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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Death Dance is the 8th book Linda Fairstein's series featuring Alexander Cooper. This was my third outing with Alex Cooper, having read a couple of the early books in the series sometime ago, and it was particularly interesting to see where the series had gone in the intervening years.
Alex is an Assistant District Attorney, working in the sex crime division, passionately devoted to her job and to the victims she sees herself as representing. Teamed up firstly with long-time friend Mercer Wallace, they are investigating the drugging rape of two visiting Canadian girls, when called to a missing prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Natalya Galinova after first being listed as officially missing, is eventually found brutally killed in the backstage area of the Opera House. Alex and Mercer team up with Mike Chapman, the third member of a group of long-time friends and colleagues, to investigate the murder. They do this in and around the backstage of the Opera House and amongst some powerful players in the New York theatre world.
Along with these two major investigations, the NY Police are also trying to track down a serial rapist who is attacking women in local parks.
The central plot regarding the death of the ballerina takes most of the focus in the book and, aside from Alex having a life long love of ballet, it was never really clear why a sex-crime prosecutor would be involved so closely in the non-sex related death of Galinova. The investigation of the death proceeds very slowly, intertwined with some interesting aspects of the Opera House, theatre venues in New York and with a cast of "theatre types" both management and talent. There is an unfortunate inconsistency in some of that follow-up which dragged me right out of the story and some fem-jep towards the end which really seemed too convenient. Meanwhile, the investigation into the rape of the two Canadian girls proceeds quickly and a suspect is easily identified. The resolution of that crime is less satisfactory from Alex's point of view, but could have struck a strong chord of reality if the final page dramatic climax had been avoided. The rapist in the park is also resolved but again, the methodology used is a little out of the blue and the plot line never really got much focus throughout the book.
One of the strengths of this book is the long-term relationship between the three investigators. They know each other well and have been through a lot together. The references to previous events, presumably from earlier books, are quite easy to assimilate and give a real feeling for the long-term friendship.
The rather crowded plot; the inexplicable actions in a sub-part of the ballerina's death; a glaring piece of fem-jep which seemed rather unnecessary, and a final "rapping up" of absolutely every loose end on all the sub-plots on the final pages of the book detracted. For me, this was an interesting read, but not one of my all-time favourites from this author.
Alex is an Assistant District Attorney, working in the sex crime division, passionately devoted to her job and to the victims she sees herself as representing. Teamed up firstly with long-time friend Mercer Wallace, they are investigating the drugging rape of two visiting Canadian girls, when called to a missing prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Natalya Galinova after first being listed as officially missing, is eventually found brutally killed in the backstage area of the Opera House. Alex and Mercer team up with Mike Chapman, the third member of a group of long-time friends and colleagues, to investigate the murder. They do this in and around the backstage of the Opera House and amongst some powerful players in the New York theatre world.
Along with these two major investigations, the NY Police are also trying to track down a serial rapist who is attacking women in local parks.
The central plot regarding the death of the ballerina takes most of the focus in the book and, aside from Alex having a life long love of ballet, it was never really clear why a sex-crime prosecutor would be involved so closely in the non-sex related death of Galinova. The investigation of the death proceeds very slowly, intertwined with some interesting aspects of the Opera House, theatre venues in New York and with a cast of "theatre types" both management and talent. There is an unfortunate inconsistency in some of that follow-up which dragged me right out of the story and some fem-jep towards the end which really seemed too convenient. Meanwhile, the investigation into the rape of the two Canadian girls proceeds quickly and a suspect is easily identified. The resolution of that crime is less satisfactory from Alex's point of view, but could have struck a strong chord of reality if the final page dramatic climax had been avoided. The rapist in the park is also resolved but again, the methodology used is a little out of the blue and the plot line never really got much focus throughout the book.
One of the strengths of this book is the long-term relationship between the three investigators. They know each other well and have been through a lot together. The references to previous events, presumably from earlier books, are quite easy to assimilate and give a real feeling for the long-term friendship.
The rather crowded plot; the inexplicable actions in a sub-part of the ballerina's death; a glaring piece of fem-jep which seemed rather unnecessary, and a final "rapping up" of absolutely every loose end on all the sub-plots on the final pages of the book detracted. For me, this was an interesting read, but not one of my all-time favourites from this author.
Let it be said...When They See Us...exposed her for who she is...watch the series and never read one of her books again.
Original review: None
Original review: None
I've wanted to read this series for a while and happened to pick up a used copy of this book at our vacation resort. I probably should have started with #1 in the series before jumping right into #8. I found it hard to invest in the characters because so much of their back story remained unexplained - the author seemed to bank on the fact that the reader had read the previous books. It's probably worth me going back and starting with #1 in order to get a true sense of whether I will enjoy this series.
Typically, Fairstein's books have several seemingly disparate plot lines that are actually linked and usually tied up well together by the end of the book. Fairstein also usually includes a fantastic minor history lesson about some aspect of New York.
Death Dance failed on both of these accounts for me. The plot lines didnt really come together well for me (the multiple questionings of Joe Berk) and Fairstein didn't flush out the history of theatre/dance very well in this book. The Shriner's seems to be thrown in as an after thought although this ends up being central to the ultimately plot.
Death Dance failed on both of these accounts for me. The plot lines didnt really come together well for me (the multiple questionings of Joe Berk) and Fairstein didn't flush out the history of theatre/dance very well in this book. The Shriner's seems to be thrown in as an after thought although this ends up being central to the ultimately plot.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lots of characters and 2 story lines has me re-reading and looking back to pick up threads.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book had great potential but was ruined with just one character... Mike Chapman is portrayed as a broken man following the death of his girlfriend in a freak accident however, in my book, this doesn't excuse his language and behaviour towards his friends and colleagues. Overall the story was interesting, particularly the brief but interesting arguments for and against the use of the DNA database which holds exclusion sample but I couldn't get past the one character to enjoy it.
BOT, Barbara Rosenblatt was the only good thing about this story.
