Rating: 
Summary: Excellent behind the scenes look at an assistant DA.
Review: This was a pretty good book. It is an excellent dipiction of what happens in the "sex crime unit" as an assistant district attorney. The story line was pretty decent as well. Alexandra is an assistant DA in the "sex crime unit" in NY. Her actress friend borrows her place on Martha's Vineyard and while she is there, she is murdered. At first the authorities think the murder was mistaken identity (should have been Alex) but as it turns out it wasn't. With a few twists and turns, the book continues nicely coming full circle at the end. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't like this one
Review: When I read the back cover of this book I thought it sounded interesting, but I was wrong. I read 100 pages of this book before finally giving up. There were so many other things going on with the main character, that the real storyline gets lost. I was so bored with it that I gave up.
Rating: 
Summary: I had it figured out on p. 72.
Review: While the idea behind this book is a good one, I think the author needs more practice in characterization. The main character is a strong woman in every aspect; she then falls apart when someone she doesn't even like is murdered. She is also way too dependent on her boyfriend. Her personality conflicts all over the place. It doesn't help that the criminal and motive are easily spotted on page 72.
With a little more experience in writing complex plots and and characters, I think the author will develop into someone to look for
Rating: 
Summary: Great debut novel
Review: Wow. I haven't been so impressed with a procedural novel in years. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series was getting very boring, and everything else seems to be just rehashing of the same tired old plots - so it's a welcome change to see this great debut novel from Ms. Fairstein, and it's also good news to note that she plans more novels with her heroine, Alexandra Cooper.Everything about this book is great - Cooper herself, her relationship with both detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman (I found myself hoping that Cooper & Chapman would get together, but no such luck), and especially her descriptions of the way things work in the Sex Crimes Unit, which sounded exactly right. The title is a reference to Cooper & Chapman's passion for the game show with Alex Trebek, which is really obscure in the greater scheme of the novel - but that's a minor nit, really. More of a problem was the character of Jed Segal, who I found very unbelievable, especially his high-falutin' style of speech (do people REALLY talk like that?). The resolution of the case - who really killed Cooper's movie star friend - is a bit out of left field, although as several characters in the book point out, the resolutions of a lot of police cases are found due to nothing but pure luck - so that took the edge off of the unbelievability for me. My only other complaint, Ms. Fairstein? I've never seen Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious". I know it's a classic, but please don't go spoiling the endings of any other movies for me - let me find out on my own!
| 
