The Kills

Rating:
Summary: Fairstein was in over her head on this one
Review:
I've read all the Fairstein novels with Alex Cooper, so obviously I like them. But this one shows me Fairstein tried to do more complex plotting and failed. The story was convoluted, with too many characters all dealing with ancient (and rather boring) history.

Unliike some of the other reviewers who couldn't finish the book, I did make myself finish, but I knew the ending was going to be dumb and anticlimactic. And I wasn't wrong.

Not Fairstein's best work.

P.S. Ms. Fairstein, Alex is interesting, but she's also very pretentious (i.e. "the house in the country," etc.). And her relationship with Jake is almost romance-novel-like in the way it's described. (I.e., the "I-want-my-lover-to-take-me-in-his-arms-and-make-me-feel-loved-and-adored" crap.) Maybe tone down the pretentiousness and perhaps try to describe Alex's relationship in a less sappy way?

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and long-winded thriller.
Review: "The Kills," by real life prosecutor Linda Fairstein, has a double meaning. One refers to murders, of which there are quite a few in this book. The other is a geographical location called "Kill Van Kull," which comes from the Dutch word for channel. There are a number of these channels around Manhattan, and a key scene takes place in a "kill."

Alex Cooper, the protagonist of the Fairstein thrillers, is herself a prosecutor. She is handling a case in which an investment banker named Paige Vallis claims that she was assaulted by a man whom she had been dating. The case is complicated by the fact that the gentleman in question, Andrew Tripping, had his little boy, Dulles, in the apartment at the time of the alleged incident. Dulles may turn out to be an important witness at trial.

Coop's best buddy, Mike Chapman, is handling another case. It involves the sad death of an eighty-two-year old former beauty named McQueen Ransome. She was murdered in her Harlem brownstone and her apartment was apparently burglarized. As the book progresses, the Vallis and Ransome cases come together, and subsequent developments convince detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman that there is more going on here than random acts of violence.

I have always liked Alex Cooper. She is classy and elegant, but also tough and feisty. Although she could have gotten a job in corporate law, she chooses to prosecute those who prey on women, and she has great compassion for the victims whom she tries to help. Alex has a comfortable relationship with Mike and Mercer, who would do anything for her, and she has a long-distance romance with Jake, who has a high-powered career of his own.

The problem with this book, as in Fairstein's last two books, is the plot. There is too much going on, with too many long-winded explanations of how the various incidents in the book converge. The characters are one-dimensional and they get lost in the shuffle of the complicated backstory. By the last third of the book, I was struggling to stay awake, and the climax of the book was anticlimactic.

A good thriller should be tense, compelling, and not merely plot driven, but also character driven. As always, Fairstein has done a fair bit of research, and it shows in the details that she provides on Egyptian history, numismatics, and New York geography. However, these tidbits do not add up to an intriguing story. I would have preferred more emphasis on strong character development and less on complex plot points that require pages and pages of exposition. Ultimately, I found "The Kills" disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Murder goes to...Egypt?
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Not Right to Mess With History
Review: Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper finds a link between an elderly woman murdered and Alex's recent client also murdered. And believe it or not, they have something to do with the CIA and King Farouk of Egypt. While I believe that Farouk existed, I don't believe that McQueen Ransome did, and I don't think it's right to mess with history. And for the author to give her husband Justin Feldman a cameo? The character could've easily just been given a fictional name. After all, having Colin Firth in Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones sequel was terrible. (B)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read!
Review: Compelling story - both the regular Cooper et al. mystery as well as the rich and detailed historical component. You will find yourself doing your own Internet research re many details of the "case."
Fairstein gets better and better (and she's always been great) - a lot of authors get popular, formulamatic and the books get thin and the characters lazy. Absolutely not the case with this author.
Even more compelling is to listen to Fairstein talk - you will come away with a new appreciation not only for her legal tenure, but the detail and research which go into her books. If you get the chance, do try and catch her on tour at book signings.
Great read - highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Can Secrets from the Past Unravel a Murder?
Review: District Attorney Alex Cooper, with the help of NYPD Homicide Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, is prosecuting the brutal rape of thirty-six year-old Paige Vallis, a young banker. The defendant, Andrew Tripping, is ex-CIA, borderline schizophrenic and an abusive father to his ten-year-old son. But sex crimes are very hard to prove, especially when the boy was supposedly present during the rape and there are no bruises on the victim. Also it's hard to convict someone who has friends in high places.

However Alex has a jailhouse witness to Tripping's confession, gangbanger Kevin Bessemer. But somehow Bessemer suspiciously escapes while he's being brought to court, then Paige is killed during a crime made to look like a mugging and Tripping's son disappears. Now it's murder and Alex's witnesses have vanished. It looks as if Tripping is going to walk on the rape charge, not to mention the murder.

Then Chapman is called on to investigate the ritual rape and murder of Renaissance dancer McQueen Ransome, an octogenarian and legendary beauty in Harlem. Queenie turns out to have a fascinating history, having been both a spy during WWII and the mistress of the legendary womanizer, King Farouk of Egypt. It appears she helped herself to enough of the king's treasure to set herself up for life before she and the king parted company. And it seems there may be a connection between the murders of the young banker and the elderly dancer and that connection appears to be a phenomenally rare and valuable gold coin that once belonged to King Farouk, that old night crawler himself!

There are several attempts to stop Alex and her investigation, including attempts on her life, but she survives and continues, despite it all in this story that holds together well, thanks to the strong characters of Alex Cooper and her pals in the police department. They're smart, witty and seem very real, the kind of people you'd want to call on if you were in trouble. Just the kind of people to unravel the secrets presented in "The Kills."

Rating:
Summary: Well-constructed Suspenseful Read
Review: Fairstein's heroine, Alex Cooper, prosecutor in charge of Manhattan's 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, hasn't been entirely forthcoming. Frustration becomes Alex's constant companion, as she seems unable to interview Andrew's 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 prosecutor's 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 Farouk's 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 Martha's 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.

Rating:
Summary: Boring! Skip it! Read Jeffrey Deaver instead!!!
Review: I bought this book because Jeffrey Deaver wrote a recommendation on the inside jacket. What was he thinking...or more likely, what was he paid?! This book is nothing like his novels. It's tedious, over-written drivel, with way too much time spent on absolutely nothing!

To be honest, I can't even critique the ending since I've stopped reading the thing after chapter 8.

Yes, I've wasted 20 bucks, but I'm pretty sure I can sell it to the local used bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: hated it.
Review: I do not know why but i justed hated this book, i could not even finish it so i could not tell you what its about.

Rating:
Summary: the Kills--great story but missing character interaction
Review: I thought this was Fairstein's best story yet. The plot line was excellent and very interesting. Fairstein was very skillful in bringing together several different sub-stories that seemed unrelated at first, but all came together at the end.

The reason I gave this book only 4 instead of 5 stars was because I really missed the character interaction between Alex, Mike Chapman, and Mercer. In past books there was more interaction among them with the characters spending more personal time together, and that was always a very enjoyable extra for me in Fairstein's books. For those of us who always look forward to the unresolved sexual tension between Alex and Mike, that was missing for the most part. But then again.....maybe that's the point for now since both characters have their own personal relationships.

All in all, I definitely recommend this book as it's a great read....I just caution that the interpersonal dynamics are not as much a focus as usual, if that's one of the main reasons for reading the Alex Cooper stories.