Terminal City
Assistant DA Alex Cooper and Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace are called to investigate when the naked body of a young woman is found in the tower suite of the prestigious Waldorf Astoria. Within days, a second body turns up bearing the same bloody symbol—train tracks carved into the skin. The focus shifts to Grand Central Terminal, where the president is scheduled to arrive for a UN meeting later in the week and where they suspect the killer is hiding out. Coop and her sidekicks struggle to get a grip on the layout of the vast terminal, from its aqua-colored celestial ceiling to the levels far beneath the ground, which are home to some 600 people, some of whom have carved apartments out of the concrete walls. As always, the crimes are graphic while the banter between the threesome adds some comic relief, but the real star of the series is Manhattan itself. Fairstein describes both the train station and some of Manhattan’s iconic eateries in loving detail, giving readers a glimpse of NYC’s glamour as well as its dark side.        HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The sixteenth entry in the Alexandra Cooper mystery series, penned by the former chief of the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit, is sure to follow its predecessors onto the best-seller lists. --Joanne Wilkinson