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Summary
Summary
The real-life work of sex-crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein brought "riveting authenticity" (Vanity Fair) to her bestselling debut novel, Final Jeopardy. Now Fairstein's fictional counterpart -- smart and savvy assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper -- returns in "[a] Grisham-esque page turner" (Time) that puts Alex in the line of fire.
New York City's oldest and largest medical center is the scene of a ghastly attack: top neurosurgeon Gemma Dogen is found in her blood-soaked office, where she has been sexually assaulted, stabbed, and designated by the cops as a "likely to die." By the time Alex has plunged into the case, it's a high-profile, media-infested murder investigation with a growing list of suspects from among those who roam the hospital's labyrinthine halls. As Alex's passion to find the killer intensifies, she discovers this hospital is not a place of healing but of deadly peril -- and that she is the next target for lethal violence.
A high-style thriller that sweeps from Manhattan to London to Martha's Vineyard, Likely to Die is an exhilarating tale from a justice system insider and provocative novelist.
Author Notes
Linda Fairstein was born in Mt. Vernon, New York on May 5, 1947. She received a B. A. in English literature from Vassar College in 1969 and a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1972. She was appointed to the staff of the New York County District Attorney's office in 1972. She investigated crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence. She retired in 2002. She is the author of the Alexandra Cooper Mysteries series and one nonfiction book entitled Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Several notorious recent crimes perpetrated in New York City and elsewhere inform Fairstein's follow-up to last year's Final Jeopardy, foremost among them the murder and assumed rape of a prominent Manhattan physician in her hospital office. When Fairstein, who's head of the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit, sticks to the basics of these cases and the prosecutorial and police procedures used to handle them, she writes with an authority that crime buffs will relish. But Fairstein has already chronicled the life of a sex-crimes prosecutor in her 1994 memoir, Sexual Violence. Here, she seems to be mythologizing her life and work: returning narrator Alexandra Cooper is Fairstein's apparent alter ego (from job to personality to hair color), and too often the book feels self-aggrandizing. Whatever talent at fiction Fairstein possessed she apparently drained in writing the superior Final Jeopardy. The investigation into the doctor's killing unfolds with minimal suspense. There are a few false leads, flatly presented, a couple of clichéd attempts at tensiona car tries to run Cooper down; she receives a threatening noteand a villain who, when revealed, seems arbitrary. The circuitous road to justice is cluttered with story debris, including a lackadaisical side-trip to England and pedantic lecturing on criminal justice issues by both Cooper and the cops she works with, plus juvenile banter among these characters and tips on how a stylish ADA does her hair and nails. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Fairstein has run the Manhattan D.A.'s sex-crimes unit for more than 20 years. A popular lecturer, she's now turned her talents to writing crime thrillers about--guess what?--a sex-crimes prosecutor in Manhattan. Her first novel, Final Jeopardy, created a bit of stir, and this follow-up seems primed to follow suit. Respected neurosurgeon Gemma Dogen is found brutally murdered in her office at Mid-Manhattan Hospital. She may have been sexually assaulted, which is where sex-crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper comes in. Along with her detective pal Mike Chapman, Alex slogs through suspect interviews, hospital records, and police files, but in the end, she finds the same old story: a murder that's all about greed, revenge, and ambition. Fairstein's grasp of grim forensic details, her savvy heroine, and her suspense-thriller plot will draw comparisons to Patricia Cornwell. But, frankly, there is no comparison. For one thing, Fairstein can't decide if she's giving an informative (if pedantic) lecture about sex crimes; writing a kind of yuppified true-crime story; or actually creating fiction. For another, the plot meanders through 400 long pages when 250 could have done nicely. And Alex Cooper, finally, isn't nearly as charismatic as Kay Scarpetta. Still, with plenty of publicity, the numerous Cornwell comparisons, and the seal of approval from the Mystery Guild, the Literary Guild, and the Doubleday Book Club, heavy demand is an inevitability. --Emily Melton
Kirkus Review
Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper, in charge of New York County's Sex Crimes Unit, was intimately involved in her first case (Final Jeopardy, 1996)--the victim was a friend of hers, killed perhaps in error for her--but this time the case is just a case: the brutal assault and slashing of Dr. Gemma Dogen, head of neurosurgery at the behemoth Mid-Manhattan Medical Center. The killing looks like the work of one of the numberless nutcases confined to its wards (or resident in the labyrinth of tunnels that connect its buildings), but Alex thinks the motive is more insidious, based on the long list of enemies Gemma Dogen's professional practice had brought her. While she's waiting for the very unscientific brainstorm that will finger the perp, she has time (lacking a personal interest in the case) for a didactic sex-crimes lecture to an appreciative audience, a posh transatlantic crime conference, a million self-infatuated reflections about her lingerie and microwave menus, and some very funny tales of the rabbi who molests cleaning ladies and the enema freak who does a number on the cop Alex has placed under the covers of a Mid-Manhattan bed. Only the throwaway anecdotes about colorful lesser sex offenders pack any punch; not even Alex's romance with a wonderful new man whose late wife died under Dr. Dogen's knife carries the slightest conviction. It's hard to remember a second novel as keenly disappointing as this one. For forensics addicts only.
Library Journal Review
Head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, Fairstein put her knowledge to work in Final Jeopardy (LJ 4/15/96), her best-selling Alexandra Cooper thriller. Now Alex handles a sexual assault whose victim is "likely to die." (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One The answering machine kicked in a fourth irritating echo from the insistent caller. I listened to my recorded voice announce that I was not available to come to the phone right now, as little hammers pounded furiously inside my head. The last Dewar's of the evening had been unnecessary. I cocked an eye to glance at the illuminated dial glowing an eerie shade of green in the still dark room. It read 5:38 A.M. "If you're screening, Coop, pick it up. C'mon, kid." I was unmoved, and mercifully not on duty this morning. "It's early and it's cold, but don't leave me dangling at the end of the only working phone booth in Manhattan when I'm trying to do you a favor. Pick it up, Blondie. Don't give me that 'unavailable' stuff. Last I knew you were the most available broad in town." "Good morning, Detective Chapman, and thank you for that vote of confidence," I murmured into the receiver as I brought my arm back under the comforter to keep it warm while I listened to Mike. Too bad I'd cracked open a window for some fresh air before going to sleep. The room was frigid. "I got something for you. A big one, if you're ready to get back in the saddle again." I winced at Chapman's reminder that I had not picked up any serious investigations for almost five months. My involvement last fall in the murder case of my friend, the actress Isabella Lascar, had derailed me professionally. It had prompted the District Attorney to direct the reassignment of most of my trial load, so I had taken a long vacation when the killer was caught. Mike had accused me of coasting through the winter season and avoiding the kinds of difficult matters that we had worked on together so often in the past. "What have you got?" I asked him. "Oh, no. This isn't one of those 'run it by me and if it's sexy enough I'll keep it' cases, Miss Cooper. You either accept this mission on faith, or I do this, the legitimate way and call whichever one of your mopes is on the homicide chart today. There'll be some eager beaver looking to get his teeth into this -- I can't help it if he won't happen to know the difference between DNA and NBC. At least he won't be afraid to --" "All right, all right." Chapman had just said the magic word and I was sitting straight up in bed now. I wasn't certain if I was shivering because of the bitterly cold air that was blowing in from outdoors, or because I was frightened by the prospect of plunging back into the violent landscape of rapists and murderers that had dominated my professional life for almost a decade. "Is that a yes, Blondie? You with us on this one?" "I promise to sound more enthusiastic after some coffee, Mike. Yes, I'm with you." His exuberance at this moment would be offensive to anyone outside the family of police and prosecutors who worked in the same orbit as he did, since it was fueled by the unnatural death of a human being. The only comfort it offered was the fact that the particular murder victim in question would be the undistracted focus of the best homicide detective in the business: Mike Chapman. "Great. Now, get out of bed, suit up, take a few Advil for that hangover --" "Is that just a guess, Dr. Holmes, or do you have me under surveillance?" "Mercer told me he was in your office yesterday. Got an overheard on your evening plans -- Knicks game with your law school friends, followed by supper in the bar at '21.' Elementary, Miss Cooper. The only thing he couldn't figure was whether we'd be interrupting any steamy bedroom scene with a call at this hour. I assured him that we'd be the first to know when you gave up on abstinence." I ignored the shot and welcomed the news that Mercer Wallace would be part of the team. A former homicide cop, he was my best investigator at the Special Victims Squad, where he caught all the major serial rape cases and pattern crimes. "Before you use up your quarter, are you going to fill me in on this one and give me a clue about how to sell it to my boss?" Paul Battaglia hated it when detectives shopped around his office to pull in their favorite assistant district attorneys to work on complex criminal matters. For the twenty years that he'd been the District Attorney of New York County, he had operated with an on-call system -- known as the homicide chart -- so that for every twenty-four-hour period, every day of the year, a senior prosecutor was on standby and ready to assist in the investigation of murder cases in any way that the NYPD considered useful. Questioning suspects, drafting search warrants, authorizing arrests, and interviewing witnesses -- all of the tasks fell to the assistant D.A. who was "on the chart" and had the first significant contact with the police. "You're a natural for this one, Alex. No kidding. The deceased was sexually assaulted. Mercer's right -- we really need your guidance on this one." Chapman was referring to the fact that I am the bureau chief in charge of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit -- Battaglia's pet project that specializes in the sensitive handling of victims of rape and abuse. Often, since many of those crimes escalated to murder, my colleagues and I were designated to handle the ensuing investigations and trials. I was stretching across to the drawer of the night table to find this month's homicide chart, to check whether I'd be stepping on the toes of one of the D.A.'s fair-haired boys, and how much flak I'd be heading for. "Well, until eight o'clock this morning, Eddie Fremont is catching." "Oh, no, you gotta save me from him," Mike responded. "Son of a senator. That's about as useful as having my mother at the station house. Fremont's a whackjob of the first order -- I don't think he'd know probable cause if it bit him in the ass." Chapman often did a stand-up comic routine at the bar at Forlini's, the courthouse watering hole, with the monthly calendar and chart in his hand, calling out the name of the assigned assistants and reliving some embarrassing episode from the career of each of us as he rolled off the dates. Fremont was an easy target, one of those brilliant students with impeccable academic credentials that simply failed to translate to the courtroom. Everyone assumed he had been hired as a "contract," because his father, the former senior senator from Indiana, had been Paul Battaglia's roommate at Columbia Law School. "Or if you wait until a few minutes after eight, you can have Laurie Deitcher," I countered, aware that she would be responsible for decisions on anything coming in during the next twenty-four hours. "The Princess? Never again, Blondie. The only time I had a high-profile case with her, it was a disaster. During the lunch hour, instead of prepping witnesses and outlining her cross-examinations, she'd make us wait in the hallway while she plugged in her hot rollers and troweled on some more makeup. Then she'd belly up to the jury box like she was Norma Desmond ready for her close-up. She looked great for the cameras, but the friggin' perp walked. Nope. You just call Battaglia and tell him Wallace and I woke you up in the middle of the night because you were the only person who could answer our questions. Hang tough with him, Cooper. This is your case." "Like what kind of questions, Mike?" "Like can you tell if she was raped before she was killed or after? Like does establishing the time of death have anything to do with the speed at which the sperm deteriorates, because of interference from her body fluids?" "Now you're talking my language. Of course he'll let me keep a case like that. What do you need from me?" "I think you'll want to get down here as soon as you can. Have your video guys meet us, too. The Crime Scene Unit has already processed the room and taken photos, but they had to move really fast. I'm just worried we all may have overlooked something that might turn out to be important, so I'd like your crew to go over the whole area and record it. Once the story breaks, the place'll be crawling with press and we won't be able to preserve it." "Back up, Mike, and start at the top. Where are you?" "Mid-Manhattan Medical Center. Sixth floor of the Minuit Building." East Forty-eighth Street, right off the FDR Drive. The oldest and largest medical compound in the city. The victim must have been transported there for an attempt at treatment after she was found. "Well, where shall I meet you? Where's the scene?" "I just told you. The sixth floor at Mid-Manhattan." "You mean the victim was killed in the hospital?" "Raped and killed in the hospital. Big wheel. Head of the neurosurgery department at the medical college, brain surgeon, professor. Name's Gemma Dogen." After ten years at my job, there were very few things that surprised me, but this news was shocking. I had always thought of hospitals as sanctuaries, places for healing the sick and wounded, comforting and easing the days of the terminally ill. I had been in and out of Mid-Manhattan countless times, visiting witnesses as well as training medical personnel in the treatment of sexual assault survivors. Its original red-brick buildings, almost a century old, had been restored to recapture the look of the antiquated sanitarium, and generous patrons of more recent times had lent their family names to a handful of granite skyscrapers that housed the latest in medical technology and a superb teaching facility -- the Minuit Medical College. The familiar knots that tied and untied themselves in my stomach whenever I received news of a senseless crime and a sacrificed human existence took over control from the pounding noise inside my head. I began to conjure mental images of Dr. Dogen, and scores of questions -- about her life and death, her career and family, her friends and enemies -- followed each other into my mind before I could form the words with my mouth. "When did it happen, Mike? And how --" "Sometime in the last fifteen to twenty hours -- I'll fill you in when you get here. We got the call just after midnight. Stabbed six times. Collapsed a lung, must have hit a couple of major organs. The killer left her for dead, soaked in blood, but she actually held on for a bit. We got her as a 'likely to die.' And she did, before we got anywhere near the hospital." Likely to die. An unfortunate name for a category of cases handled by Manhattan's elite homicide squad. Victims whose condition is so extreme when police officers reach the crime scene that no matter what herculean efforts are undertaken by medics and clerics, the next stop for these bodies is undoubtedly the morgue. Stop wasting time, I chided myself. You'll know more than you ever wanted to know about all of this after a few hours with Chapman and Wallace. "I can be there in less than forty-five minutes." I got out of bed and closed the window, raising the Duette shade to look out from my apartment on the twentieth floor of an Upper East Side high-rise across the city as it began to come awake on this gray and grisly day. I have always enjoyed the crisp chill of autumn, leading as it does into the winter holiday season and the snowy blankets of January and February. My favorite months are April and May, when the city parks blossom with the green buds of springtime and the promise of warmer days of summer. So as I scanned the horizon and saw only a bleak and cheerless palette, I figured that Gemma Dogen might also have scoffed at the great poets and agreed with my personal view that March, in fact, is the cruelest month. Copyright ©1997 by Linda Fairstein Excerpted from Likely to Die by Linda Fairstein All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.