The KillsLinda FairsteinLittle, Brown 10.99Jeremy Fleming

This novel is the third written by Linda Fairstein featuring Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper, a character who shares much with the author (see [2004] Gazette, 1 April, page 29).

The experience of the author works to create a gritty and convincing backdrop to the story.

It starts out as a simple rape case - where there is no firm evidence - and develops into a wider murder thriller.

The Kills (named after an area of Manhattan) works as a mixture of a legal thriller with a strong police angle.

The plot begins following an attack on investment banker Paige Vallis, whose rape Alex Cooper is prosecuting.

The cast includes a convincing bunch of Manhattan cops, intransigent judges, wily lawyers and strange victims.

For the English reader, however, the evocation of life in the Manhattan District Attorney's (DA) office is probably the best feature of the book.

The startling difference in legal culture between the UK and US is sharply defined in the strange quasi-political role of the elected DA and his staff.

The banter between the lawyers is quick-paced and convincing, and there is a genuine feel and tone to the intermittent struggles between the trial judge, Alex Cooper and the deeply unpleasant defence attorney.

It is redolent of quality vintage US television cop shows, without being too hammy.

The first murder victim - McQueen Ransome - becomes a conduit for some pretty wacky sideshows to the plot.

She turns out to be a former dancer with a background in espionage and high-level diplomacy.

Cooper wonders: 'What was it that linked the unnatural death of an Egyptian king in Rome back in 1965 to the murders in New York City, in the last few days, of a Harlem dancer and the daughter of a CIA operative?' Get the picture?

But this somewhat surreal - and dead - character aside, with its winning combination of courtroom drama, historical detail, and the intriguing lore of a rare object whose fabled provenance provides a thread through the story, The Kills is definitely worth packing away in a suitcase for anyone with a penchant for a good thriller and the Big Apple.