Book Review – Killer Look

Killer Look is the 18^th book in the Alex Cooper series by Linda Fairstein.   Alex is now out of hospital after her kidnapping in the previous book, Devil’s Bridge, but is suffering from PTSD.  Overall I found this to be a fairly typical Alex Cooper book with the author’s trademark of focusing on the history of a particular landmark or section of New York City.  In this edition of the series, Linda Fairstein unravels the history of the city’s garment district and the fashion industry. While I found the history interesting and enjoyed the fashion design storyline, along with the name-dropping of iconic fashion designers (e.g. Coco Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Michael Kors, Alexander McQueen), there were things that irritated me about this book.

Alex is suffering from PTSD.  She readily admits that she is, all of her friends are aware that she is, but yet it isn’t until after page 300 that the issue of therapy is addressed.  Alex does not want to attend therapy and believes that hanging around her boyfriend, Mike, (while he is trying to perform his job) will “cure” her.  Really????  This character is becoming more whiny and man-dependent with each book.  If it wasn’t for the interesting storylines around the historic landmarks in NY City, I would probably give this series up.  Only because I enjoyed the fashion storyline does this book get three stars (otherwise it would have been a two star read).