Reactions to Reading

My post this week for the crime fiction alphabet meme continues my homage to Sue Grafton, the original purveyor of a single word crime fiction alphabet, with a look at Entombed by Linda Fairstein.

This is the 7th book in Fairstein’s series featuring New York District Attorney Alexandra (Alex) Cooper and the detectives who have become her friends over the series, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. The novel features two main cases with the first involving a skeleton which is discovered in the wall cavity of a building due to be demolished. Because Edgar Allan Poe once lived in the building the case generates more curiosity than concern initially but when it is revealed that the skeleton is a relatively recent one and that a rapist who previously terrorised the city but was never caught has struck again on a victim who used to work in the same building, the find takes on more sinister overtones.

I have read 10 of Fairstein’s 11 Alex Cooper books over the years and, unlike some of my other favourite authors from my early days of crime fiction reading, she has never truly disappointed me. Some of the things that I particularly enjoy about this series are present in abundance in Entombed including the focus on different aspects of American cultural history, a subject I am woefully ignorant about but enjoy reading about because I now have family living in the US and always feel like I should know more. In this book the focus is on Poe’s life and work and this element is woven well into the story via the introduction of a group of Poe enthusiasts called the Raven Society. Also, for fans of the series there is, as always, the friendly competition between the three main characters to answer (or is that ask?) each evening’s Final Jeopardy question which is another unique feature of this series that I’ve always gotten a kick out of.

Fairstein has held the same position as the fictional Cooper and so the legal and procedural details have always felt very genuine. With so much media comment about violence against women being depicted in crime fiction I’m particularly pleased to be talking about this series because I cannot recall a single time when any description of violence in these books felt gratuitous. Subjects such as the rape or torture of women are dealt with but generally from the point of view of the victim and how they cope and are treated by ‘the system’. Here the story focuses on the young Swedish exchange student who is raped and almost killed rather than on her rapist’s point of view. I also think the books do a good job of exploring the complex legal issues surrounding sex crimes and this one is no exception with Alex attempting to indite the rapist based on his DNA profile even though they don’t know the name of the individual.

Towards the end of this book there’s a major incident in the personal life of one of the three main characters and this highlights another strong aspect of this series which is the strong relationships that feature. Although Alex is not terribly lucky in love she does have terrific relationships with both Mike and Mercer and also has some strong female friendships that help her cope with the traumas she observes and is occasionally part of.

My only review of one of this series here at Reactions to Reading is Killer Heat which I read earlier this year. It’s probably my least favourite of the series but I still rated it a very respectable 3.5.

My previous crime fiction alphabet entries are

• A is for Absolution (Caro Ramsay)
• B is for Bones (Jan Burke)
• C is for Contest (Matthew Reilly)
• D is for Deadlock (Sara Paretsky)

Title: Tell No One

Author: Harlan Coben

Publisher: Orion Books [originally 2000, this edition 2007]

ISBN: 978-1-4091-1702-5

Length: 346 pages

Genre: Thriller

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3.5/5

One-liner: A frenetically paced, superbly plotted yarn.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Eight years ago David Beck and his wife Elizabeth took their annual trip to the remote place where they had shared their first kiss. That night Beck was beaten and his wife kidnapped. She was found dead several days later, apparently the victim of a serial killer. Beck has since put some semblance of a life back together but it quickly unravels when he starts to receive messages that appear to be from his supposedly dead wife at the same time as two bodies are found in the spot where Elizabeth was kidnapped from. As Beck tries to determine if his wife might be alive after all, the authorities become convinced it was Beck not the serial killer who was responsible for her death and some nefarious characters who seem to know what really happened eight years ago take whatever action is necessary to ensure no one else finds out the truth.

I know it’s an over-used phrase but this book was, for me, a genuine page turner. Sure there are coincidences and plot contrivances to be found but I still read the book as quickly as I physically could, sneaking a few pages whenever I had a spare moment. The original premise hooked me immediately and the story, although far-fetched, sustained its internal logic throughout. There were multiple switches in point of view from first person (Beck’s) to third (virtually everyone else’s at one point or another) which helped give the frantic sense that lots of action was taking place simultaneously.

While the yarn was enjoyable unfortunately the characters were a little too predictable and trite for me to really connect with. Beck is so full of wholesome goodness (he’s a white doctor in a ghetto neighbourhood who never judges anyone not even the pregnant 12-year olds and is still in love with his dead high school sweetheart and is even kind to puppy dogs….) that if I met him in real life I’d want to beat him myself. Almost all of the rest of the characters are stereotypes too: the drug dealer with a heart of gold who helps Beck to go on the run and the evil generic Asian who has seen too much and can kill a man with his bare hands and so on. About the only character who I was really interested in as a person rather than a plot device was Beck’s best friend Shauna the plus size model who “stalks into a room as though it offends her”.

However, in a thriller more than almost any other genre plot is king and I can’t go past the fact that the book kept me interested from the first page to the last.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

For some quite unfathomable reason I’ve never read any of Coben’s other books but based on the writing here I’m keen to try more so if you have a favourite Harlan Coben book or can tell me whether or not I need to start at the beginning of his Myron Bolitar series let me know in the comments below.

This book was supplied to me free by the First Reads program at goodreads.com (how a book that’s been available since 2000 qualifies as ‘first read’ has me baffled but I’m grateful for the book anyway).

Tell No One has been reviewed at Jen’s Book Thoughts and You’ve Gotta Read This,