Diane Venora Books

Am I the only one that has a problem with the way the 2 main characters speak to each other? They apparently have known each other for numerous years and are supposedly close friends. Why then, when they are the only 2 people in a room and are speaking only to each other, does the author write the conversations using the character's names in just about every sentence? I don't know about most folks, but when I am speaking to a friend I don't need to say their name at the beginning of each sentence. It just got on my nerves - and I never finished the book. I ordered this for my Kindle - and learned a valuable lesson.....always take advantage of the free samples!

The main story line held my interest for the most part, but too many of the interspering anecdotes kept cropping up at the wrong time. They took away from the flow of the narrative. Also, Ms. Fairstein spends too much time telling us not only what item of clothing the protagonist is wearing on any given day, but also which brand and from which expensive store. Perhaps if Alexandra Cooper, the assistant DA, had spent more time studying the behavior of the people around her and less time obsessing about her wardrobe,she wouldn't have put herself into such a potentially dangerous situation with the killer.

Bought this as a Christmas gift and have no clue if it's good or not. The author has 32 years experience in a NY CSI-SVU setting, and I assume this book is as rivitening as her latest book, Bad Blood.

Had this been the first Linda Fairstein book I'd read, I would never have read another. Only stubborn refusal to give in allowed me to finish "Final Jeopardy." I found myself getting frustrated that such interesting premises and plot twists could be written in such a lifeless way.

Also, having met the characters in another novel, I was surprised at how unlikeable they were in this one. The heroine behaves unprofessionally in her work life, and she is somehow both emotional and cold in her private life. It was difficult to sympathize with her. She didn't come across that way in the other book.

There were good things. The short side stories of other sex crimes were interesting, if a little distracting. The author also does a good job of explaining why someone would want to pursue this particular disturbing career. You want to like her.

Devoted Fairstein fans may like this book, but reading this one before the others may make it impossible to pick up the next one.

This is one of the few books in my life that I didn't finish. I read two Linda Fairstein books before and even though I find Alexandra Cooper to be one of the most unlikeable fictional main characters ever, the storylines were interesting enough.

In this book however, there were so many bits that spoilt the reading experience for me:

1. The characters
In all three books of the series that I read so far, Alexandra Cooper comes over as snooty and unlikeable. She has a privileged background, which is okay in itself, Elizabeth George managed to create a very likeable main character with a privileged background with Inspector Lynley. But Alexandra Coopers is in-your-face privileged. Constant mentioning of her Wellesley education, her house on Martha's Vinyard (here, it is essential to the story, I understand that, but it is mentioned in every book of the series that I read so far), her designer business clothes, her rich golden hair - it just gets to much. In addition she has a nasty way of bossing people around and telling them how to do their job (not just people working for her, but those in different jobs as well...) and generally carries an air of "I know best". - Her "sidekick" Chapman is one of the more likeable characters, but his "I'm so witty and love to tease others"-act sometimes gets out of hand. When 90 % of everything he says has that "witty-teasing" note, he really gets on my nerves.
Other characters get the stereotype treatment. Everybody who doesn't get along with Alexandra Coopers is bad and incompetent. The Vinyard people are all nice and simple, the secretary is fully dedicated, the press people are one-dimensional etc. etc.

2. The distracting information
Page-long biographies of everybody whose name is mentioned really went on my nerves. I understand that this is the first book of the series and that the main characters need to be introduced. However, I can't understand why a page-long biography of Alexandra Coopers parents is necessary at all. As far as I read, they never appeared in the story at all.

Alexandra Coopers has several cases to handle. That is natural and it's good to get a glimpse of them. However, we get more than a glimpse and as they interrupt the main story, after a while these extra cases are just annoying interruptions. They don't do anything for the story. They pop up, Alexandra Coopers does of course a marvellous job and outshines everyone else, then these cases are never mentioned again.

3. Partly bad prose
Parts of the book are just written badly. When Chapman and Alexandra Cooper fly to Martha's Vinyard, Alexandra tells Chapman a bit about the island - well, a several page bit. These pages sound as if the author copied them straight from a travel guide. There are far more elegant ways of connecting a location to a story. In addition, the "show don't tell" rule does not seem familiar to the author as many things are just written down instead of described.
Another annoying bit is that the characters address each other with different names all the times. First name, then last name, then nickname. For somebody not familiar with the characters, it's confusing. In general, it doesn't make any sense. Do you constantly change the names you address your friends/colleagues with? I don't and I don't know anybody that does (the occasional throwing in of a nickname excepted).

So, I fought my way through the first couple of hundred pages. But after a while, when one distraction after the other spoilt my reading pleasure, I noticed that I couldn't care less about who the murderer was. This book was a big disappointment.