"Well-constructed Suspenseful Read"

Fairstein's heroine, Alex Cooper, prosecutor in charge of Manhattan's Sex Crimes Unit, returns once again with sidekicks Detective Mike Chapman and Detective Mercer Wallace. With a rape prosecution against defendant Andrew Tripping on her plate, Alex becomes concerned when she feels that the victim, Paige Vallis, a thirty-six-year-old investment banker, hasn't been entirely forthcoming. Frustration becomes Alex's constant companion, as she seems unable to interview Andrew's young son, Dulles, who was present during the alleged rape.

With her own decades of experience in the position held by protagonist Alex, Fairstein enlivens this novel with a sense of realism compounded with both the difficulties and triumphs of the career of a prosecutor, as well as the close relationships formed with the police detectives, a prosecutor's closest allies.

And when Alex begins investigating the murder of a poverty-stricken McQueen Ransome, an elderly woman in Harlem, she learns that McQueen had led quite a fascinating life, dancing around the world and later becoming mistress of the infamous King Farouk of Egypt. And according to Spike Logan, a graduate student interviewing her about her life experiences, Queenie helped herself to some of Farouk's rare collection of valuables when she left his palatial home.

As the crimes against Paige Vallis and McQueen begin to form a connection, Alex encounters some frightening moments of her own, as she is stalked in Manhattan and at her home on Martha's Vineyard. With clues mounting in the continuous investigations of these two crimes, Alex begins to fear for her life in this craftily constructed novel replete with mystery and suspense.

Reviewed by Sheri Melnick
Posted January 22, 2004

Summary

From New York Times bestselling author and former top prosecutor Linda Fairstein comes an electrifying new thriller rich with the riveting behind-the-scenes authenticity that only she can offer.... It's going to be a tough trial. Manhattan sex-crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper's case, involving an attack on investment banker Paige Vallis, would be difficult to prove even without the latest development -- it seems that Paige has something to hide. Most of her story is clear. She'd had dinner with New York consultant Andrew Tripping three times before the March evening when she accepted his invitation to accompany him to his apartment. But what occurred that night? Why didn't she leave the apartment when he started to act strangely? What about Tripping's little boy, Dulles? What happened to the child that fateful evening? And who is the strange man whose appearance in the courtroom seems to terrify Paige? While Alex's police detective friend Mercer Wallace helps her learn more of the sad details behind the increasingly puzzling rape case, colleague Mike Chapman is uptown in a decaying Harlem brownstone where eighty-two-year-old McQueen Ransome has been murdered, her apartment ransacked. What could this impoverished, elderly woman have possessed that could have inspired such violence? Photographs on the wall suggest that "Queenie" was once a beautiful and voluptuous young woman who traveled to faraway places. Could there be a clue to her murder in her exotic background? Her murder will be only the first. Others follow, as the tragic strands of the Paige Vallis and McQueen Ransome cases begin to converge in a poignant alliance of two women from very different worlds. Faced with formidable personal and professional choices, Alex must learn the old lesson that appearances can deceive, even as she heads for a showdown in which her wits and her courage will be tested as never before. With its winning combination of courtroom drama, historical detail, and the intriguing lore of a rare object whose fabled provenance provides a glistening thread through the story, The Kills is powerful, stylish writing from a hugely appealing crime-writing star.