The Deadhouse

Linda Fairstein, real-life Manhattan prosecutor, continues her increasingly popular series starring Assistant DA Alex Cooper and NYPD Detective Mike Chapman. The investigation of the murder of a college history professor involves drugs and even treasure-hunting amid the ruins on Roosevelt Island. Rich in New York history and geography, Fairstein's story delivers her intricate, suspenseful plotting and very real characters. Dissapointment comes with narrator Blair Brown, however, who is badly miscast. Her soft-spoken, sensitive approach just doesn't cut it with New York cops, and the quick-paced banter between Chapman and Cooper completely eludes her. Brown's facility with pacing and dramatic emphasis is clear, She's fine with Alex's first-person narrative, but she fails to enliven the people. R.F.W. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine


Assistant D.A. Alexandra Wallace and Mike Chapman team up to uncover the mystery surrounding the death of a prominent professor at one of New York's preeminent universities. Academic politics and intrigue combine with a minutely detailed history of Roosevelt Island before the crime is resolved. Melissa Hughes's performance is somewhat pedestrian, with voices that do not quite come off as authentic and in some instances, the New York City police being one, are overdone. The historical minutiae might come to life with a more successful reader but in this case just drags the story out. An abridgment might be more successful by eliminating unnecessary subplots and esoteric history. Many plot threads are left hanging at the end, and to top it all off the sound quality is poor. S.S.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine