Customer Reviews

The Kills: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Fairsteins heroine, Alex Cooper, prosecutor in charge of Manhattans Sex Crimes Unit, returns once again with sidekicks Detective Mike Chapman and Detective Mercer Wallace. With a rape prosecution against defendant Andrew Tripping on her plate, Alex becomes concerned when she feels that the victim, Paige Vallis, a thirty-six-year-old investment banker, hasnt been entirely forthcoming. Frustration becomes Alexs constant companion, as she seems unable to interview Andrews young son, Dulles, who was present during the alleged rape.

With her own decades of experience in the position held by protagonist Alex, Fairstein enlivens this novel with a sense of realism compounded with both the difficulties and triumphs of the career of a prosecutor, as well as the close relationships formed with the police detectives, a prosecutors closest allies.

And when Alex begins investigating the murder of a poverty-stricken McQueen Ransome, an elderly woman in Harlem, she learns that McQueen had led quite a fascinating life, dancing around the world and later becoming mistress of the infamous King Farouk of Egypt. And according to Spike Logan, a graduate student interviewing her about her life experiences, Queenie helped herself to some of Farouks rare collection of valuables when she left his palatial home.

As the crimes against Paige Vallis and McQueen begin to form a connection, Alex encounters some frightening moments of her own, as she is stalked in Manhattan and at her home on Marthas Vineyard. With clues mounting in the continuous investigations of these two crimes, Alex begins to fear for her life in this craftily constructed novel replete with mystery and suspense.

Manhattan sex-crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper knows her new case, one involving an attack on investment banker Paige Vallis, will be hard to prove as is, but things take a sharp turn when Alex learns her client has something to hide.

What really happened the night of the attack? Why didn't Paige leave the apartment after the date turned ugly? What happened to her attackers son? And who is the mysterious man whose appearance in the courtroom scares Paige?

As Alex receives help from her detective friends on the rape case another puzzling crime is committed this time an elderly woman is found murdered and her apartment turned upside down. Who would want this woman dead and why?

While both case take strange turns more murders occur and Alex is forced to question what connection these two seemingly different women had.

`The Kills' is another great read from Linda Fairstein. The two story lines move fast combining shocking twists with courtroom thrills until a powerful climax ties together all the loose ends. Fans of Fairstein's previous novels will lap this up in one sitting for this may be her best page-turner yet.

Expect to see `The Kills' on the top of all the bestseller lists.

Nick Gonnella

Okay, I admit it, I'm already a fan. But Ms. Fairstein has even more surprises in store for Alexandra Cooper in this book and I just loved the all the history and intrigue. She taps into the imagination with a golden key -- I won't give it away. A marvelous book.

I'd guess that this is the fourth Fairstein novel I've read, and it is the least compelling. ("The Bone Vault" was much better.) This time around, the plot is too full of coincidence and cliche and complications and CIA clones and coin collections. All those "C" words...hmmm...guess that's why I'd grade this one a "C". Fairstein knows the law and trial work and sex crimes from her pre-writing life, and in this book she tries to get away from what she knows best and show off her broader education. But the attempt is not really successful. Her heroine, Alex Cooper, is less likeable in this effort. I found her pretentious and whiny this time around, and in the earlier novels I liked her more.

This is the latest in a series of mysteries by Linda Fairstein. I liked it as much as her previous ones. I do find that you have to read previous books, starting with Final Jeopardy, to catch up with the protagonist's relationships to the other characters. It's not absolutely necessary, but it does help. In The Kills, Fairstein shows yet again that she can weave a web of skillful plot, enough suspense to keep you reading and some very obvious expertise in the running of the DA's office. The interaction between her main characters is great fun and you can immediately understand the emotions of these people. She never misses out on the day-to-day stress of real life which some writers seem to forget exists. I highly recommend this book and all her previous books.

The title of Linda Fairstein's newest Alexandra Cooper novel, THE KILLS, has more than one meaning. To Detective Mike Chapman the kills are homicides: "Hunters used that word to describe the slaughter of their prey, and fighter pilots spoke the same language when referring to the downing of enemy planes --- the unnatural termination of lives." And in this thriller we are told that "once [there] were 'kills' all over Lower Manhattan, a vestige from the Dutch colonization that meant 'channels' or 'creeks' ... [and one of them] was obviously a viaduct to the shipyards along the Jersey shore."

Complementing this bit of New York City's history and the different ways the word 'kills' is used are the events that surround a deadly hunt for "a legal form, signed by the secretary of the treasury more than half a century ago, that monetized one Double Eagle for King Farouk. That one sheet of paper, smuggled out of Egypt ... perhaps after King Farouk was deposed, is necessary if ... together with [a coin found in a dead woman's closet] would make [the] possessor a multimillionaire."

King Farouk's obsession for collecting the most unique items in the world is well documented. But rumors surface about whether or not he left the American Double Eagle coin behind when he was deposed. And is it possible that an American CIA agent whose assignment kept him in Cairo somehow stole the treasure? This agent turns out to be related to one of the women in this labyrinthine tale.

But let's start at the beginning of Fairstein's suspenseful and complex mystery. The case begins with Paige Vallis, a rape victim and hopeful rescuer of a little boy. While Ms. Vallis is adamant in her accusation against Andrew Tripping, the crime solving team of Cooper, Chapman and Mercer Wallace, the series' regulars, knows she is holding back vital information: "It's going to be a tough trial," muses one of the characters as testimony begins and just before Vallis turns up dead.

Unfortunately Vallis is not the only rape victim who is murdered; the other is a seemingly indigent eighty-two-year-old woman who appeared to have been raped and then smothered to death with her own pillow. Chapman takes Coop to the scene in the Harlem apartment because he is outraged and wants answers he hopes she can give him. Alexandra understands his frustration but admits she can't tell him precisely what is behind this kind of assault.

As the investigation moves on, the identity of the Harlem victim is uncovered. She is McQueen "Queenie" Ransome, a fan dancer who didn't always use a fan: "In most of the images, there was nothing between the body of McQueen Ransome and the lens of the camera." Deeper digging is rewarded with the information that Queenie had spent time in Egypt. She knew the king. Could she in some way be connected to the Double Eagle?

The third case is that of Tiffany Gatts. "Statutory rape, [l]ittle Tiffany only just turned sweet sixteen," said Chapman. But more than that, her coat belongs to the dead old woman. What possible connection could there be between these two people? How did Tiffany gain ownership of the coat and what does she know about the murder, if anything?

Every mystery story is a puzzle. The conundrum at the center of THE KILLS is: Are the murders and rapes connected in any way? If some link exists between them, what is it and why did the killer strike now? What secrets did each of the dead women take to her grave and what does Tiffany know? How does the Double Eagle fit into any scenario based on the events in the case?

Linda Fairstein, is the former head of the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit of the District Attorney's Office and was for twenty-five years America's foremost prosecutor of crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence. She traded in her badge for the "blank page" in 1996 when she published her first Alexandra Cooper mystery. THE KILLS is her sixth book in the series and may be her best work to date. Her novels are informed by the twenty-plus years she spent as an ADA and they are infused with a certain snap, crackle and pop so often lacking in police procedurals. Mystery fans can jump right into this series without missing a beat. Enjoy!

(An aside: An ironic and interesting fact --- a current television advertisement is offering gold prints of the American Double Eagle coin in limited lots of five per order. They make no mention of whether or not it is monetized.)

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

WHAT DID PAIGE VALLIS KNOW, AND WHEN DID SHE KNOW IT?

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO KILL PAIGE VALLIS? WHY WAS SHE GOING TO TESTIFY? AGAINST WHOM? A.D.A. ALEX COOPER AND HER TEAM OF DETECTIVES HAVE TO FIND OUT THE ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS, AND FAST. OTHERWISE, SHE MAY BE THE NEXT VICTIM. IS THE HOMICIDE OF MS. VALLIS IN ANY WAY CONNECTED TO THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF McQUEEN RANSOME? IF SO, HOW? IS MS. RANSOME'S SON ACTUALLY A PRINCE?

WHO HAD THE BEST MOTIVE AND THE MEANS TO WANT BOTH MS. VALLIS & MS. RANSOME DEAD, AND WHY? WAS IT ANDREW TRIPPING, THE DEFENDANT ON TRIAL, OR HIS ATTORNEY, PETER ROBELON? CIA AGENT HARRY STRAIT, JIMMY LISI, SPIKE LOGAN, KEVIN BESSEMER & TIFFANY GATTS? WHAT ABOUT CLAIR CHESTNUTT OR BERNARD STARK? WHAT ABOUT JUDGE HYLAN MOFFETT? OR COULD IT HAVE BEEN .........?

THIS IS THE BEST ALEX COOPER MYSTERY SO FAR. THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF SUSPECTS, OR MOTIVES. IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT CLOSING THE BOOK. LINDA, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

As a certified Linda Fairstein fan, I picked up this book without reading a single review. The book jacket copy gives no clue to the story, which is why I was caught by surprise mid-book and actually stopped reading. The book jacket describes the story's opener -- a potentially riveting courtroom drama, very timely in light of the Kobe Bryant case: a young woman claims she was date-raped by a wealthy financier -- the kind of man who seems immune to prosecution. It's a he-said/she-said case, although the man's young son will be a witness for the prosecution if he can be found.

If I had been on the jury,I would not have bought the woman's story of being "forced" to submit to rape and her actions to "save" the little boy seem questionable and possibly illegal. But as Fairstein's character points out,
women of my age rarely sympathize with these victims.

Meanwhile, Alexandra Cooper's cop friends become involved in a murder that initially seems unrelated. Now here's where the book takes a sharp detour that will delight some readers and frustrate others, depending on how you feel about historical characters mingling with fictional characters. And some readers will enjoy the introduction of FBI and CIA intrigue, while others will resist the mixture of spy and courtroom genres.

However, Fairstein is a masterful storyteller, and she seems fascinated by historical events, especially those related to New York City, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of places like the yacht club. So when I picked the book up again, after my shock at finding King Farouk's mistress in a courtroom thriller, I found myself absorbed in the story and learning an amazing amount about Egyptian royalty and double-eagle coins.

However, I felt cheated! Who better than Fairstein to deal with the complexity of rape cases with no witnesses? How does a prosecutor square off against a private attorney? And I wish her adversary had been a better, more experienced lawyer, instead of someone who made basic mistakes in jury selection.

Recommended -- but next time, the book jacket needs to warn us what to expect!

This is the first book I've read by Linda Fairstein, and I must say that she didn't live up to the hype I've heard about her Alex Cooper mysteries. To be honest, I would have been more excited to read court transcripts from actual trials -- such was the tedium of this novel.

The complexity of the plot should make it more interesting, but instead I had a difficult time following who was speaking to whom. There were far too many secondary characters to carry the primary plot, resulting in a convoluted timeline that didn't entice.

Furthermore, and this is perhaps the most important thing I can say, I didn't care about what might happen to the characters. Alex Cooper didn't come across at all as sympathetic, and the lack of personal details about a character written in the first person was just shoddy craftsmanship. I'm thoroughly unimpressed.

This is the first Fairstein novel I've read and I have enjoyed it very much! The story centers on Alexandra Cooper an assistant district attorney in charge of prosecuting Sex Crimes in New York City and is also told by her. Alex is just back from two weeks off spent in her home on Martha's Vineyard with her "boyfriend" Jake, a reporter. She is at a preliminary hearing for a rape case with the victim, Paige Vallis, being a likable person and the perpetrator being Andrew Tripping, a high powered collector and ex-CIA man who used his 10 year old son Dulles as leverage.

Alex is trying to get the Judge's help so she can interview Dulles who was taken away by Child Welfare when his dad was arrested. The lawyers for Child Welfare are close-mouthed and not letting Alex see the boy.

While Alex is jury-selecting and prepping Paige for her testimony, one of the NYPD detectives she works with is investigating a murder of Queenie Ransom, a very old black lady and former stripper whose apartment was ransacked. Alex and her two NYPD buddies, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, start to see links between the two cases when on of the suspects in the Queenie murder turns out to be a confidential informant that said he had info on Andrew Tripping and was being transported to Alex's office when he escaped.

Enter some strange government-looking men as spectators during Paige's testimony and her fright of one of them; enter a "helpful" attorney assigned as the child, Dulles, guardian and enter more killings of witnesses and worse and the plot thickens!

Very good twists and surprises and lots of excitement along with the mundane police work that Ms. Fairstein is obviously familiar with!

Great read!