Likely To Die is the second in the series of Alexandra Cooper mysteries. I didn't read the first one, and after this one, I'm not exactly going to rush into the rest of them. Somewhat boring, way too long, and a bit too heavy on the side plots for my taste, this book was one I was happy to finish, just so I could move on.

At least the main character, Alexandra Cooper, is a likable enough protagonist. She works for Manhattan's sex crimes unit. Filled with passion for her job, she's the one you'd want on your side, if you should ever be unlucky enough to be the victim of a sex crime.

Alex's current case involves Gemma Dogen, a highly respected neurosurgeon. She's been found in her office, late at night. Sexually assaulted, stabbed multiple times, she's been declared "likely to die" by the police. Sadly, by the time Alex gets to the scene, Gemma's dead.

As her assault took place in a large medical center, the list of potential suspects and witnesses is huge. There are the coworkers who were likely jealous of Gemma's success. There are the doctors who want to be hired onto the neurosurgical unit, but Gemma stood in their way. There are the patients on the psych ward who sometimes roam further than they're supposed to. And there are countless homeless people who populate the tunnels under the medical center, and sometimes find their way into the patient areas to grab a quick meal, and some shelter. Surely someone must know something about what took place that night, right??

Here's where I start to dislike the book:

The first places the police look for a suspect are the psych ward and the homeless people. With what I see as blatant prejudice, the doctors are hardly questioned at all, while the others are rounded up and treated no better than common criminals.


[SPOILER ALERT - skip next paragraph if you don't want to read a spoiler]


Now, anybody who reads loads of mysteries knows that the first suspect is never guilty. Otherwise, all books would be only 50 pages long. So, WE know that this first pool of suspects is not going to pan out, but it seems that Alex doesn't know this basic rule. So, we have to get through an enormous waste of time, and many pages chasing several false leads before we get to anything "juicy".



[END SPOILER ALERT]

Secondly, Alex's main coworkers in the DA's office - Mike and Mercer - are written as if they were cartoons. Beer-guzzling, chauvinistic, bad-joke-cracking losers with no redeeming qualities at all. I felt embarrassed for Alex, who seems very professional, to have to work with these idiots day in and day out. I was just waiting for one of them to make a reference about how the good doctor was "asking for it" - being a woman, and working late hours. Luckily, they didn't stoop quite so low, but their personalities are such that I wouldn't put it past them.

Another problem with this book is that it's about 50 pages too long. At over 400 pages, way too many are wasted with side information that is not relevant to the story at all. People come to Alex all the time, to get her opinion on other cases. Fine, that might be realistic, but I don't need to read pages and pages of information about those other cases.

My final problem with the book has to do with predictability. Granted, I read a lot of mysteries. So it's, perhaps, harder to put one over on me, than it would be on those who don't spend a lot of time in this genre. Still, some things are so predictable that anyone should have seen it coming. Here's just one example:

At a dinner party, Alex (who's single, by the way) is told that handsome, successful Drew Renaud has wanted to meet her. She doesn't really question how come, she's just happy to meet a nice man. Naturally they start to date and things heat up ridiculously quickly between them. A bit later on we're told that Drew's a widower; his first wife died of a brain tumor. OK - so does everyone's radar light up now, or is it just me who instantly figures out that there has to be some connection between this mysterious stranger - whose wife died of a brain tumor and the neurosurgeon whose death Alex is investigating? I figured it out the second I read "brain tumor". Oddly, Alex doesn't "notice" the connection until much, much later.

That was but one example of something being ridiculously predictable. Basically, between the waste of time and energy on details that have nothing to do with the main story, the in-your-face predictability of some of the events, and Alex's boorish side-kicks, this book disappoints. Skip it.



Recommended: No