Linda Fairstein Death Dance

Death Dance

Linda Fairstein

Scribner, Jan 2006, $26.00, 416 pp.

ISBN 0743254899

As the assistant district attorney in charge of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit, Alex seeks to convict Dr. Selim Sengor for the drug facilitated rape of two Canadian women. Alex wants him denied bail since he could leave the country and return to Turkey but a judge who doesn't fully understand what rape is, lets him out on his own recognizance.

While Alex works that case, she also investigates who murdered dancer Natalya Galinova with her detective friends Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. At first they thought she walked out of the Metropolitan Opera House after having an argument with Broadway businessman, Joe Berk over a juicy role in one of the plays produced in his theatres since she is getting too old to play the younger parts. That hope is dashed when her body is found broken in a ventilation shaft, the victim of a homicide. A couple of days later Joe is almost electrocuted but the authorities determine it was an accident. Illegally gotten DNA points to Berk as a suspect but Alex has no probable cause to request it through channels. The closer Alex gets to closing out both investigations, the more she puts her life in danger.

One of the very best qualities of Linda Fairstein crime thrillers is that it accurately reflects real life. Not every case comes to a satisfactory conclusion as suspects disappear before they can be convicted and judges don't always hand down a ruling that makes a prosecutor happy. Readers get a behind the scenes of dance in New York with all the petty jalousies and jockeying for position just as they learn that date rape drugs do not lessen the realities of the crime. Ms. Fairstein is a great storyteller who uses real life experiences to create a storyline that is realistic and which stars likable heroes battling criminals and at times the system.

Harriet Klausner