D. J.‏ ‎(David J.) Cook

author

D. J.‏ ‎(David J.) Cook

1840–1907

A frontier lawman turned memoirist, he wrote vivid firsthand accounts of crime, pursuit, and survival in the American West. His best-known book draws on decades of detective work in Colorado and beyond, giving readers a lively window into 19th-century frontier life.

1 Audiobook

Hands Up; or, Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains Reminiscences by General D. J. Cook, Chief of the Rocky Mountains Detective Association

Hands Up; or, Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains Reminiscences by General D. J. Cook, Chief of the Rocky Mountains Detective Association

by D. J.‏ ‎(David J.) Cook

About the author

Best known as General D. J. Cook, he was an American lawman, detective, and author associated with some of the roughest years of the western frontier. Reliable sources describe him as a longtime Colorado peace officer who served in roles including Denver city marshal and sheriff of Arapahoe County, and who became widely known for his detective work.

As a writer, he is remembered for Hands Up; or, Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains, a memoir-like account of criminal cases, frontier justice, and life in the West. The book blends personal reminiscence with colorful history, making it appealing both to readers of adventure and to anyone curious about how order was kept in fast-changing frontier communities.

Some details of his early life and even his exact birth year vary across sources, so it is safest to say that he was born in the early 1840s and died in 1907. What is consistently clear is that his reputation grew from real experience in western law enforcement, and that his writing helped preserve that world in his own dramatic voice.