Entombed : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Disjointed crime thriller
Review: An entombed skeleton is found in a building where Edgar Allen Poe once lived. In a parallel story DNA samples recovered from a recent sex-crimes victim brings to light that the "The Silk Stocking Rapist" is still preying upon women after a hiatus of four years. Assistant District Attorney and sex crimes prosecutor, Alexander Cooper is determined to resolve these cases in this seventh book in the series.

I enjoyed the references to Edgar Allen Poe. I learned quite a bit about him that I had not known. The crime story itself felt a bit disjointed and at times dragged quite a bit. The protagonists have a good chemistry that keeps the story interesting. This was not my favorite Alexandra Cooper novel, but not the worst either.

Rating:
Summary: Linda Fairstien weaves macabre tale reminiscent of Poe.
Review: ENTOMBED
Linda Fairstein
Scribner
Thriller
ISBN: 0743254880
* Read an Excerpt
Linda Fairstein's newest novel, ENTOMBED, is a chilling tale whose inspiration comes straight out of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In her Acknowledgement at the end of the novel she says, "My first encounter with ... Poe's TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE made an indelible impression on my adolescent imagination. A dead man's heart beating beneath the floorboards, the huge pendulum descending on a prisoner in the pit, the Red Death invading the festive masquerade, and the repeated torment of premature burial and entombment behind cellar walls --- each of these narratives was responsible for youthful nightmares, and all of them lured me back ... to delight in their dramatic power. My greatest pleasure in plotting this book was the opportunity it provided to reread all of Poe's writings." This experience provided the architecture around which Fairstein framed the best novel she has written to date. She expands the universe that her ensemble characters inhabit and spins a creepy tale worthy of the master of the macabre.

Alexandra Cooper, the bold ADA who runs the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, was on her way to meet friends at a seminar hosted by NYU Law School. As she approached the entrance a guard redirected her to another location. She arrived at a brownstone that had been purchased by the university and was "being torn down [to be replaced by] an enormous new structure. The dean had a construction crew in the basement, using crowbars to break down pieces of the wall ... as part of the show for the evening's alumni dedication ceremony for the new school building."

When Alex and her friends stepped down to the site they were greeted with "the shrill screech of a woman." They "walked toward the [center] of the commotion" and when Alex moved close enough to see what was happening she was shocked to be looking at "perfectly smooth ivory-colored bones [that] framed in the empty orbital sockets that met [her] horrified stare. [Alex] was face to face with a human skull, buried behind the ancient wall." This woman had been buried alive, in the tradition of some of the characters in Poe's most horrific tales.

Ironically, Edgar Allan Poe and his young wife had lived in this house for some time, thus sending the tabloids into a frenzy with sensational stories about the "bones in the basement." But forensic anthropologist Andy Dorfman finds a bag of poison that was packaged 1978, which means the body can't be older than that. "Dorfman was a perfectionist, a brilliant detail man who ... had been a leader in this specialty long before recent television shows and popular media made his work seem chic. These bones are gonna talk to Andy. They're gonna tell him everything," said Mike Chapman, one of the two detectives who worked closely with Alex Cooper.

The forensic anthropologist's job is to examine the skeleton and help to identify her, which hopefully will allow the NYPD to find her killer. He observes that she was at one time a well-taken-care-of female who, based on the condition of her upper teeth, became a drug user, an alcoholic or both. Investigators are put to work sifting through files of women who went missing about the time of this grisly murder.

While all of this is going on, a young exchange student, Anika Jenkl, is raped and almost killed. Her attacker appeared out of nowhere when she returned home not far from where Alex Cooper is staring at a skeleton. The MO fits that of a serial rapist who vanished four years ago, and Alex is convinced he has resurfaced. When he first started terrorizing Manhattan the papers nicknamed him "The Silk Stocking Rapist," but he was never caught. The statute of limitations in New York is only five years to prosecution for rape, and time is running out for his early victims. Alex decides to take out a "John Doe" warrant based on the DNA found at the attack scenes and on his victims.

Walker Mercer is one of the only "first-grade" detectives in the NYPD, and one of the few African Americans to hold that distinction. He left his position to work more closely with Alex because he preferred to be with the victims, whose recovery from their trauma could be aided by a relationship with a compassionate investigator. He was helping Anika Jenkl as part of the task force tracking down the rapist.

After the reportage of the rape, another woman is victimized but this time she is brutally murdered. This is not the MO of the Silk Stocking Rapist. Is a copycat now operating in the high rent districts of New York City? Since nobody on the team believes in coincidence the other compelling question is: Could this woman be connected in any way to the skeleton in the brownstone? After all, they would both be the same age and were found within the same geographic boundaries.

The cases offer clues, which take Alex and her colleagues, Mercer and Chapman, to the former NYU Bronx campus. There is a small park within the fantastic Botanical Gardens where another "Poe Cottage" still stands. This place was his "last real residence" and a group called "The Raven Society" appropriated it and now calls it home.

The fearsome threesome learns that "the society was formed a century ago to honor Edgar Poe on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. It was conceived as a secret society, membership by invitation only --- just a scholarly tribute to the great poet. It was limited to five members" but in its present incarnation boasts twenty-five. Over the course of their sleuthing, Alex and the boys discover that if Poe had not been a creative genius he easily could have become a serial killer. And rumor has it that in order to be a member of this strange club you have to have killed someone.

Of course the two cases unfold at their own pace, blending clues and red herrings that are adeptly handled by the team. Fairstein's fans come to her books knowing they will find a taut tale of chaos that is tamed by her familiar characters. The regulars further evolve into more fully rounded personalities, which gives readers more insight into their personal lives. Every one of Fairstein's books builds on the last thus demanding that she always be true to her heroes. Her plots and style capture her audience. She is a writer of enviable talent and seamlessly weaves her tales of contemporary crimes with local lore and historical landmarks. For Poe fans and those familiar with the Bronx ENTOMBED is a keeper, rife with nostalgia of another time in New York City.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

[...]








Rating:
Summary: Maybe its me?
Review: Fairstein's latest book is so basic that I had to double check to make sure it wasn't her debut book that they now decided to release.

Although the basic premise might have been interesting (a dead body found in Poe's house), you find out very quickly that this has nothing to do with Poe. I believe this book would certainly have been far better had she decided to include him.

While this book is not horrible, its just more of the same that Fairstein has been turning out. Absolutely nothing new here and the story just is not that interesting. Its as though she does not know what to write anymore so she keeps using bits and pieces of her other stories.

Or maybe I am just tired of reading the works of major authors and having the feeling they just "called it in".

Lately, I have been enjoying unknowns alot more than our "bestseller" authors.

Rating:
Summary: Great thriller/police procedural! & new favorite author.
Review: I had never heard of this author before. My mother left her copy at my house after visting over the holidays. I picked it it up one day and decided to give it try, and I am glad I did! The book is a series But it stood up well for me even though I was coming in with no prior experince; you don't have to read the ealier books to enjoy this one.

The book starts with the discovery of a skeleton entombed in a brick wall of a New York city brownstone that once belonged to Edward Allen Poe. A classic chilling scene right out of a Poe story! That is until sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper (the seriers hero)Finds the bones to be aproximately 25 years old, a lot younger then Poe's genration. It does appear that the killer has a facination with the classic horror author.

The book's plot also involves the "Silk Stocking rapist." Who has struck again this time brutally injuring a Sweedish exchange student who attempts to fight back. This was actually the most suspensful part of the book, as the bodies pile up and Cooper trys to discover the killer's ID before he can strike again!

The author's knowledge the criminal justice system and police procedures gives realism to the story. She appears to know well the difficulties facing prosucuters and the emotional distress that the victims of sex crimes must deal with. This helps make the book better then the typical thriller/suspence novel.

The author also does a great job with her characters, brining them to life without going into the stereotype closet (and least not too much). I also liked the way she is able to write realistic action scenes, something I have found weak in many females author's work.

Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a High quality suspense/thiller, and I am looking forward to reading the authors earlier novels. Oh! I also recommend "A Tourist in the Yucatan" interesting acheological thriller!


Rating:
Summary: The best one yet
Review: I have read all of Linda Fairsteins books and just finished "Entombed". Was a very good book and was hard to put down.

Rating:
Summary: A "Poe-pourri" of murder and intrigue.
Review: In Linda Fairstein's latest thriller, "Entombed," Alex Cooper is on the trail of the so-called "Silk Stocking Rapist," a perp who has operated on the Upper East Side of Manhattan off and on for a number of years. This time, he tried to rape a Swedish exchange student and when she fought back, he brutally injured her. In another case, a crew at a construction site in Greenwich Village unearths the skeletal remains of a woman who was buried alive. It turns out that the killer may have had an obsessive interest in the works of the great American writer, Edgar Allan Poe.

Alexandra Cooper, the recurring character in Fairstein's novels, runs the sex crimes prosecution unit of the Manhattan DA's office. She works with her good friend, Mercer Wallace, who is a member of the police department's Special Victims Squad. Alex and Mercer's colleague, Mike Chapman, is a sharp homicide detective who enjoys teasing Alex mercilessly. All three become embroiled in the case of the entombed skeleton, and when more bodies pile up, they realize that the killer is still at large and eager to cover his tracks.

Fairstein's knowledge of police procedure and the criminal justice system lends a touch of realism to the proceedings. She effectively describes the emotional and physical torment that the victims of sex crimes suffer, as well as the difficulties facing the prosecutors who try to bring the offenders to justice. Cooper's handling of the "Silk Stocking Rapist" case is well done and makes for compelling reading.

The second case, which deals with the madman who buried a woman alive, is not as tight or as realistic. This case leads Alex and her colleagues to learn quite a bit about Edgar Allan Poe's life and works, including the fact that he once lived in New York City. This plot, however, has a number of holes and far too many coincidences to be convincing. The large cast of characters, including a randy professor, a disgraced policeman, a venal psychiatrist, and a frightened businessman, are one-dimensional and underdeveloped. In spite of its flaws, however, "Entombed" is fast-paced and filled with enough action and excitement to satisfy most thriller junkies. Fairstein's fans won't want to miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: A chilling tale rife with nostalgia of another time in NYC
Review: Linda Fairstein's newest novel, ENTOMBED, is a chilling tale whose inspiration comes straight out of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In her Acknowledgement at the end of the novel she says, "My first encounter with ... Poe's TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE made an indelible impression on my adolescent imagination. A dead man's heart beating beneath the floorboards, the huge pendulum descending on a prisoner in the pit, the Red Death invading the festive masquerade, and the repeated torment of premature burial and entombment behind cellar walls --- each of these narratives was responsible for youthful nightmares, and all of them lured me back ... to delight in their dramatic power. My greatest pleasure in plotting this book was the opportunity it provided to reread all of Poe's writings." This experience provided the architecture around which Fairstein framed the best novel she has written to date. She expands the universe that her ensemble characters inhabit and spins a creepy tale worthy of the master of the macabre.

Alexandra Cooper, the bold ADA who runs the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, was on her way to meet friends at a seminar hosted by NYU Law School. As she approached the entrance a guard redirected her to another location. She arrived at a brownstone that had been purchased by the university and was "being torn down [to be replaced by] an enormous new structure. The dean had a construction crew in the basement, using crowbars to break down pieces of the wall ... as part of the show for the evening's alumni dedication ceremony for the new school building."

When Alex and her friends stepped down to the site they were greeted with "the shrill screech of a woman." They "walked toward the [center] of the commotion" and when Alex moved close enough to see what was happening she was shocked to be looking at "perfectly smooth ivory-colored bones [that] framed in the empty orbital sockets that met [her] horrified stare. [Alex] was face to face with a human skull, buried behind the ancient wall." This woman had been buried alive, in the tradition of some of the characters in Poe's most horrific tales.

Ironically, Edgar Allan Poe and his young wife had lived in this house for some time, thus sending the tabloids into a frenzy with sensational stories about the "bones in the basement." But forensic anthropologist Andy Dorfman finds a bag of poison that was packaged 1978, which means the body can't be older than that. "Dorfman was a perfectionist, a brilliant detail man who ... had been a leader in this specialty long before recent television shows and popular media made his work seem chic. These bones are gonna talk to Andy. They're gonna tell him everything," said Mike Chapman, one of the two detectives who worked closely with Alex Cooper.

The forensic anthropologist's job is to examine the skeleton and help to identify her, which hopefully will allow the NYPD to find her killer. He observes that she was at one time a well-taken-care-of female who, based on the condition of her upper teeth, became a drug user, an alcoholic or both. Investigators are put to work sifting through files of women who went missing about the time of this grisly murder.

While all of this is going on, a young exchange student, Anika Jenkl, is raped and almost killed. Her attacker appeared out of nowhere when she returned home not far from where Alex Cooper is staring at a skeleton. The MO fits that of a serial rapist who vanished four years ago, and Alex is convinced he has resurfaced. When he first started terrorizing Manhattan the papers nicknamed him "The Silk Stocking Rapist," but he was never caught. The statute of limitations in New York is only five years to prosecution for rape, and time is running out for his early victims. Alex decides to take out a "John Doe" warrant based on the DNA found at the attack scenes and on his victims.

Walker Mercer is one of the only "first-grade" detectives in the NYPD, and one of the few African Americans to hold that distinction. He left his position to work more closely with Alex because he preferred to be with the victims, whose recovery from their trauma could be aided by a relationship with a compassionate investigator. He was helping Anika Jenkl as part of the task force tracking down the rapist.

After the reportage of the rape, another woman is victimized but this time she is brutally murdered. This is not the MO of the Silk Stocking Rapist. Is a copycat now operating in the high rent districts of New York City? Since nobody on the team believes in coincidence the other compelling question is: Could this woman be connected in any way to the skeleton in the brownstone? After all, they would both be the same age and were found within the same geographic boundaries.

The cases offer clues, which take Alex and her colleagues, Mercer and Chapman, to the former NYU Bronx campus. There is a small park within the fantastic Botanical Gardens where another "Poe Cottage" still stands. This place was his "last real residence" and a group called "The Raven Society" appropriated it and now calls it home.

The fearsome threesome learns that "the society was formed a century ago to honor Edgar Poe on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. It was conceived as a secret society, membership by invitation only --- just a scholarly tribute to the great poet. It was limited to five members" but in its present incarnation boasts twenty-five. Over the course of their sleuthing, Alex and the boys discover that if Poe had not been a creative genius he easily could have become a serial killer. And rumor has it that in order to be a member of this strange club you have to have killed someone.

Of course the two cases unfold at their own pace, blending clues and red herrings that are adeptly handled by the team. Fairstein's fans come to her books knowing they will find a taut tale of chaos that is tamed by her familiar characters. The regulars further evolve into more fully rounded personalities, which gives readers more insight into their personal lives. Every one of Fairstein's books builds on the last thus demanding that she always be true to her heroes. Her plots and style capture her audience. She is a writer of enviable talent and seamlessly weaves her tales of contemporary crimes with local lore and historical landmarks. For Poe fans and those familiar with the Bronx ENTOMBED is a keeper, rife with nostalgia of another time in New York City.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Rating:
Summary: painful read
Review: this is my first and last read of fairstein. a major league strike out. the only worthy star is b/c i found the poe historical context to be mildly interesting. otherwise, it would have been better for me to stop reading after 250 pages so i could at least hold on to the belief that some semblance of plot might eventually unfold in the last 100 or so pages.

so, why is this a not-read? where to begin? how about ridiculous plot developments, unnecessary characters, absurd, nonsensical twists, too many loose ends, silly, predictable conclusion. just finished it, and still annoyed that i wasted $30 and 2 days of time to read it. do yourself a favor and pick up any patterson or higgins clark instead.

Rating:
Summary: Not her best, but still better than most
Review: This is the latest in the wonderful series involving Alexandra Cooper - beautiful, smart and independently wealthy assistant DA in the NYC special victims unit. I, too, am a prosecutor, but do not lead the exciting life that Alex does. That is not to say that these books are unrealistic. In fact, they are quite realistic. The mysteries that are involved are always smart and somewhat academic and her relationships can be heartbreaking and bittersweet. She is not a helpless gal (in fact, quite tough), but is still feminine and values her women friends. She also has a terrifically complex relationship with Detective Mike Chapman and it would be too superficial to say that they harbor mutual crushes. They've been through a lot together! I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys suspenseful, complex mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: The Poe Connection?
Review: To enjoy this book to its fullest you've got to be suspicious. You've got to be so suspicious that you'd suspect that a gid-dap bang, gid-dap bang sound could signify an Amish drive-by shooting. The clues, in many instances, are that far "off the wall." Overall, the clues are tantalizing, and Fairstein moves the story along with purposeful crispness. She culls the inner voices of her characters well. And, the plot is developed with vitality and scope. ##### This would be a 5-star effort all the way, but for one negative: the Poe "connection," somehow, just doesn't ring right.