In Review

04 December 2008 03:32 BST

Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein

Published by Little, Brown, out now, hardback, 404 pages, £12.99.

In a nutshell…

Cold-blooded killing in summer heat

What's it all about?

Alexandra Cooper is a passionate district attorney specialising in New York's grizzliest sexual crimes. After focussing on securing a conviction for a rapist that has been on the loose for thirty years, 'Coop' is hoping that she'll finally have some time to time to let off steam and get her love life back on track.

But after a young girl is found raped, tortured and murdered in the docklands, it is not long before the stifling summer heat draws her back on to the streets in the hunt for a killer who likes to leave his victims rotting in derelict quarters of the city.

Along with Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, the ensuing chase takes her in to a world discarded by New York's residents that a sick and methodical killer is making his own.

Who's it by?

Linda Fairstein, who returns with the seventh book in the acclaimed Alexandra Cooper series. The subjects of her novels are familiar territory for the author, having worked as assistant district attorney in New York's sex crimes unit for twenty five years.

After much success, she took early retirement to work on her writing, which includes the non-fiction work and New York Times Notable Book of the Year Sexual Violence, as well as her award-winning crime thrillers.

She divides her time between Manhattan and a house on Martha's Vineyard off the east coast of America.

As an example…

"Good morning. I guess I don't have to ask you about your weekend. The newspapers and television are full of it. I don't know how you do it, Alex. Doesn't it ever get to you, all this violence and pain?"

"Sure it does. But it's an awfully good feeling to be able to try to do something about it, try to put people's lives back together."

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

Highly improbable. With the ubiquity of slick crime series like CSI, the book's topic is already well covered nightly on countless TV channels. The appeal of a two-hour adaptation of such familiar territory is severely limited, regardless of the size of the budget.

What the others say

"Fascinating reading in a mystery which stretches far beyond New York." - Sunday Times

"Handled with the assurance we expect - distinctive and biting." - Daily Express

So is it any good?

Unfortunately, no. While it is important to judge this book on its own terms, Killer Heat fails to deliver suspense, pace and character development. There are many better offerings available elsewhere in the thriller genre - Philip Kerr is one such author.

Fairstein's familiarity with the subject does lend the book an air of authority, but it soon becomes vexing that she does not use her position to discuss more incisively the nature of sexual crimes and psychotic behaviour.

The characters are also wholly underdeveloped, with many serving simply as otherwise inconsequential plot drivers - an unforgivable failing for a novel that is around 70 per cent dialogue.

Killer Heat has its tense moments, but Fairstein's failure to develop more complex subplots - such as the possibility of city-wide scandal after the killer claims a high-class prostitute's black book - soon slows the plot to a metronomic plod on the way to a predictable denouement. Disappointing.

6/10

Mark Burton