Synopses & Reviews
Death Dance finds Alexandra Cooper teaming up with Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to investigate the murder of a world-famous dancer, Natalya Galinova, who disappeared backstage after a performance at Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House.
The case draws the three colleagues into the behind-the-scene workings of New York City's theatrical community. Galinova's lover is Joe Berk, the seventy-year-old self-made head of The Berk Organization, one of four family companies who own all the legitimate theaters on Broadway, and therefore control all the productions. Galinova, the aging ballerina, was using Berk to try to transition her career from dance to acting at the time of her death.
Cooper, Chapman, and Wallace go backstage at the Met; explore the unusual apartment on top of the Belasco Theater and the ghosts that inhabited the old showplace; and uncover bizarre circumstances at City Center, which has a history not one of them knew about until now.
At the same time, Alex is working a very different case--a physician who was drugging women in order to assault them. She navigates the new investigative world of DFSA (drug-facilitated sexual assault). Intertwined with this forensic development is the explosive legal issue of DNA databanking.
Death Dance is a spellbinding thriller combining the peculiar history of New York City's theatrical community with fresh insight into modern forensics and tangled legal issues, told in Linda Fairstein's signature authentic style.
Review
"Her most powerful and affecting novel....Fairstein really knows what she's writing about."
-- James Patterson
Review
"Linda Fairstein is carving out a prime spot among writers of suspense fiction."
-- The Washington Post
Review
"A champion teller of detective tales."
-- USA Today
Review
"Fairstein tells it like it is."
-- Michael Connelly
Synopsis
New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein takes readers behind the scenes of New York City's theater world -- from Lincoln Center to the lights of Broadway -- in a riveting new novel rich with her trademark blend of cutting-edge legal issues, skillful detective work, and heart-stopping suspense.
Teaming up with longtime friends -- NYPD's Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace -- Assistant D.A. Alex Cooper investigates the disappearance of world-famous dancer Natalya Galinova, who has suddenly vanished backstage at Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House -- during a performance. The three colleagues are soon drawn into the machinations of New York City's secretive theatrical community, where ambition takes many forms, including those most deadly.
Meanwhile, Alex is working on a very different case, using a creative technique to nab a physician who has been drugging women in order to assault them. As Dr. Sengor eludes capture, Alex must navigate the new investigative world of DFSA -- drug-facilitated sexual assault -- intent on proving him guilty.
Death Dance is a spellbinding thriller combining a former prosecutor's fresh insight into hot-button legal issues with the unique history and spectacle of New York theater, and its shocking twists make this novel Linda Fairstein's most chilling adventure yet.
About the Author
LINDA FAIRSTEIN, America's foremost legal expert on crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, led the Sex Crimes Unit of the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan for twenty-five years. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law. Her first novel, Final Jeopardy, introduced the critically acclaimed character of Alexandra Cooper and was made into an ABC Movie of the Week starring Dana Delaney. The celebrated series has gone on to include the New York Times bestsellers Likely to Die, Cold Hit, The Deadhouse (winner of the Nero Wolfe Award for Best Crime Novel of 2001, and chosen as a "Best Book of 2001" by both The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times), The Bone Vault, The Kills, Entombed, Death Dance, and Bad Blood. Her novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her nonfiction book, Sexual Violence, was Blair Brown appeared on Broadway in Copenhagen (Tony Award) Cabaret, James Joyce's The Dead and Arcadia. Favorite film credits include Dogville, Continental Divide, and Altered States. On television, she starred in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and has appeared in countless mini-series and TV movies.