Born in Houston, Crook lived in Nacogdoches and San Marcos, Texas, with her parents, brother and sister until 1966 when the family moved to Washington District of Columbia, where her father, William H. Crook, was director of Volunteers in Service to America for Lyndon Johnson. Later, the family moved to Canberra, Australia, where her father was United States. ambassador to Australia.
Returning to Texas, Crook graduated from San Marcos High School in 1977. She attended Baylor University for two years and graduated from Rice University in 1982.
Crook"s three novels have attracted favorable reviews, and her work has been published in anthologies and periodicals such as Texas Monthly and Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Crook has served on the council of the Texas Institute of Letters. She is a member of Western Writers of America and The Texas Philosophical Society, and was selected the honored writer for 2006 Texas Writers" Month, joining previous honorees O. Henry, J. Frank Dobie, John Graves, Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Katherine Anne Porter, Elmer Kelton, Liz Carpenter, Sarah Bird, James Michener, and Horton Foote. Her first novel, The Raven"s Bride, was the 2006 Texas Reads: One Book One Texas selection. The Night Journal was awarded the 2007 Spur award for Best Long Novel of the West and the 2007 Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction. Monday, Monday received the Jesse H. Jones Fiction Award (the top prize) in the 2015 Texas Institute of Letters competition. Two of Crook"s novels (Promised Lands and The Raven"s Bride) were edited at Doubleday by Jacqueline Onassis.
She is a member of Western Writers of America and The Texas Philosophical Society, and was selected the honored writer for 2006 Texas Writers" Month, joining previous honorees O. Henry, J. Frank Dobie, John Graves, Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Katherine Anne Porter, Elmer Kelton, Liz Carpenter, Sarah Bird, James Michener, and Horton Foote.
