Customer Reviews

Lethal Legacy

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lethal Legacy is a fairly tight thriller that ought to appeal to bibliophiles. Set in present-day Manhattan, Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper is led on an investigation that leads her directly to the New York Public Library.

The history and inner workings of the historic landmark is skillfully woven into the tale making for a fun diversion in this otherwise standard-fare thriller.

If you love rare books, their history and bits of literary trivia, you'll likely enjoy this ride. The thriller portion of the story is pretty tight and the pace clips right along to a marginally-predictable, but nontheless satisfying, ending.

Recommended!

There is a genre of detective fiction that blends a thrilling tale with generally unknown information about a subject that fascinates the novel's readers. The book titillates and informs. One of the well-known practitioners of this art is Dan Brown who did so successfully with his The Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately many readers thought that his recent novel The Lost Symbol was not as good. Some thought that the information about the Masons was overmuch and insufficiently interesting.
This is the principle problem with this two-pronged genre: like a well-cooked dish or a superb martini, it requires just the right mixture of the two ingredients; too much of one can destroy the otherwise good meal or superb drink.
Fairstein is an excellent writer and she generally succeeds in providing her readers a tasty blend. However, while I rarely put aside a book unfinished, I did so with this novel. I personally love books and I found the information that she offered on the history of books and maps interesting. However, like a twenty minute church or synagogue sermon that exceeds its time limit, I began to feel as if I was overburdened by the time I reached a quarter of the book.
I pushed myself with the hope that the mystery would revive my interest, but by the middle of the novel, when there were discussions about how maps caused America not to be named after Columbus, how they influenced ancient discoveries. How and why they became collector items, how they were stored, how thieves cut maps from ancient volumes, and other facts, I gave up.
But I did not give up on Fairstein. I feel certain that her next book, like those in the past, will have the right mix and I will enjoy both the mystery and arcane facts about some history of New York.

A man disguised as a fireman sets off an incendiary device in a hall way. As it fills the air with smoke, he knocks on the door of one the inhabitants of the building, Tina Barr, and when she lets him in, he attacks her. After he leaves, she locks herself in her apartment, refusing to let in the police and other law enforcement agencies who come to help. Alexandra(Alex) Cooper, an assistant district attorney, finally convinces her to unlock the door and seek medical help but just as soon as the paramedics take Tina to the hospital, she leaves and disappears. The police cannot officially look for her because she left of her own free will and is therefore not a missing person and she never actually reported a crime was committed. Eventually Alex's boss receives pressure from outside sources and demands that she find Tina. A few days later Tina is found, dead and wrapped in tarp in Bryant Park.

The questions surrounding Tina's death are many. Was her death related to the work she did as a restorer of rare books for the library and for private clients? Did Tina know something or see something that led to her brutal slaying? Was Tina involved in the loss of millions of dollars worth of rare books and maps that were missing from donated collections in the library? Was her death related to that of another woman found murdered in her former apartment?

This book is interesting in the way that it turns the main branch of the New York Public library into a fascinating backdrop for a thriller. Notable facts about history, book binding, legacies to institutions are topics covered in great depth. It is quite fascinating what you learn as you read the book. It gave me an interesting insight into the city I call home and its numerous cultural institutions.

Like many books, Lethal Legacy sometimes fails to capture the ways in which real human beings interact. For example. right after the body of Tina Barr is found, the head of the library is leading the detectives back to the library's interior. As they walk pass the giant sculptures of the lions in front of the building,one of the detectives makes a comment about the lions and the head of the library proceeds to give him a mini lecture on the lions. She tells him that they attained their names, Patience and Fortitude, because the then Mayor of New York felt that these were qualities that New Yorkers would need in order to survive the depression. A woman was just killed, what normal human being would be discussing stone sculptures at such a time? Another weakness of the book was it tendency to sometimes go on and on and on about historical events and incidents in a way that almost detracted from the story. Luckily the author was able to rein herself in before this became an absolute distraction. It is obvious that the author did a lot of research into the literary and artistic world of New York. This hard work pays off as we end up with a tale that keeps you interested from start to finish.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely seek out more by Ms. Fairstein in the future.

Fairstein's Alex Cooper series usually gives us tight, tautly plotted legal/crime thrillers, but "Lethal Legacy" is the exception that proves the rule.

The story starts out very promisingly with an assault victim who's not cooperative with Cooper and her cohorts, raising the question of "what's going on here?" - but quickly goes downhill from there.

A couple of dead bodies later, and things become as murky as mud: an eccentric family of wealthy museum benefactors; the operation and setting of a New York museum; collections of rare books and maps; a completely irrelevant second criminal proceeding that's thrown in for no discernible reason at all; a visit from her paramour that lands with a thud in the middle of the whole thing.

I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on. The benefactor family was a confusing mess; there was FAR too much time spent on the arcana of the museum and its operations; the ancient map (which was the "mulligan" of the piece), though interesting, was given too much space in the story. This read more like a detailed scavenger hunt than a murder mystery.

Traditionally, Fairstein weaves interesting and unique New York locales into her narratives, but at heart they remain murder mysteries. Not the case in this book; the whole concept is turned completely upside down, with the murders playing second fiddle to the search for a map. An unhappy mating of Alexandra Cooper and "National Treasure".

My two stars are generous.

I used to be a fan of Linda Fairstein and I have read many of her previous books. I stopped reading her about two years ago because instead of writing a mystery novel she started writing history books with a little bit of suspense thrown in. I picked up a hardcover of "Lethal Legacy" at my local Barnes and Noble because it was in the discount bin for $5.98 and I thought for that price I would give her another chance. Well it was a mistake because she is still going on and on with her history lessons that distract from the plot and cause me to lose interest. I am not against reading a defined history novel or non-fiction history, but when you advertise your genre as suspense it is misleading to be giving page after page of history lectures. I don't think I'll read her again and I can see why she was in the bargain bin.

This was a bit slower - "draggy" - didn't enjoy as much as some of her books, but perservered to the end.

This is the second Fairstein book in a row that the plot plays second fiddle to atmospherics. From the first Fairstein novel until the last, the setting of the crime has always played an important part of the story. But in her last two novels the background has become more interesting than the plot. In fact, the plots are becoming more and more far fetched. In this novel, the central character is picked up by a fake cabbie who supposedly staked her out and timed her need for a cab on a busy mid-Manhattan street. Not believable in cab heaven New York..

Also, the trustees and the staff of the New York Public Library come off as a motley group of people. While Fairstein gives some insight into the world of book collecting she treats the Research Center of the New York Public Library much too roughly. Where a balanced touch was needed she uses a sledge hammer to make the same points over and over again.

If you are new to Fairstein, I am fairly confident you will find this an entertaining read. But if you are a Fairstein fan you are likely to conclude she has done a better job in the past.

Although there are bloody murders, this isn't your typical thriller. Instead of chills and suspense, we read what is essentially a rather long-winded narrative of the history of map making, old books, and conservation, as well as learning about the inner workings and politics of family legacy and the management of the New York Public Library. Unlike most circulating libraries, the NYPL is a research based library -- books are not checked out but are examined or read within the different library divisions and areas. Spectacular collections from some of the country's most prominent families are displayed and housed therein. No one is really quite sure of what ALL is inside the miles of storage.

This book describes a crime of greed -- the perpetrators are apparently looking for a special map of the world that a patriarch of one of the old rich families of NY (the Hunts) has secreted inside a series of special old books that are contained within the vaults of special collections in the catacombs of the library. The action moves along primarily through the dialog between Alexandra Cooper (the ADA), her best buddies Mike Chapman and Mercer, and the various functionaries and curators at the NY Public Library.

If you love history and love reading about maps, map making and the processes of protecting and treasuring old books, art, and other masterpieces -- and if you love reading about how a library works -- then you will like this book. The actual mystery involved isn't anything new or riveting, merely another look at the cross and double cross greedy criminal.

I rate it 3.5 because the history was interesting. The story itself not so much. This is not a fast paced riveting novel. I like these characters although they are getting boring doing the same old thing all the time.

Most Fairstein fans, like me, are tried and true and we'll stick with her -- waiting for the next adventure.

Is the target audience those who are looking for a mystery or is the book aimed at people looking for a brief history of books, maps and the NY library system? Although interesting and obviously well researched, this contained far more background details that I expect to find in a police murder investigation. The plot had little substance and the thin development of the characters became annoying. Maybe it was just my expectations that were skewed??

In Linda Fairstein's "Lethal Legacy," Alexandra Cooper, head of the DA's Office of Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit, teams up with her old pals, Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, to solve two murders. The case begins when Alex is called to the home of thirty-three year old Tina Barr, who was assaulted and drugged by a masked man in her home. At first, Tina flatly refuses to speak about her ordeal, but when she reluctantly agrees to cooperate, she declines medical attention or counseling. Barr has worked as a librarian and book conservator for the New York Public Library and private collectors, but she recently quit her job. As time passes, the police begin to suspect that the assault on Tina may be connected to the hunt for a rare sixteenth century map worth millions.

Fairstein tends to center her mysteries on a landmark in or around New York City. In the past, she has focused on such locales as Roosevelt Island, the Metropolitan Opera House, the Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This time, the author takes us on a tour of the New York Public Library, a magnificent edifice with an enormous collection of books, manuscripts, and artifacts that are housed both above and below ground. This New York City treasure is also famous for its breathtaking architecture and vast resources for the serious researcher.

Chapman, Cooper, and Mercer soon become acquainted with a number of book and map collectors, including the Hunt family, a wealthy Brit named Alger Herrick, and a corporate executive, Jonah Krauss, who has a macabre sense of humor. We also meet several knowledgeable librarians who take the detectives on an exhaustive tour of the various hidey holes and underground mazes in the huge library complex. Unfortunately, Fairstein's novel is far too talky. The many lectures about rare books, maps, and historical tidbits overshadow the tepid mystery. The plot is labored, the dialogue is annoyingly cutesy, and none of the characters is particularly intriguing. By the final portion of the book, readers may find themselves nodding off. Although fans of Alex Cooper will be happy that she is still seeing the gorgeous French restaurateur, Luc Rouget, even this relationship has become fairly routine. "Lethal Legacy" will appeal mostly to diehard Fairstein fans, especially those who are fascinated by rare books and manuscripts.