In her tenth Alexandra Cooper thriller (after Bad Blood), Fairstein delivers a scorcher of a crime novel-her hottest yet. The assistant DA alternates between the courtroom and crime scenes amid the sweltering summer heat of Manhattan. As she works to convict a serial rapist accused of over 50 rapes in a 35-year-old cold case, verbal and physical threats from vengeance-seeking drug-gang members heat up the courtroom. Alex is called to a crime scene in an abandoned government building, and soon two other young women vanish. Similarities in the cases suggest the possibility of a serial killer, and Alex and colleagues Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace brave rising temperatures and isolated locations in hot pursuit of the killer. Partly based on a 2006 crime, the novel delivers taut suspense, action-packed chases, historical glimpses of Manhattan, and a smattering of romance. Readers will not want to put down this red-hot thriller until they've turned the final page. It's essential for all public libraries.-Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

True serial killers are rare, we're told in Fairstein's latest thriller starring Manhattan sex-crimes prosecutor Alex Cooper and homicide detective Mike Chapman. Rare they may be, but one is on the loose, using the city's muddy, mosquito-infested waterfront and the relatively unpopulated islands that dot New York Harbor for his body dumps. Three women, who seem to have nothing in common other than their extraordinarily brutal manner of death, have been found in these remote areas. A drab olive blanket, left at each crime scene, provides the first real clue, which eventually leads Alex and Mike to New York's Governor's Island for a lesson in a little-known bit of American history. Then another young woman is abducted, and the hunt intensifies. Alex proves an able narrator, though Fairstein seems less comfortable writing romantic banter (there's a sappy candlelight dinner scene between Alex and her boyfriend, Luc) than she is  penning courtroom scenes or expostulating on crime theory. But series fans won't mind; there's ample drama here (Alex is the target of a murderous Latino gang), and tough but vulnerable Mike's usual snappy combacks and his dedication to Alex, whom he calls Blondie, continue to provide entertainment along the way.--Zvirin, Stephanie Copyright 2007 Booklist

At the start of bestseller Fairstein's nail-biting 10th legal thriller to feature alter ego Alex Cooper (after 2006's Bad Blood), the Manhattan ADA takes a hit from a cigar at the urging of her longtime police ally, Mike Chapman-to cover the stench of a badly decomposed female body at a crime scene in an abandoned building near the Staten Island ferry. The victim later proves to be the first of a number of women in uniform targeted by the murderer, who may have military ties in his past. The trail leads to a notorious bar catering to underage drinkers, before a chance observation by a civilian shifts the inquiry dramatically. Meanwhile, Cooper is preparing to try Floyd Warren, a rapist whose first trial three decades earlier ended in a hung jury. Fairstein, whose professional resume includes groundbreaking work in the field of sex crimes prosecution, manages to both entertain and educate, as Cooper struggles with the evidentiary challenges of the Warren rape case and with tracking a vicious serial killer. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved