The Bone Vault [Print] [Mass Market Paperback]

Linda Fairstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exquisite Temple of Dendur, a monument to an ancient world, a very modern debate is raging at a gala dinner: a controversial new exhibit is fiercely opposed by many among the upper echelon of museum donors. Alex Cooper steps into this highly charged ring of power players only to make a much more troubling discovery: a young museum researcher has been murdered, her body shipped to the Met in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Together with cops Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex must penetrate the realm of the city's cultural elite to find a killer intent on keeping some secrets buried for eternity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the special pleasures of this lively series, written by a veteran sex-crimes investigator for the Manhattan district attorney's office, is the unusual glimpse it gives readers into corners of New York no tourist and few residents ever see (The Deadhouse). Here she turns her attention to the city's major cultural edifices--the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the Cloisters--and takes us behind their sealed doors to investigate the murder of a museum curator whose mummified body turns up in an ancient sarcophagus just before it's shipped out of the country. Together with her partners, cops Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, assistant DA Alexandra Cooper retraces Katrina Grooten's steps from her native South Africa to the discovery of her remains on a New Jersey pier. Along the way, the mysteries of the ancient world get equal billing with the more contemporary whodunit, and Cooper and her pals get a firsthand look at the murderous New York art world, too. Fairstein's thrillers offer an in-depth tour of truly off-the-beaten-path Manhattan as well as solid plotting, well-drawn characters, and snappy dialogue. What the DA's office lost when the author retired to write full-time is the mystery fan's biggest gain! --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Fairstein's 25-year stint as head of the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan DA's office once again makes for an authoritative and fact-filled mystery (her fifth after The Deadhouse) featuring alter-ego assistant DA Alexandra Cooper. "Coop" is an attractive workaholic in her 30s, ambivalent about her current relationship with an always-on-the-road NBC correspondent. While she's attending a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new Met director Pierre Thibodaux pulls her aside and asks for help with a recent crisis: a customs security dog found that a Met sarcophagus ready for shipment back to Cairo contained the corpse of a young female researcher from the Cloisters, the Met's medieval branch. Coop calls her usual NYPD sidekick detectives, brash Mike Chapman and burly Mercer Wallace, and the trio sets out to search among the museum's bookish staff and rich benefactors for a killer with a motive. In the meantime, Coop and Chapman, who should be a couple but don't know it yet, lecture one another on ancient history and contemporary law, and place bets on Jeopardy questions. Readers also learn about such subjects as Inuit funeral rituals, the average growth rate for human hair, the habits of stalkers and rapists and modern techniques of sadomasochism. Fairstein has a heavy-handed way of working this information into the dialogue, and the plot resolution strains credibility. Yet the quick-witted Cooper is as likable as ever, and fans of Fairstein's other books will find this satisfying-if not standout-fare.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star; 1st Pocket Books Paperback Edition, Jan 2004 edition (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743436679
• ISBN-13: 978-0743436670
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Fairstein was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney's office in Manhattan for more than two decades and is America's foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Her Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BONE VAULT should be opened by all readers., January 22, 2003

By 

Doris Ann Norris (Fostoria, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bone Vault: A Novel (Hardcover)

Spending time with Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman and to learn more about New York City landmarks and institutions is enough of a reason to buy the book. This time it's the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. When the body of a young intern at the Cloisters is found in a sarcophagus on a ship bound for Egypt, Alex and Mike find the inner workings of the museums, not to mention its many hidden room both fascinating and possibly deadly. An intriguing tale after which one will never look at the institutionalized collection of art and artifacts, including human bones, in quite the same way. It's also a view of why other cultures and countries may not look upon the European/American penchant for "collecting" with quite the reverence that collectors have come to expect. As always Fairstein intersperses other cases that the Sex Unit of the District Attorney's office is investigating. There is also some interesting, but very subtle movement in the relationship between Alex and Mike. Although books rarely cause me to cry, Alex's recounting of the events of September 11 from her viewpoint as well as from Mike's brought tears to my eyes. It's a beautiful and heartrending account that has nothing to do with the story, but fits in beautifully with the novel. It is also a story that I imagine the author had to tell. "The Bone Vault" is a wonderful book that is available this month. Highly recommended for all who enjoy a great story, fully realized characters and fine writing.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is without a doubt Linda Fairstein's best novel yet, February 10, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bone Vault: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 2002, Linda Fairstein retired from her position as head of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office. She is the Real Deal --- a real life prosecutor who can write. She's also blonde and gorgeous. Now go ahead and tell me life is fair!

With each of her five novels since FINAL JEOPARDY (her first), she has displayed an increasingly smooth storytelling style uniquely her own. If her books read a lot like true crime, it's because she knows her material down to the most intimate detail. Fairstein's daily work routine has become the stuff of television legend, via Law & Order, particularly Law & Order: SVU, which stands for the department she originated --- not in fiction but in real life. She has made an enormous contribution to the now-safer streets of New York City and, with her retirement, will certainly be missed. We who like to read are lucky because we now have her full-time attention as a writer.

In her fifth outing with her DA protagonist, Alexandra Cooper, Linda Fairstein takes us into a fascinating behind-the-scenes world at the Metropolitan Museum and its offshoot for medieval art history, The Cloisters, as well as the New York Museum of Natural History. They have been planning a 3-way cooperative exhibit on Beastiaries, Real and Imagined (a fictional exhibit that sounds like such a great idea, I wanted to see it for myself). The victim is a young, promising museum employee of The Cloisters who worked on that exhibit. Her perfectly preserved body is found inside an ancient limestone sarcophagus that was about to be shipped abroad, as part of a large shipment of art on exchange from the Metropolitan. Within 24 hours of the body's discovery, the Met's famous Director has resigned. He claims his resignation has no relationship whatever to the finding of the body but, of course, Alex and her team members, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, are not so easily convinced.

An autopsy reveals that the victim died of arsenic poisoning and that she had been dead for almost six months. How did the body come to be in such perfect condition after such a long time? More interesting speculations occur when the head of the museum's Egyptian Collection leaves to attend a "mummy congress" in Chile --- it seems he is the world's foremost expert on mummification. And so onward, the story goes.

Linda Fairstein is deadly serious about her concern over crime (sex crimes in particular) and her novels reflect this concern. But THE BONE VAULT is, nevertheless, fun to read. It is no small achievement to be able to write heavy stuff with a light touch, but she has pulled it off for much of the book. If you enjoy going to museums, this will be a treat for you. Even if museums aren't quite your ideal for crime story enrichment, you'll find a lot of other little tidbits that add to the narrative. These tidbits include insight into Alan Dershowitz's Martha's Vineyard beach habits and in what movie you might catch a glimpse of William Shatner's pubic hair ... if you have sharp eyes and are inclined to look.

THE BONE VAULT is Linda Fairstein's best yet.

--- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly fun suspense novel, August 10, 2004

By 

clwinter - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bone Vault (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked this book up looking for a quick read and expecting a sort of Da Vinci Code type suspense thriller. I did find a quick read but the novel was no were close to the quality of Da Vinci Code.

Instead, I found a surprisingly fun novel, not just about the Metropolitan Museum but more focused on the Natural History Museum in NYC. While I was expecting another art murder mystery, I found instead learning about the history of the Natural History Museum set admist a murder at the Met.

Fairstein was a quick read and typical of mass produced mystery novels but this one had an edge that I found alluring. I was able to appreciate the novelist's research on the museums as well as her writing abilities. While they might not be Pulitizer Prize winning it was an enjoyable read.

The novel was a little predictable and the killer pretty obvious but I still found it fun and rather enjoyable. A good beach read.