(Little, Brown $36.99)This is the latest in the Alex Cooper crime series and will not disappoint fans of the female New York Assistant DA who flushes out perps in the Big Apple. Part courtroom drama, part whodunit, Bad Blood goes below the streets of oanhattan to the labyrinth of tunnels beneath – most people don’t even know they exist but they keep the city alive – to track down the baddie du jour.
It’s interesting to see what other crime writers think of best-selling author Linda Fairstein. “Really knows her stuff,” says James Patterson. “An important writer because she tells it like it is,” from Michael Connelly. Actually, she tells it like it is because she was head of the Sex Crimes Unit in the oanhattan DA’s office for 30 years and a lot of the inspiration for her novels comes from her prosecution of real criminals.
Plus, she has inspired a story or two of her own in the past: the lawyer in the movie The Accused, for example, was based on Fairstein. The downside of this, I guess, in terms of her novels is that they are thick with meticulously researched facts so you have to be interested in the process of an investigation to get the most out of them. Bodice rippers, they ain’t.
Seriously, if you ever feel bad about your job, read one. When you’re an Assistant DA, there’s no time for food, sleep, nice clothes or romance. In Bad Blood, Alex gets one snog and a hand hold. Worse, every time the poor woman picks up a drink, someone’s beeper goes off and she has to abandon it.
Still, Linda Fairstein’s books do for the law what Patricia Cornwell’s do for medicine – in fact, she got the idea after reading Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta stories. So if you can forgive an occasional lack of style in favour of a focus on gripping procedure and the latest technological advances in bringing filthy scum to justice, Bad Blood will do nicely.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
