The Deadhouse

Rating:
Summary: silly & boring
Review: I love a good mystery...and when it is immersed with bits of history of New York City, I love it even more. Alex Cooper is now involved in the murder of a King's College professor, Lola Dakota (you gotta love that name!). A bit of paper with numbers on Lola's dead body sends Alex and Mike Chapman on a quest to Roosevelt Island, off the shore of Manhattan. We learn about the history of the island, including hospitals for the insane and small pox victims. Lola's colleagues become suspect for various reasons. Just another "can't put it down" book.

Rating:
Summary: This is what I picture a cheesy romance novel to be like....
Review: ....but under the guise of a murder mystery. What a bore, I was so disappointed. I am not usually one who reads crime fiction, but for some reason the backdrop setting of the novel was what drew me in. Who couldn't be intrigued by abandoned psychiatric hospitals, asylums, prisons, etc.? This 540-odd page book is about 400 pages too long. Too many descriptions of meals, shopping, relationship problems, etc. Too predictable, as well. I was rolling my eyes constantly because it was so easy to figure out what was going to happen next. No jaw-droppers here. The characters were simply stereotypical. Fairstein's writing, I feel, talks down to the reader. Almost to the point of being offensive, like, how dumb does she think we (readers) are? This was the first (and last) novel of this kind I read, especially one by this author. I have the feeling it would make a great movie aired exclusively on Lifetime. I think I'll stick with the women's historical fiction kick I've been on.