The cover blurbs do tell the story accurately this time. James Patterson writes that this is her "Most powerful and affecting novel yet.""(S)he is in perfect step with her characters," according to Sandra Brown. "Dazzling! Brava!" trills Beverly Sills. Mariska Hargitay, star of television's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, says Alexandra Cooper "could partner with me anytime."
Death Dance is the eighth in a series of murder mysteries which feature Alexandra Cooper. In a case of fiction reflecting the real life of the author, Cooper heads the Manhattan District Attorney's sex crimes unit. Fairstein headed this unit for twenty-five years and now serves as a media consultant on criminal justice issues for a number of networks. In addition to her consistently sterling novels, she has also written Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, a New York Times notable book in 1994. This nonfiction book, as do her novels, grew out of the experiences she gained while working with victims of rape.
Death Dance is the eighth in a series of murder mysteries which feature Alexandra Cooper. In a case of fiction reflecting the real life of the author, Cooper heads the Manhattan District Attorney's sex crimes unit. Fairstein headed this unit for twenty-five years and now serves as a media consultant on criminal justice issues for a number of networks. In addition to her consistently sterling novels, she has also written Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, a New York Times notable book in 1994. This nonfiction book, as do her novels, grew out of the experiences she gained while working with victims of rape.
The plot outline always seems to be pretty standard stuff. There is a vicious crime, usually a murder connected to a sex crime. Alex's two police buddies, one in homicide, the other in her unit, investigate. Cooper becomes actively involved, perhaps more than an assistant district attorney should. At some point she is either injured or placed in serious danger, and then one of the three solves the crime and all is well. Oh, and she has some issues involving her love life. This sounds pretty run-of-the-mill, standard murder mystery stuff.
Perhaps Fairstein has a formula, an outline, which drives the form of her novels, but her writing is fresh and original, with no trace of the formula we see in other writers in this genre. Fairstein imbues a sense of life lived in the round, which is not always found. We learn more about her main characters in each novel, yet she drops sufficient tidbits of background information that a new reader quickly comprehends the relationships and the back stories which create and enhance fully rounded characters. The settings, generally in and around New York City and Martha's Vineyard, are accurately drawn. Cooper and the two detectives, Chapman and Wallace, go to real places, including funeral homes, and eat in real restaurants. Her descriptions of the meals are so good that I am determined to find myself at one of the restaurants on my next trip to the City. Each character's dialogue and action are consistent and believable. After eight novels, I feel invested in them as professionals and acquaintances I care about. I want to know what they will do next.
The one departure from reality - a complaint consistent across the entire genre and not specific only to Fairstein - is the extent to which the protagonist gets involved in the actual investigation. Cooper always goes well beyond the standard of simply providing legal advice to the investigating officers. As the ADA finds information there are issues involving chain of custody and Miranda rights, and these issues always play out in the prosecutorial issues at trial. If she did not involve herself, of course, then her role would be pretty lame, she would not be the protagonist, and we would be reading just another courtroom drama.
That one caveat aside, Fairstein has written another excellent Alexandra Cooper mystery. World famous dancer, Natalya Galinova has disappeared at the Metropolitan Opera House during intermission of a performance. The theatre, the three colleagues quickly discover, is not all sound and light. Much of what seems to be is not. Politics and intrigue behind the scenes prop up this story and create the illusion that all is well. At the same time, Alex is devising a creative means of capturing a corrupt physician who assaults his female patients by drugging them.
That one caveat aside, Fairstein has written another excellent Alexandra Cooper mystery. World famous dancer, Natalya Galinova has disappeared at the Metropolitan Opera House during intermission of a performance. The theatre, the three colleagues quickly discover, is not all sound and light. Much of what seems to be is not. Politics and intrigue behind the scenes prop up this story and create the illusion that all is well. At the same time, Alex is devising a creative means of capturing a corrupt physician who assaults his female patients by drugging them.
