Rating: 
Summary: Tsk, tsk, Harriet
Review: I was surprised to see Harriet Klauser, the doyen of Amazon book reviews, refer to "The Kills" as character Alexandra Cooper's "third" starring role in a Linda Fairstein novel. Actually, it's her sixth. You're slipping, Harriet,
Rating:
Summary: Tsk, tsk, Harriet
Review: I was surprised to see Harriet Klauser, the doyen of Amazon book reviews, refer to "The Kills" as character Alexandra Cooper's "third" starring role in a Linda Fairstein novel. Actually, it's her sixth. You're slipping, Harriet,
Rating: 
Summary: Was not impressed
Review: I've read all of Linda Fairstein's other books and love Alexandra, Mike and Mercer as characters. I was excited to see this new book, but was extremely disappointed when I started reading. I found it to be too confusing with too much reference to history and very convoluted. I couldn't put down her other books and was riveted to find out what happened next. With the Kills, I just couldn't wait for it to be over.. it did nothing for me.
Rating: 
Summary: smoothly mixes a legal thriller and police procedural
Review: Manhattan Sex Crimes Prosecutor Alexandra Cooper tires to persuade a jury to convict counter terrorism security consultant Andrew Tripping of raping thirty something Paige Wallis. The problem with the case is that the alleged victim has no injuries or bruises so it becomes a "He said she said" scenario in front of a judge who hates these so called rape date trials due to the typical lack of solid evidence for instance like a corpse in a homicide.In the courtroom, Alex's case is in trouble. Meanwhile, someone murders McQueen "Queenie" Ransome, a former Harlem Renaissance dancer. Surprisingly Queenie had a fascinating past as a WW II secret agent and as the mistress of Egypt's King Farouk, whom she left one day with plenty of his treasure. NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace investigate the homicide that also brings in the CIA and links to the Tripping rape trial while someone tries to kill Alex. THE KILLS (named for a part of lower Manhattan) excitingly and smoothly combines a legal thriller with a police procedural as Alex makes her third starring performance (see THE BONE VAULT and THE DEADHOUSE). The story line moves forward rather quickly, but it is the courtroom scenes whether in front of the jury or in the judge's chambers that raise the quality level. Though attempted murder of a government prosecutor seems hard to accept that fits in the logic of the plot especially since Alex is doing her own legwork (not sure where she finds the time - sort of like reviewing 3-4 books a day). Fans will admire the heroine and appreciate this fine thriller. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A great read from Fairstein.
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Fairstein
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: slow start
Review: The denouement is gripping, we get a tour of parts of New York City and learn fascinating WWII history, but the story is slow-moving and characterization is flat.
Rating:
Summary: Page-turning excitment,
Review: The Kills by Linda Fairstein is a page-turning suspense that held my attention during the entire book.
Rating:
Summary: A Dead King's Gold Coin May Tell You Whodunit
Review: The Novel starts with Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper prosecuting a white supremacist, weapons freak for rape and she also finds he's been abusing and terrorizing his ten-year-old son. Then, as the preliminary hearing gets under way, she is presented with the rape and murder of a disabled former dancer and octogenarian named Queenie. Along with her team of detective buddies, Alex is forced to commute between the courtroom and the sleazy tenement where the murder took place. She and her cop pals find connections that lead back to events over half a century ago when Farouk was the last king of Egypt and had taken Queenie as his mistress. Farouk was a collector of rare coins among other things and during the Second World War he was surrounded by spies from Britain and the United States, and by nationalists who wanted to send him into exile in Rome with his fortune in jewels and coins. It was the fate of one of these coins, a very rare coin, which lead to Queenie's murder in Manhattan and to a weapons freak terrorizing his small son decades later. This is a well written mystery thriller with enough red herrings to keep you guessing as you read away. Of course, Alex, our heroine, winds up dueling for her life with the villain toward the end, this time in a struggle aboard a boat off the Kills, the muddy creeks beyond the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. What a climax to a super story!
Rating:
Summary: This Book May Be Linda Fairstein's Best Work to Date
Review: 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
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