Bonus Content
Silent Mercy
“IS that you with the broad, Detective?” the fire captain shouted at Mike Chapman in the darkness of a frigid March night. “Keep her back there, across the street.”
“Got that, Coop? Stay put.” Mike left me in the middle of the double-wide roadway, wedged between unmarked police cars and bright red fire trucks as he charged in behind the huddle of uni¬formed cops on the sidewalk on the far side of the street.
I took my own blue-and-gold badge out of my pocket—no one would stop to read that the small print beneath my name said Assistant District Attorney, not NYPD—and flapped it over the breast pocket of my ski jacket, slinking between rowdy onlookers to get within inches of Mike.
“Alexandra Cooper. Special Victims,” I said to one of the firemen. His scowl softened and he nodded to let me pass.
Chaos had enveloped the corner of 114th Street and Seventh Avenue. Flames still danced around something that lay on the portico of a stately old church, teasing the water that spouted from steady-stream nozzles the firemen aimed at it. Emergency Service Unit cops wielded axes to try to break open the locks on the wrought-iron gate that guarded the front steps, and a growing herd of neighborhood rubberneckers crowded the first responders who were trying to get the job done.
I was on the tips of my toes, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was burning. Amidst blackened fragments of some kind of fabric and the occasional glitter of embers atop that, I could make out something white—almost flesh-colored. The shape of a human arm, maybe, but that thought was too awful to imagine.
More firemen rushed past me to aid their brother officers, one of them knocking me back a step. There was no point in slowing anyone down to ask questions.
I raised myself up again. It must have been sensory overload because I thought I could see a hand, but there weren’t really any fingers, and a terrible smell made me dizzier than the confusing sight.
“Who on fire?” one tall kid yelled out at no one in particular, then started to pull on the sleeve of my jacket as I passed in front of him.
“Don’t know,” I said, breaking loose from his grip and inching forward, but his choice of pronoun focused me.
No question that within the fiery pile was a human being. The putrid odor of burning flesh—coppery and metallic—permeated the air. Holocaust survivors and soldiers who had liberated camps in World War II claimed it was a stench they would never forget.
“Go!” It was one of the ESU cops who had pushed back the gate he’d hacked open, calling out to the firemen who’d been spraying hoses impatiently from the sidewalk.
The pair took the church steps two at a time, rushing toward the smoking mound. While uniformed cops turned their attention to crowd control, Mike dashed in through the gate.
Reprinted by arrangement with Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from SILENT MERCY by Linda Fairstein.
Copyright © 2011 by Fairstein Enterprises, LLC
Silent Mercy
In the middle of the night, prosecutor Alexandra Cooper is called to a church in Harlem, where the body of a young woman has been decapitated, set on fire and left burning on the steps. The only identifiable artifact is the imprint of a Star of David necklace seared into the victim's flesh. Was the fire meant to destroy this woman's body, or call attention to it? Days later, when a second corpse is found at a cathedral in Little Italy, Alex fears that someone else is bound to die.
In Linda Fairstein’s Silent Mercy, Alex mines the byzantine depths of Manhattan’s houses of worship to find a link between the victims. What she uncovers takes her far beyond the scope of her investigation—and into the path of terrible danger.
Hardcover : 400 pages
Publisher: Dutton, Div. of Penguin Putnam ( March 08, 2011 )
Item #: 13-326930
ISBN: 9780525952022
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.875inches
Product Weight: 14.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
i'm trying to get through it too 
December 06, 2011
REally slow - too much religious detail. I'm fighting my way through it also. I'm about half way through it, I read about ten pages and nod off. But I'll finish it sooner or later - probably later. When I finish it - if there is anything redeamable about it - I will write another review.
Reviewer: william a
Horrible
April 17, 2011
First book I've tried by this author. Got about 1/4 of the way through and just put it down. Did not hold my interest whatsoever. Won't read another by this author.
Reviewer: Stacey H
not a best seller!
April 02, 2011
I felt I wasted my time with this book. a total disappointment. I will not try this author again.
Reviewer: j. b
dragging
March 28, 2011
I am disappointed with it...I am STILL trying to get through it.
Reviewer: cindy
Disappointed!
March 27, 2011
I've always been a fan of this series from Linda Fairstein but I didn't even finish this book. I thought it got so bogged down with historical facts that the tension and build up of finding the killer were missing. I forced myself to read about 3/4 of the book but at that point didn't care who did it so I gave up.
Reviewer: nadiner
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