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THE KILLS
by Linda Fairstein
Little, Brown, February 2004
352 pages
10.99GBP
ISBN: 0316861022


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

I blame John Grisham. There's been a rash of sharp-suited legal-eagles moving into the world of crime writing in recent years. One or two of them would be better advised not to give up the day job, or to spend a bit more time poring over their manuscripts as they would their law briefs. Fortunately, Linda Fairstein deserves time off for good behaviour.

Fairstein is significantly ahead of the likes of Jilliane Hoffman, the author of the much-hyped, promising, but decidedly sketchy RETRIBUTION. Her writing has more depth for a start and when she's flying, she takes the reader with her, no questions asked. And there's absolutely no doubt that the legal scenes have the bite of authenticity.

In THE KILLS attorney Alexandra Cooper is faced with a toughie -- a 'he said, she said' rape case where Paige Vallis had agreed to sex, but only under blackmail, as her attacker Andrew Tripping had threatened to harm his ten-year-old son Dulles if she didn't acquiesce. Faced with a slimy defence lawyer and a cranky judge, it looks like the cards are stacked against Alex from the start. And Alex also has to work out where a murder, the CIA, some old coins, an Egyptian playboy and the death of an elderly black woman fit into it all.

Aside from the courtroom dramas, the book has several white-knuckle scenes which compensate for a slight tendency towards ponderousness on Fairstein's part -- the subplot with the coins is a case of 'too much information' in places. The bit where Alex is stranded alone in her house on Martha's Vineyard during a hurricane is seriously scary. And there are some creepy moments towards the end in the Kills, the waterways along the coastline of New York's harbour.

I've always liked the idea of Fairstein's 'Three Musketeers' set-up of Alex and detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, but it never quite comes off, mainly because she doesn't flesh the two men out enough. And Alex's Final Jeopardy question running gag with Chapman is getting a tad stale.

But if you can overlook these glitches, Fairstein plots like a dream and THE KILLS is her best book for a while. It's certainly a considerable way ahead of most of the legal pack.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, February 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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