Fairstein's newest thriller (after Hell Gate) commences at the scene of a grisly fire at a historic Harlem Baptist church. Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cooper and NYPD colleagues Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace investigate the badly burned and beheaded body of a woman on the porch of the church behind a locked gate. After a second corpse is found mutilated at a landmark Catholic cathedral and a recent unsolved murder in a Kentucky Pentecostal church is discovered, possible connections among the victims arise. Before another dies, can Cooper and her colleagues apprehend this killer who is literally and figuratively silencing women? Fairstein's 30 years as a New York City prosecutor and a gift for suspense have enabled her to craft a riveting novel that thrusts readers into the darker side of religion and bigotry against the backdrop of some of New York's oldest churches. VERDICT The 13th entry in Fairstein's series is a tightly wound mystery that delivers an adrenaline rush with its fast-paced, nail-biting manhunt across several states. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/10.]—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Alexandra Cooper, the ADA who heads Manhattan's Special Victims unit, tackles yet another series of crimes that have nothing to do with sex but a great deal to do with gender.
The first victim is left outside Harlem's Mount Neboh Baptist Church. Even before her head is discovered outside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, she's identified as activist Naomi Gersh by her arrest record. Any hope that the obviously planned and ritualistic killing would be a one-off is dashed when Ursula Hewitt, who was excommunicated upon being ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, is found outside Old St. Patrick's Church with her tongue cut out. There's little to be learned from Naomi's kid brother Daniel, who disappears soon after he's questioned by Cooper and Det. Mike Chapman, and not much more from Faith Grant, an Episcopal priest at Union Theological Seminary with links to both victims. But there's every indication that the murderer has already struck at least twice more, claiming as victims a female pastor in Kentucky and a gay Pentecostal minister in Georgia. All the while Cooper is struggling to figure out why someone wants to silence religious mavericks and pariahs, she has to deal with two other hot-button cases as well: a prep school student's unsupported accusation that she was raped by another student, and a charge of clerical sex abuse that heats up even further when Cooper's withering cross-examination of Bishop Edward Deegan, a character witness for the defense, is observed by a ponytailed wraith who just might be the killer. The obligatory Cook's Tour of New York's religious sites and their backgrounds recalls Margaret Truman at her most tiresomely didactic, and the set pieces, especially the climactic confrontation with the killer, are overextended and creaky. The detection, however, is first-rate, and many of the daggers Fairstein hurls at organized religion's systematic disempowering of women find their mark.
Above average for this bestselling series, though not up to the mark of Hell Gate (2010).
Of the numerous narrators who have brought Fairstein's series to audio, Barbara Rosenblat is arguably the best, due primarily to her ability to capture the character's intelligence and romantic sensibility plus the toughness the job realistically requires. She even sounds a bit like Fairstein herself. Ordinarily, it would be merely lagniappe that she can also gruff up enough to do justice to the hard-boiled NYPD detective Mike Chapman. But this murder investigation—involving New York's historical churches and synagogues, a traveling circus out of Water for Elephants, leprosy, and a mixed martial arts fundamentalist sect—relies as much on Chapman as it does on assisstant DA Alexandra Cooper. The ease with which Rosenblat handles both her heroes, along with her vivid portrayals of teen drug dealers, religious dignitaries, Alex's arrogant bosses, frustrating judges, a martinet circus owner, and a large cast, makes it almost easy to accept the book's melodramatic conclusion. A Dutton hardcover. (Apr.)
"Gripping…Each outing with Alex brings a new view of this character and the city in which she lives." — Sun Sentinel
"Linda Fairstein has delivered another compelling crime novel set on the all-too-real streets of New York…a worthwhile read that fans of the Law & Order TV series will savor. After finishing Silent Mercy, readers will eagerly seek out her other novels."
— San Francisco Chronicle
"Fairstein excels at describing New York's complicated religious history as well as the vagaries of the city's legal and religious politics." — Publishers Weekly
"Linda Fairstein has delivered another compelling crime novel set on the all-too-real streets of New York…a worthwhile read that fans of the Law & Order TV series will savor. After finishing Silent Mercy, readers will eagerly seek out her other novels."
"Gripping…Each outing with Alex brings a new view of this character and the city in which she lives."
When a book features two murders—one in a church that was formerly a synagogue and another in a cathedral—plus leprosy and circuses—you know the author has stretched a bit. That’s the case with Fairstein’s latest thriller. Barbara Rosenblat makes the most of the meandering plot. She’s especially effective at portraying ADA Alexandra Cooper and NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, providing each with distinct voices and tones. Rosenblat is equally adept with the numerous other characters, and she excels during the final scenes when the plot, which includes significant religious history and a side story about the prosecution of a former priest accused of molesting boys, finally comes together. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
