest stage. But their fame was fleeting; three would never play another big-league game, and all six would be forgotten.

Kevin Cook brings the '47 Series back to life, introducing us to men whose past offered no hint they were destined for extraordinary things. For some the Series was a memory to hold onto. For others it would haunt them to the end of their days. And for us Cook offers new insights--some heartbreaking, some uplifting--into what fame and glory truly mean.

In 1964 Catherine Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed to death on her front stoop in plain view of numerous witnesses. Her sensational case provoked an anxious outcry and became the stuff of urban legend. Kevin Cook's provocative (Wall Street Journal) investigation upends the simple story we thought we knew. His unprecedented minute-by-minute reconstruction of the crime shatters the fable of the 38 passive witnesses--a myth perpetuated by the New York Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. For the first time, Cook introduces us to a neighbor who did intervene, and he brings to life a vibrant and charismatic Kitty, working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the '60s.

That's the narrative told by the Times, movies, TV programs, and countless psychology textbooks. But as award-winning author Kevin Cook reveals, the Genovese story is just that, a story. The truth is far more compelling--and so is the victim.

Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of her murder, Cook presents the real Kitty Genovese. She was a vibrant young woman--unbeknownst to most, a lesbian--a bartender working (and dancing) her way through the colorful, fast-changing New York of the '60s, a cultural kaleidoscope marred by the Kennedy assassination, the Cold War, and race riots. Downtown, Greenwich Village teemed with beatniks, folkies, and so-called misfits like Kitty and her lover. Kitty Genovese evokes the Village's gay and lesbian underground with deep feeling and colorful detail.

Cook also reconstructs the crime itself, tracing the movements of Genovese's killer, Winston Moseley, whose disturbing trial testimony made him a terrifying figure to police and citizens alike, especially after his escape from Attica State Prison.

Drawing on a trove of long-lost documents, plus new interviews with her lover and other key figures, Cook explores the enduring legacy of the case. His heartbreaking account of what really happened on the night Genovese died is the most accurate and chilling to date.

When The Flip Wilson Show debuted in 1970, black faces were still rare on television and black hosts nonexistent. Then came Flip--to instant acclaim. His show dueled Marcus Welby, M.D. for the top spot in the ratings. His characters and catchphrases fixed themselves in America's consciousness, and he helped launch new talent, including Richard Pryor and George Carlin. But how did Clerow Wilson, a motherless Jersey City grade-school dropout, become the celebrity heralded on the cover of TIME as TV's First Black Superstar? Drawing on interviews with family, friends, and celebrities, Kevin Cook offers an inspiring salute to a self-made star who fell from grace, but not before blazing a trail for generations of entertainers to come.

Golf keeps looking for the next phenom who will take over the game the way Tiger Woods did in the mid-nineties. But in all likelihood this young golfer will not be discovered but created in a gated three-hundred-acre complex in Florida called the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Here exists a fierce training ground, where ultra-high-tech cameras provide cutting-edge swing analysis and young players spend almost every waking hour on the driving range.

In Driven, award-winning journalist Kevin Cook shows how the game has evolved from a sport of paunchy men to one populated with muscular youngsters blasting tape-measure drives. A vivid snapshot of a rapidly changing game, Driven is a riveting look at the making of golf 's next generation.

Baseball honors legacies--from cheering the home team to breaking in an old glove handed down from father to son. In The Dad Report, award-winning sportswriter Kevin Cook weaves a tapestry of uplifting stories in which fathers and sons--from the sport's superstars to Cook and his own ball-playing father--share the game.

Almost two hundred father-son pairs have played in the big leagues. Cook takes us inside the clubhouses, homes, and lives of many of the greats. Aaron Boone follows grandfather Bob, father Ray, and brother Bret to the majors--three generations of All-Stars. Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. strive to outdo their famous dads. Michael Jordan walks away from basketball to play minor-league baseball--to fulfill his father's dream.

In visiting these legendary families, Cook discovers that ball-playing families are a lot like our own. Dan Haren regrets the long road trips that keep him from his kids. Ike Davis and his father, a former Yankee, debate whether Ike should pitch or play first base. Buddy Bell leads a generation of big-leaguers determined to open their workplace--the clubhouse--to their kids.

Framing The Dad Report is the story of Kevin Cook's own father, Art Cook, a minor-league pitcher, a loveable rogue with a wicked screwball. In Art's later years, Kevin phoned him almost every night to talk baseball. They called those nightly conversations the Dad Report. In time, Kevin came to see that these conversations were about much more than the game. That's what this book is about: the way fathers and sons talk baseball as a way of talking about everything--courage, fear, fun, family, morality, mortality, and how it's not whether you win or lose that counts, it's how you share the game.

Baseball honors legacies--from cheering the home team to breaking in an old glove handed down from father to son. In The Dad Report, award-winning sportswriter Kevin Cook weaves a tapestry of uplifting stories in which fathers and sons--from the sport's superstars to Cook and his own ball-playing father--share the game.

Almost two hundred father-son pairs have played in the big leagues. Cook takes us inside the clubhouses, homes, and lives of many of the greats. Aaron Boone follows grandfather Bob, father Ray, and brother Bret to the majors--three generations of All-Stars. Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. strive to outdo their famous dads. Michael Jordan walks away from basketball to play minor-league baseball--to fulfill his father's dream.

In visiting these legendary families, Cook discovers that ball-playing families are a lot like our own. Dan Haren regrets the long road trips that keep him from his kids. Ike Davis and his father, a former Yankee, debate whether Ike should pitch or play first base. Buddy Bell leads a generation of big-leaguers determined to open their workplace--the clubhouse--to their kids.

Framing The Dad Report is the story of Kevin Cook's own father, Art Cook, a minor-league pitcher, a loveable rogue with a wicked screwball. In Art's later years, Kevin phoned him almost every night to talk baseball. They called those nightly conversations the Dad Report. In time, Kevin came to see that these conversations were about much more than the game. That's what this book is about: the way fathers and sons talk baseball as a way of talking about everything--courage, fear, fun, family, morality, mortality, and how it's not whether you win or lose that counts, it's how you share the game.