Linda Fairstein – författare

Thieves, liars, killers, and conspirators—it''s a criminal world out there, and someone has got to write about it. An eclectic collection of the year''s best reportage, The Best American Crime Reporting 2007 brings together the murderers and muscle men, the masterminds, and the mysteries and missteps that make for brilliant stories, told by the aces of the true crime genre. This latest addition to the highly acclaimed series features guest editor Linda Fairstein, the bestselling crime novelist and former chief prosecutor of the Manhattan District Attorney''s Office''s pioneering Special Victims'' Unit.

When Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper is summoned to Tina Barr''s apartment on Manhattan''s Upper East Side, she finds a neighbour convinced that the young woman has been assaulted. But the terrified victim, a conservator of rare books and maps, denies that and refuses to co-operate with Alex and the police investigators. Tina disappears, and then another woman is found murdered in the same apartment, with an extremely valuable book at her side. The book has probably been stolen, but from whom and how? Pursuing the murderer Alex is drawn into the strange and privileged world of rich and secretive book collectors, where avarice and greed is as strong an inheritance as wealth..In a beguiling mix and history and suspense Linda Fairstein takes readers on a breath-taking ride through collections of beautiful first editions, supposedly ''lost'' atlases, and deep into the hidden rooms and tunnels of the great New York Public Library.

When the burnt headless body of a young woman is found on the steps of a Baptist Church in Harlem, Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is one of the first on the shocking scene. Alex has seen some gruesome crimes committed in New York, but the barbarity of this latest discovery leaves her nauseous.With NYPD cop Mike Chapman, Alex begins to investigate, but before long another woman is slaughtered and found on the steps of a Catholic church in Little Italy; her throat slashed and her tongue cut out.It becomes clear there is a zealous serial killer on the loose. Now Alex and Mike must keep one step ahead of a religious fanatic bent on silencing the women he believes are bringing shame to his beliefs - before he kills anyone else.

''Working Night Watch, Coop. All the craziest shit happens on Night Watch.''Forty-eight hours after New York Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper arrives in France to visit her restaurateur boyfriend, Luc Rouget, her holiday is cut short when a young woman is found murdered. Before the investigation begins, Alex is summoned back home to handle a high profile case.Mohammed Gil-Darsin, Head of the World Economic Bureau, has been accused of attacking a maid in his hotel. As the scandal unfolds, Alex finds her attention torn between preparing the alleged victim to testify and a murder case with ties too close to home. International bestselling author Linda Fairstein returns with a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that takes Alexandra Cooper into the dark underside of New York City.LIKE ASSISTANT DA ALEX COOPER, LINDA FAIRSTEIN WAS ONCE A TOP NEW YORK CITY PROSECUTOR. CRIME NOVELS CAN''T GET ANY MORE REAL.

The days of Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper often start off badly, but she''s never before had to face the morning by reading her own obituary.It doesn''t take long to sort out why it was printed: a woman''s body has been found in a car rented in Alex''s name in the driveway of her weekend home. It''s not so easy to work out why her lodger - an acclaimed Hollywood star - was murdered, or to be sure that the killer had found the right victim.As Alex''s job is to send killers and rapists to jail there are plenty of suspects who might be seeking revenge, and whoever it is needs to be found before Alex''s obituary gets reprinted...

Alexandra Cooper, Manhattan''s top sex crimes prosecutor, is brought into what promises to be a messy case. Gemma Dogen was found in her own office in a New York hospital sexually assaulted, soaked in her own blood and considered likely to die before she can be moved to the emergency room.

Alex combs through her files for murders with similar modus operandi, while Mike Chapman and the other detectives concentrate on possible motives amongst her friends and colleagues - many of whom had found Gemma a professional thorn in their sides.

Two facts rapidly become apparent: the hospital itself is far from secure; and someone believes that Alex has discovered something far too damaging for them to let her live...

On a steamy August evening, after an exhausting day in court, Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is called to a crime scene. Alongside her colleagues, NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, she views the body of a young woman pulled from the water with her hands and feet obscenely tied to a ladder. But who is she? Her elegant clothes and manicured nails suggest affluent connections, but just how well-connected she is surprises even Alex.From luxurious Fifth Avenue apartments to the avant garde galleries of Chelsea, Alex, Mike and Mercer hunt for a killer in a world where priceless art meets big money in a lethal mix.