The Kills (Alexandra Cooper Series #6) » (Abridged)

Hailed by Patricia Cornwell as "one of the most promising forces in crime fiction," former head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit Linda Fairstein has hooked readers with her intense mystery series featuring assistant D.A. -- and Fairstein's alter ego -- Alex Cooper.

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 without the latest development -- it seems that Paige has something to hide.

While Alex learns more of the sad details behind this increasingly puzzling rape case, colleague Mike Chapman is uptown in a decaying Harlem brownstone where 82-year-old McQueen "Queenie" Ransome has been murdered, her apartment ransacked.

Queenie's murder is only the first. Others follow, as the tragic strands of the Paige Vallis and McQueen Ransome cases converge in a poignant alliance of two women from very different worlds. Faced with formidable personal andprofessional choices, Alex faces a showdown where her wits and courage will be tested as never before.

With a winning combination of courtroom drama and historical detail, The Kills is stylish writing from a crime-writing star.

Sarah Weinman

The narrative is blessedly free of plot-point repetition as Fairstein adopts a "less is more" approach, letting the dialogue do most of the work. Cooper is strong without being overbearing, professional without being overly hardened, but ultimately her personality takes a backseat to the complexities of the plot and the fruit of Fairstein's in-depth historical research. The Kills is a superior piece of entertainment, the latest demonstration of an author carving out a prime spot among writers of suspense fiction. — The Washington Post