Entombed (Alexandra Cooper) [Hardcover]

Linda Fairstein (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alexandra Cooper | Publication Date: January 4, 2005

After a lull of four years, the 'silk stocking rapist' is back at work on the Upper East side, but this time Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper and Detective Mike Chapman have perfect DNA evidence to work with. They also have a much older case to work on - a skeleton has been found entombed in the wall of a house Edgar Allan Poe once lived in, but it turns out to be a relatively modern murder - from 1978. On the day the discovery of this body is leaked to the press, Alex gets a call that the silk stocking rapist has struck again, this time fatally. Or has he? The m.o. isn't precisely the same as the others, and it transpires that the victim worked in Poe's old house in 1978. Are the cases linked or is someone trying to silence possible witness to a thirty-five-year-old murder?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Series heroine Alexandra Cooper, head of Manhattan's sex crimes unit, returns in a novel that might have been titled "Nevermore,": focused as it is on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. When the body of a two-decades-old skeleton is found bricked up behind a wall in a soon-to-be-demolished building where Poe once lived, it looks like a very cold case indeed. But then that old murder is linked to a more current slaying, one that at first looks like the work of the Silk Stocking Rapist, Alex's old enemy, who terrorized the upper East Side of Manhattan several years ago but hasn't been heard from since. As usual, Alex and her good friends, detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman, take the reader to an area of New York most tourists never see--in this case, the Bronx Botanical Gardens and its wild, forested environs--and bring it dramatically to life. Just in case Poe ever has his own category on Alex's favorite TV show, there’s enough trivia included about the master of the macabre's life and work to propel any reader to Final Jeopardy. Entombed is a smart, stylish, well-told tale. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

The specter of Edgar Allan Poe hovers, chillingly, over bestseller Fairstein's seventh thriller featuring Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. Alex's labyrinthine path to a serial killer travels through a lot of forensic evidence and two initially unconnected cases: the Silk Stocking rapist is terrorizing women after a few years' respite and a woman's skeleton is discovered in the wall of an East Village building. Said discovery takes on additional dimension when it's learned that the victim was walled up alive and that the house was once inhabited by Poe. Freelance writer Emily Upshaw appears, at first glance, to be the Silk Stocking rapist's latest victim, but several details feel off to Alex and NYPD detective sidekicks Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. Emily, it's determined, is the victim of a copycat, but she does have a tenuous link to Poe and to a secret organization called the Raven Society. These are the puzzle pieces that Alex and company work with, in a tale that develops like the proverbial peeled onion, a layer at a time. Alex, fresh from a breakup, also continues her unconsummated flirtation with Mike. It's a tribute to Fairstein's integrity and her clear, measured prose that the novel never tips into prurience. Her methodical presentation of authentic detail engages reader interest more than narrative flourish or cheap thrills. She's the real deal.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st edition (January 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743254880
• ISBN-13: 978-0743254885
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,314,514 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

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fairstein's Best Ever, January 5, 2005

By 

Wilkie Collins (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Entombed (Alexandra Cooper) (Hardcover)

I confess I'm a great fan of the Alex Cooper series because Fairstein, a former prosecutor, combines her vast knowledge of the criminal justice system with appealing characters, great plots, and a breezy, fast-paced style. In this book she outdoes herself. She reveals a hidden story about Edgar Allen Poe and gives us a glimpse into one of the great New York landmarks -- also a Fairstein specialty. It's fun, informative and truly frightening, worthy of the master to whom it pays homage. Be prepared to stay up all night.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Better!, June 19, 2005

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Entombed (Alexandra Cooper) (Hardcover)

Unlike the last few in Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper series, this one really held my interest, as the plot is wound around the tales of Edgar Allen Poe.

When a decades-old skeleton is found entombed behind a brick wall in a home where Poe once lived, and it is ascertained that the corpse was buried alive, Poe's tales become all too real. Alex, Mercer and Chapman are quickly caught up in this very cold case that becomes hotter by the second as they uncover a mysterious Poe society, all of whose members could have been invented by the master himself.

Entwined with that interesting mystery is another case Alex has on her plate: the return of the so-called "Silk-Stocking Rapist," who terrorized women on the East Side of New York, and then mysteriously disappeared without ever having been caught. Now, it seems, he is back, and Alex, head of the DA's Sex Crimes Unit, is desperate to catch him.

I truly enjoyed this book and am glad that Fairstein seems back on track like she was in her early works. Recommended.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars POE IS THE ANSWER...WHAT WAS THE QUESTION???, August 11, 2007

By 

Red Rock Bookworm (St. George Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Entombed: A Novel (Alexandra Cooper Mysteries) (Paperback)

Fairstein's epistle gives the reader a lot of information to chew on and digest. First, we have the return of a rapist who has been strangely silent for the past four years, as well as a series of seemingly unconnected murders. When workmen demolishing a 19th century brownstone that was once the home of Edgar Allan Poe discover the body of a woman buried upright behind a brick wall it appears that "life is imitating art" and someone has taken a page out of a Poe novel.

Utilizing the search for the dual criminals as the "background" for the story, Fairstein takes us on a tour of the Bronx. She gives us an up close and personal look at the Botanical Gardens which contains 50 acres of forest, the waterfalls of the Bronx River Gorge, a "crystal palace" conservatory containing 17,000 glass panes, and the first Hall of Fame in America (an outdoor vista containing 98 bronze busts of Great Americans ranging from poets, to jurists, to soldiers).
And I thought Central Park was the only touch of green in NYC.

The garden, she tells us, was once owned by P. Lorillard, tobacco scion, and contains an old snuff mill as well as Poe cottage, where Poe lived with his wife/cousin until her death. (And now you have the "connector" between the Bronx Botanical Tour and the murderer who feels a kinship with Poe and commits his crimes according to macabre Poe plots).

Fairstein fleshes out her rather thin plot with loads of in depth facts and observations about everything from Fordham University to the Gould Library. All of the "facts" that liberally pepper the book could serve as the basis for a plethora of Jeopardy final questions (a game that her alter ego, Alex Cooper, and friends Mike and Mercer are rather fond of playing).

Emtombed is more a guided tour of the Bronx and a look at Poe's sad existance than the murder mystery with gothic overtones I'm sure it was meant to be.