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Likely To Die (1998)

Likely To Die (1998)

Book Info

Genre
Rating
3.94 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0671014935 (ISBN13: 9780671014933)
Language
English
Publisher
pocket books

About book Likely To Die (1998)

Synopsis: A neurosurgeon is sexually assaulted, stabbed and left for dead in her office at the labyrinthine Mid-Manhattan Medical Centre. The police designate her Likely to Die. Alexandra Cooper, head of the district's sex crimes unit, assembles a task force to investigate but finds herself hindered at every turn. Not only has her office prosecuted some of the vast hospital's patients and staff before but the building itself compounds the problem. A vast complex encompassing a medical college and the Stuyvesant Psychiatric Centre, the hospital rises over a network of tunnels now occupied by numberless transients who have easy access to the corridors. Strung out with other cases and mired in the investigation personally when even the man she has begun to date, has a connection to the case, Alex must find the killer - before the killer finds her.**Review** Detectives Mike Chapman, Mercer and Alexandra sift through the clues to find out who killed the unlucky Gemma Dogan, head of neurosurgery at Mid-Manhattan Medical Center, as well as brain surgeon and professor for the prestigious hospital. There are plenty of suspects, and an unnecessary, in my opinion, trip to London as well. There were probably 100 pages or more that could have been cut of out of the storyline itself. This is the second novel in the Alexadra Cooper series, and continues the exploits of New York City's Sexual Crimes Prosecution Unit. I still enjoy the stories that Mike tells about the history of NYC, as well as the fact that they play Final Jeopardy for meals, and money as a way to break the tediousness. Fairstein, obviously, knows her stuff as she spent 20 years working in the DA's office.

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.

Do You like book Likely To Die (1998)?

Heavy on the details of a prosecutor's daily responsibilities and variety of cases, this book took a while to get started--and, truthfully, some of the less-than-believable dialogue is a clear indicator that this is an early book in the series (I note this in the hope that they get better). Still, the fast-moving action ended up making this a nice diversion, and a fast read. There's a good balance of legal work and police work, and while Fairstein goes a bit overboard with legal details, over-explaining matters and laws in various instances, the book as a whole is an engaging read. It is heavier on mystery and detail than on suspense, so readers looking for a thrill might better look elsewhere. On a last note, Alex Cooper veers a bit too much between being a capable and intelligent woman, and a damsel in distress with rather stereotypical reactions--I'm hoping later books in the series straighten out this flaw and do a little more showing versus telling, but we'll see. One way or another, there was enough here to lead me to look into a later book in the series and see how things develop.
—Jennifer Lauren Collins

This is one I picked up at a library book sale. I think it caught my attention because there was a more recent book by the same author that really looked great (The Bone Vault), but was hardcover and was clearly a part of a series. So, seeing this one for 25¢, I figured, why not? Definitely worth the quarter, even if it turned out to be the second in the series. I really liked Alex Cooper, New York prosecutor extraordinaire, as well as her cohorts in investigation (Chapman and Mercer and all the rest). It was kind of scary, because the crime really felt like it could be real—in fact, in the acknowledgements, the author says the events in the book were taken from headlines (and she herself is a prosecutor). I look forward to reading more books by her.
—Robin

Any book that has a mini-side plot involving the main characters' love for the show 'Jeopardy' is a winner in my eyes.As for the meat of the book, I found it to be very well-written. A great deal of it dealt with the legal system as a whole. Despite not being focused on the main case at all times, actually made it feel more realistic because professionals are often juggling multiple things at once and books often make it seem like one 'situation' puts all other work on hold. Cooper, the main character was very well-developed as was the victim. Cooper's coworkers and friends were developed adequately to keep everyone straight. What wasn't as well developed was the suspect pool. I finished the last 150 pages (of 400+) in one sitting, and when I started for the day, I didn't have a clue who to suspect except the lone person they looked at to that point. Over that last segment, the pool did develop enough to provide a climax and resolution, but in the end, some loose ends were never tied up.I would like to read other books by this author, as there was one before this, and I believe it was referenced often in this book. Those loose ends might either be unraveled more, or wrapped up in future installments of this series.
—Kristin

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