The Conicidence is Alive and Well and Living in Linda Fairstein's Attic
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Author: Linda Fairstein
Title: The Kills Genre: thriller For some reason, authors don't seem to develop a popular following unless they become predictable. Just try to break out of the pigeonhole fans have placed him in, and an author runs the risk of writing a clinker - no matter how well-received said book might be, critically speaking. One need look no further than New York Times best-selling author John Grisham's efforts to write something other than a lawyer mystery (A Painted House or Bleachers). The reviews from ordinary folks hereabouts and at other sites are filled with complaints that "it's not a courtroom drama." Pish and tush, folks - Bleachers, at least, is better than his courtroom dramas! The same thing happened when cult author Kinky Friedman stepped back from the mystery series starring Kinky himself - complaints outnumber positive reviews about 2:1 over at Amazon.com. Linda Fairsteen, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be running the risk of alienating her stable of Alex Cooper fans, not by a long shot. Her latest adventure, The Kills, is classic Coop: and therein lies one of its greatest faults (but maybe not the worst). Not Just Another Rape Case After All ADA Alex Cooper hates having to try "he-said, she-said" rape cases. This particular one's especially unpleasant, because the sole witness is the assailant's ten-year-old son - that is, if she can get a reluctant judge to let the kid testify. Things go from bad to worse when the boy simply disappears into the system; and then he literally disappears. That all becomes moot, however, when her victim turns up dead: murdered. Meanwhile, Cooper's best bud Mike (Detective Chapman of New York's finest) catches the squeal on a dead old lady - an old lady with a heck of a history. McQueen "Queenie" Ransome had been an exotic dancer, a WW2-era spy, and the mistress of the Egyptian king, Farouk. Now, though, she was just another corpse on a slab. Just another, except that strange connections keep turning up between Queenie's past life and the lives of the rape victim, the defendant and his lawyer, and the missing boy's wannabe guardian. Something about a seven-million dollar payoff? It seems the fairy in charge of big coincidences is working overtime. Not only is Cooper not safe in New York, she's also in grave danger every minute she spends at her safe haven on Cape Cod. Since it's Alex Cooper on the case, you might wager that the evil fiend (male, of course) behind these strangely linked murders will eventually trap and overpower her, and that her cell phone won't be working at the time. I wouldn't take that bet.. Getting Tired Yet, Alex? The Kills is the fifth novel from the pen of retired NYC sex-crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein. All star Alexandra Cooper, a character based in no small part on Fairstein's own lengthy career in the DA's office. Early novels - Final Jeopardy and Cold Hit - spun out gritty tales with a realistic look and feel. The interaction between Cooper and her pet policemen Chapman and Mercer Wallace was a refreshing take on the relationship between cop and lawyer, a take not unlike that recently featured ad nauseam in the multitude of "Law and Order" franchises. Her signature "bit" was Cooper and Chapman's daily ten-dollar bet on the answer to Alex Trebek's Final Jeopardy question, which always seemed to me to feature an uncharacteristically large percentage of military history questions. Over five novels, though, Fairstein - and more critically, her character - has fallen into a rut. This time out, the Coop formula takes a firm hold on the plot: there's a murder, Cooper gets involved, she runs to the Cape, she gets the pudding scared out of her, and she runs back to The City. There, she's almost immediately captured by the villain - whose identity comes as a complete surprise to her - but can't call Mercer or Mike because her cell phone is dead or can't pick up a signal. She escapes his evil clutches only through her wits and the grace of God. End of story. To make matters worse, in this latest novel Fairstein falls into the coincidence trap - and worse. Not only did she bind together two seemingly unrelated cases with a fantasmagorical skein of happenstance, she also imputed Mission Impossible-like predictive powers to her villains. If these guys are so smart, how come she keeps getting away from them? Read? Or No Read? Die-hard Alex Cooper fans will fall all over themselves to get their hands on this one, but that's to be expected. Me, I'm getting tired of the series. If you like 'em formulaic and don't mind overindulgence by the coincidence fairy, go right ahead and read it. But don't say I didn't warn you. all content copyright © 2014 by scmrak
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