The trial is already promising to be a near impossible fight for Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor Alex Cooper. Paige Vallis has accused Andrew Tripping of raping her in front of his own son, intimating that if she didn't have sex with him, he'd hurt the boy. It's the worst kind of "he said-she said" mess, DNA doesn't much matter because he admits to having sex with her, the child's testimony is impossible to get, and worse, the main surprise witness, Kevin Bessemer, has escaped from police custody. It soon becomes a moot point...during the trial a mysterious man enters the court, and Paige is forced to reveal some secrets from her past... secrets that may be the reason she ends up being murdered.
She's not the only murder victim. Queenie Ransome, an elderly black lady, is found murdered in her apartment; the sexual pose she's found in is a mimic of a sensual picture of her hanging over her bed from her younger days. She has nothing...she's been living in a shabby apartment, everything about her bespeaks of poverty, so why was she killed? Her exciting and glamorous past as mistress of King Farouk of Egypt may hold the key. But what do these two cases have to do with one another? Harry Strait, the man who scared Paige to silence, might know...but he's not telling.
This is my first Fairstein book. I was interested because she's lived much of what she writes... her character is based on the same position that she held, that of district attorney. Thus, you can assume that the various aspects of procedural (which are too complicated and too bullheaded to be made up) and the court room are all correct. Not only does she write of these situations in a very realistic way, but also she manages to make it interesting, with good characters (Judge Moffett is fun to read, but would be a pain to work with, I think, in real life) and twists that seem reasonable. She's a very business like writer in that she sticks to the story. Any forays into the personal life are brief, neat interludes such as Alex stopping to play final Jeopardy with her two main men, Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman, or when she tries to figure out her failing relationship with reporter Jack Tyler. I liked how this worked out because you get enough emotional background to care about the people, yet the story, with its well done turns, is allowed to shine on its own. As it should be.
The historical details, especially that of Egyptian King Farouk help make Queenie's story fascinating. Fairstein adds in just the right amount of details to make Queenie's past sound exciting and exotic, if, in the end, tragic. (Did you know Farouk loved red cars...he collected them, and wouldn't allow anyone else in his country to own one?) The killers aren't after just any old bit of loot, either, and what it turns out to be, and the connections it creates, is a real surprise.
I'm not a huge courtroom drama reader, but I really enjoyed The Kills; it provides plenty of excitement inside the courtoom and out.
