The Bone Vault (Alexandra Cooper Series)

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The fifth bestselling mystery from the former head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit, Linda Fairstein's The Bone Vault is another hard-hitting, fast-paced, gritty tale of true-to-life murder and mayhem. When the body of a young scholar is found in an ancient sarcophagus, Assistant D.A. Alex Cooper sets out to bring the killer to justice. The victim worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Alex soon suspects that her murder is connected somehow to the intense rivalry between the Met and its sister institution, the American Museum of Natural History -- two great New York City museums embarking upon their first cooperative exhibition. As Alex searches for clues among the millions of artifacts tucked away in the attics, exhibit halls, and sub-basements of the museums, she discovers that practically everyone had ready access to the means used in the murder...and to methods for disposing of the mummy that was displaced to make room for the new corpse as well. Of course, putting the fact that someone has a secret worth killing for on display makes it ever more likely that the killer will strike again -- this time at Alex. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"An uneasy mix of scholarship, showbiz, and aggressive marketing, "A Modern Bestiary" will be a joint venture of the Met and the American Museum of Natural History. With its IMAX time trips and Rembrandt refrigerator magnets, the "Bestiary" has raised fierce opposition from some of New York's museum elite." "Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper, off duty for the evening, observes the developing tensions with bemused interest until Met director Pierre Thibodaux pulls her aside. He needs her advice. There's an urgent problem out at a loading dock on a New Jersey pier." "A Twelfth Dynasty mummified princess, enclosed for eternity in a huge stone sarcophagus, is about to take a long voyage to Cairo as part of a routine museum exchange. But Cleopatra is missing, and in her place is the not-so-mummified body of a woman many centuries younger than her royal predecessor." "Who is this woman with the small physique, the dark hair, and the shiny barrette? What is her connection, if any, to the rarefied world of priceless art and objects? And how and when did she become entombed in the sarcophagus?" Teaming with cops Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex must explore behind the scenes at the elegant but severe Metropolitan, travel uptown to the remote setting of the Cloisters and its medieval trove of funerary art, and on to the massive array of beasts and bones at the Museum of Natural History. Somewhere deep within the bowels of one of these great cultural centers, a killer may wait.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Los Angeles Times

The real stars are the museums themselves, with their shadowy miles of halls, stairs, vaults, crannies; their icono-, paleo-, archeo-, techno- and anthro- holdings in the millions; their swarms of personnel; their endless invitations to criminal grand guignol. That's where Alex and the NYPD hunt the killer and solve a chilling puzzle Fairstein has contrived for us. — Eugen Weber

Publishers Weekly

Fairstein's 25-year stint as head of the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan DA's office once again makes for an authoritative and fact-filled mystery (her fifth after The Deadhouse) featuring alter-ego assistant DA Alexandra Cooper. "Coop" is an attractive workaholic in her 30s, ambivalent about her current relationship with an always-on-the-road NBC correspondent. While she's attending a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new Met director Pierre Thibodaux pulls her aside and asks for help with a recent crisis: a customs security dog found that a Met sarcophagus ready for shipment back to Cairo contained the corpse of a young female researcher from the Cloisters, the Met's medieval branch. Coop calls her usual NYPD sidekick detectives, brash Mike Chapman and burly Mercer Wallace, and the trio sets out to search among the museum's bookish staff and rich benefactors for a killer with a motive. In the meantime, Coop and Chapman, who should be a couple but don't know it yet, lecture one another on ancient history and contemporary law, and place bets on Jeopardy questions. Readers also learn about such subjects as Inuit funeral rituals, the average growth rate for human hair, the habits of stalkers and rapists and modern techniques of sadomasochism. Fairstein has a heavy-handed way of working this information into the dialogue, and the plot resolution strains credibility. Yet the quick-witted Cooper is as likable as ever, and fans of Fairstein's other books will find this satisfying-if not standout-fare. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Fairstein returns with another thriller starring popular protagonist Alexandra Cooper (Deadhouse), a Manhattan assistant district attorney. This time out, she and her sidekick, cop Mike Chapman, are drawn into a particularly mysterious case: a Metropolitan Museum of Art intern is found dead in a sarcophagus, and though she's been dead for months, her body is perfectly preserved. When it is discovered that she died of arsenic poisoning, the plot thickens. This is fun reading; Fairstein's fast pacing, colorful suspects, and museum settings (the Museum of Natural History is also featured) make her book reminiscent of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Relic. Alex is, however, a weak point; she's just as fastidious and stilted here as she was in previous outings. Her relationship with pretty-boy newscaster Jake, her flashy L.A. entertainment lawyer best friend, and private jet rides to her vacation home in Martha's Vineyard combine to make her a poster girl for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Fairstein has already had some success with this series; if she imbues Alex with more depth, she'll have a real winner. Despite that flaw, this is recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/02.]-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Blair Brown brings the resourceful Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper to life in this deftly narrated tale of criminal mischief with a deadly result. A body is found in an ancient sarcophagus, but it isn't an Egyptian princess; it's a former museum worker. While investigating the murder, Cooper butts heads with staff and administration to find out what may have happened deep in the bowels of the museum. Brown's timing and pace add depth to the story. Her expressive characterization gives life to the culture clash of the many managerial relics in New York's Metropolitan Museum and the hardened cops who are out to solve the mystery. D.L.M. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews