Likely to Die (Alexandra Cooper Mysteries) (Alexandra Cooper)

by Linda Fairstein

It's 5:38 on a March morning when Alex's phone jars her awake. Homicide detective Mike Chapman is at the scene of a sexual assault and murder. It's a perfect case for Alex and her special skills.

Dr. Gemma Dogen was a neurosurgeon at Mid-Manhattan Medical Center, the oldest and largest hospital in New York City. She was found barely breathing, on the floor of her blood-soaked office. It was too late to save her. In cop parlance, she was a "likely to die".

Alex's team faces immense problems. The more than fifteen-hundred-bed complex and its medical college are connected to the Stuyvesant Psychiatric Center, and all three buildings sit on top of a maze of underground tunnels which are populated by scores of transients. Anybody could have been near Gemma Dogen's office the night of the murder. Although she tries to juggle many cases, Alex is haunted by this one. But when the killer beginning to focus on Alex, she, herself, may soon bear the tragic label "likely to die."

An example of riviting storytelling and a powerful behind-the-scenes view of the exciting, challenging life of a Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor, "Likely to Die" strengthens Linda Fairstein's position as an international crime-writing star.

• ISBN10: 0316641545
• ISBN13: 9780316641548
• Publish Date: 15 January 1998 (first published 1 June 1997)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 July 2001
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

Maybe it was because it’s been almost 5 years since I read a book in this series, but I was not impressed. If this book had been edited to eliminate everything that had nothing to do with the plot, it could have been half its size. Fairstein gets way too long-winded about the intricacies of sexual crimes and the prosecuting of them, including a section about how grand juries work, and at some point you have to trust your audience to either be familiar with the elements of crime fiction or to look up what they don’t understand. There are OODLES of crime books that don’t go into this level of detail.

Beyond that, there just wasn’t anything particularly interesting about the mystery, except maybe the sorry state of New York hospitals. We’re never given a chance to connect and sympathize with the victim, because she was basically portrayed as a bitch at every turn. All in all, it was rather boring. I do enjoy the character of Mike Chapman, and sometimes I’d rather the novel followed him around than Alex. That’s a big fail.

I’m sure I’ll read more in this series because I’ve already read some of the later books and enjoyed them more. Fairstein worked out some of her kinks. But I’m sure glad I’m done with the early books.

This is the 2nd book in the series and I enjoyed it. It's a good mystery book and the main character Alex is very likeable.