Product Description

This critically acclaimed, explosive thriller is a book only prosecutor Linda Fairstein could write. Patricia Cornwall knows the morgue; John Grisham knows the courtroom; but no one knows the inner workings of the D.A.'s office like Linda Fairstein, renowned for two decades as head of Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit. Now that world comes vividly to life in a brilliant debut novel of shocking realism, powerful insight, and searing suspense.

Alexandra Cooper, Manhattan's top sex crimes prosecutor, awakens one morning to shoking news: a tabloid headline announcing her own brutal murder. But the actual victim was Isabella Lascar, the Hollywood film star who sought refuge at Alex's Martha's Vineyard retreat. Was Isabella targeted by a stalker or -- mistaken for Alex -- was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? In an investigation that twists from the back alleys of lower Manhattan to the chic salons of the Upper East Side. Alex knows she'sin final jeopardy...and time is running out. She has to get into the killer's head before the killer gets to her.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66281 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780671010126
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
The crusading longtime chief of Manhattan's Sex Crimes Prosecutions Unit brings to her exciting first novel the same passion and insights into the criminal and crime-busting minds that marked her memoir, Sexual Violence (1994). Fairstein also brings herself to the novel-or at least an alter ego of a narrator, Alexandra Cooper, who's also a middle-aged blonde heading the borough's prosecution of sex offenders. Cooper's typical day of counseling victims and working with the NYPD on sex crimes would probably keep readers fascinated, but her latest problem-the shooting murder of glamorous movie star Isabella Lascar at Cooper's getaway home on Martha's Vineyard-pitches the plot at high intensity right away. Though Cooper is warned by the DA not to play cop, she and homicide detective Mike Chapman, who's assigned to bodyguard her, work together unofficially to solve the crime, carrying on a sort of anti-romance all the while. Fairstein isn't a gifted stylist-her dialogue is as wooden as a judge's gavel-and the details of Cooper's professional and personal lives drive the story forward with more vigor than the murder investigation does. Some readers will be disappointed, too, that Cooper, like any victim, has to be rescued in the end by her fiercely protective and ingenious friends on the NYPD. But then this heroine's greatest appeal lies in the warmth of her friendships, the humanness of her mistakes and her unswerving devotion to protecting the next female from harm. As a woman with grave responsibilities who still puts her pantyhose on one leg at a time, she makes a memorable debut. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild main selections; Doubleday Book Club alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When assistant district attorney Alexandra Cooper allows friend and film star Isabella Lascar to borrow her summer home on Martha's Vineyard, she has no idea that Isabella will end up dead and that Alexandra's boyfriend will emerge as the prime suspect. Who is the real murderer? Was Alexandra the intended target? Though most listeners will figure out the answers pretty early on, the story is engaging and the pacing is on the money. Reader Diane Venora performs real-life Manhattan prosecutor Fairstein's gritty prose quite well. This recording will make a fine addition to mystery collections.?Danna C. Bell-Russel, District of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Like her creator, Alexandra Cooper is the New York Assistant District Attorney in charge of prosecuting sex crimes. Day in, day out, she toils in the sewers of the Criminal Courts Building, bent on nailing the nastiest perps in the system. In spite of her glamorpuss investment-banker boyfriend, Jed Segal, it seems her life couldn't get any grimmer--until the day she reads her own obituary in the papers and realizes that Isabella Lascar, the actress friend who's borrowed her place on Martha's Vineyard, has been killed--maybe in mistake for Alex herself. Worse still, a good close look at the evidence tells Alex that despite his fervent denials, Jed was with Iz on the Vineyard. Did he end their fling by shooting her--or was the killer the stalker who'd dogged Iz in Hollywood, or her ex, small-time producer (and big- time cokehead) Richard Burrell, or her latest pre-Jed lover, brain-dead stuntman Johnny Garelli, or Cordelia Jeffers, the mysterious Royal Academy Fellow who wrote Iz a bizarre letter, part advice, part warning--and who now seems to be turning her attention to Alex? First-novelist Fairstein (Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, 1993) isn't much of a stylist, but when the story flags, she's got a million anecdotes about the Con Ed rapist and the fondling mail carrier. Patricia Cornwell in the Big Apple. Alex insists she doesn't see every man as a potential rapist, but after reading this, you wonder why not. (Literary Guild main selection; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

First-Rate First Novel!
Linda Fairstein has served for many years as New York's Assistant District Attorney in charge of prosecuting sex crimes. And according to all accounts, she is brilliant at her job. Well, Fairstein can put another notch in her belt, because she is a fine writer as well--right up there with the best of the genre.

"Final Jeopardy," her debut novel, introduces Alexandra Cooper, coincidentally an Assistant District Attorney in charge of prosecuting New York's sex crimes. Along with her very likeable sidekick, wisecracking but brilliant cop Mike Chapman, Alex works diligently to see that "her" victims, dead or alive, get justice. It's a grueling, wrenching task, but Alex thrives on it.

The book is off to a racing start as Alex, more than a little bit startled, reads her own obituary in the morning papers. And it never lets up from there. The confusion about Alex's "death" is solved quickly, but tragically. It seems that a good friend of hers, sexy bombshell actress Isabella Lascar, has been murdered while spending a supposedly incognito weekend at Alex's private Martha's Vineyard retreat. Was the murderer after Isabella? Or was it a case of mistaken identity--was the bullet really meant for Alex herself?

Those questions are only the beginning as Alex finds herself increasingly tangled in an incomprehensible web of intrigue. Who is the murderer? Try and guess. I did--and wasn't even close. There are enough colorful characters in the book, nefarious and otherwise, to make the reader keep turning the pages to find out who the "perp" is--and even more importantly, why the crime was committed in the first place.

From the first page to the breath-stopping last, this book has a ring of authenticity, and why not? Fairstein has lived what she writes, and it shows. Rumor has it that Ms. Fairstein has recently retired from her day job. Good! That means she can devote ALL her time to writing more juicy crime novels for those of us who are hooked!

I'm thrilled to have found her, and have already started the second in her Alexandra Cooper series. If you haven't treated yourself to Ms. Fairstein, give her a try. You will not regret it.

Not Bad
This is an interesting murder mystery featuring an Assistant D.A. named Alexandra Cooper whose specialty is sex crimes. A starlet is murdered in the driveway of Cooper's Martha's Vineyard house, and it's up to Cooper to figure out what happened and who's guilty before the same thing happens to her.

The plot has some interesting turns, and it stays on the proper side of the plausibility line throughout. Cooper manages to juggle several cases at once while keeping her personal life going, and she even goes down a few dead ends in her investigation. Nevertheless, this isn't the kind of book where you flounder around for the first hundred pages while the author develops the characters; instead each character has a distinct personality and the plot gets moving from the very first page. It will definitely hold your interest. Well done, Fairstein.

Excellent Debut Novel!
Linda Fairstein's "Final Jeopardy" is the first installment in the Alexandra Cooper mystery series. Alex is the Assistant District Attorney for the Special Victims Squad in New York City. One of her friends, an actress named Isabella Lascar, is found murdered at Alex's summer home on Martha's Vineyard. Alex is devastated but the mystery is just beginning to unfold for Alex. Soon she will begin to wonder if her own boyfriend Jed was involved with the crime. Toss in a few wisecracking cops, cryptic messages and a couple looney stalkers and you've got Final Jeopardy.

I adore mystery novels. Mysteries, fantasies and chick lit are my reading stock. But because I read so quickly, I often run out of my favorite authors long before they publish another novel. Thanks to Amazon's recommendations section, I was suggested "Final Jeopardy" and I loved it. Fairstein is an excellent author. Alex Cooper is a completely likeable and well-developed character. The plot was intriguing and made for an all around great mystery.