Before becoming a full-time writer Linda Fairstein (KILLER LOOK) was a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She gives three examples of how her time in the courtroom influenced her writing.

Killer Look (An Alexandra Cooper Novel)

New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein delivers a heart-pounding thriller that explores the dark secrets of Manhattan’s iconic fashion scene in her latest Alexandra Cooper novel.
 

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New York City is one of the fashion capitals of the world, well-known for its glamour and style.  Nowhere is this more apparent than on the runway, where American haute couture continually astounds with its creativity, daring, and innovation in the name of beauty.  Yet high fashion means high stakes, as Alex Cooper quickly discovers when businessman and designer Wolf Savage is found dead in an apparent suicide, mere days before the biggest show of his career. When the man’s daughter insists Savage’s death was murder, the case becomes more than a media sensation: It is a race to find a killer in a world created entirely out of fantasy and illusion.

With her own job at the DA’s office in jeopardy, and the temptation to self-medicate her PTSD with alcohol almost too strong to resist, Alex is not anyone’s first choice for help.  But she is determined to uncover the grime—and the possible homicide—beneath the glitz.  Along with detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex must penetrate the twisted roots and mixed motives among the high-profile players in the Garment District.  The investigation takes the trio from the missing money in Wolf Savage’s international fashion house to his own recovery from addiction; from the role of Louisiana Voodoo in his life to his excessive womanizing; and to the family secrets he kept so well-hidden, even from those closest to him—just as things are about to get deadly on the catwalk.

With Killer Look, Linda Fairstein proves once again why she is the “Queen of Intelligent Suspense.”*

*Lee Child

Linda Fairstein was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office in Manhattan for more than two decades and is America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Her Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.

INTERNATIONAL THRILLER WRITERS ANNOUNCE

THE WINNERS OF THE

2016 ITW THRILLER AWARDS

 The International Thriller Writers (ITW) is proud to announce the most thrilling authors of 2016. The winners of this year’s ITW Thriller Awards are:

2016 THRILLERMASTER AWARD: Heather Graham is the bestselling author of The Cafferty and Quinn series, The Krewe of Hunters series, and the Bone Island Trilogy. Graham also launched books for Dell’s Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette’s Shadows, and for Harlequin’s mainstream fiction imprint, Mira Books. The award was presented by R.L. Stine, the 2011 ThrillerMaster Award winner.

2016 SILVER BULLET AWARD: Lescroart, a founding member of ITW and a New York Times bestselling author of legal thrillers, has donated funds from character-naming auctions to support libraries, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and many others. He’s also been involved in the Authors on the Move fundraiser for the Sacramento Public Library Foundation. Lescroart was presented the award by Steve Berry, the 2013 Silver Bullet Literary Award winner.

The winners of the best hard cover novel, best paperback original, best first novel, best e-book original, best young adult novel and best short story are:  

BEST HARD COVER NOVEL

Ian Caldwell, THE FIFTH GOSPEL (Simon & Schuster)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL NOVEL

John Gilstrap, AGAINST ALL ENEMIES (Pinnacle)

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Brian Panowich, BULL MOUNTAIN (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

BEST E-BOOK ORIGINAL NOVEL

Chris Kuzneski, THE PRISONER’S GOLD (Chris Kuzneski)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Michelle Painchaud PRETENDING TO BE ERICA (Viking Books for Young Readers)

BEST SHORT STORY

Joyce Carol Oates GUN ACCIDENT: AN INVESTIGATION (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine)

There’s only one event where you can find New York Times best-selling authors lurking around every single corner, literary agents actually appearing in broad daylight and fans openly plotting and conspiring with the most feared and revered names of the thriller genre. We hope that you join us in 2017 for ThrillerFest XII, the International Thriller Writers’ twelfth annual celebration of all things Thriller, the largest event of its kind in the world.  The highlight of the festival is the gala ITW Thriller Awards Banquet during which a fresh batch of authors will be announced as the chosen heroes of suspense. www.thrillerfest.com

My favorite conference every year! Hope to see you there next summer.

Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. I hope you will indulge me as I use this forum to honor my husband.

Larry and I met in 1977 at Dowling College in Oakdale, NY. I had just turned 17, he was 19, and fate and my high school guidance counselor brought us together.

I planned on graduating high school early but my parents refused to give me permission. I was already a year ahead in school, and my parents didn’t want me leaving home that young. My senior year I had two classes, Driver’s Ed and gym. And Driver’s Ed was only one semester. So they acquiesced and let me graduate mid-year.  Because it was all so last minute, and my parents didn’t want me going too far, my guidance counselor, Pat Confrey, helped get me into Dowling College, a small, private college on Long Island. Mr. Confrey refereed lacrosse games there and had a good relationship with the school.

Larry and I hooked up a month later and have been together ever since. He played lacrosse (the team was undefeated that year) so I got to thank my old guidance counselor at one of the games.

I truly believe that Larry and I were destined to be together. There are all these weird coincidences that have run through our lives.

We both had planned on transferring to a school in Florida. I had to wait a year, per parental decree, so

approx. 1979

he waited for me. He went to the Florida Institute of Technology in Jensen Beach, and I headed for the University of Miami. We planned our schedules so that we never had classes on Friday. I didn’t have a car so he would drive down every Thursday night to pick me up and bring me back to Jensen Beach, where he shared a house with our closest friends from Dowling. Then on Sunday night he would drive me back to Miami. We are talking about a little more than 4 hours driving every Friday and again on Sunday. Every week.

Larry attended junior high school with my step-sister on my father’s side. He was a year ahead of Alan, my step-brother on my mother’s side, in high school, and had been to his house and had met my stepfather way before I ever did. They had mutual friends and still do to this day.

When I was in junior high, I used to hang out at Salisbury Park on Long Island. Larry worked there summers on the grounds crew. Did I ever see him? Who knows.

I grew up in Merrick, NY and my best friend’s parents owned a fabric store in Plainview.   Occasionally I went with her to the store. Larry grew up in Plainview and his mother was quite the seamstress, so she was often in that store and so was he. I can’t help but wonder if we were ever there at the same time.

There are more coincidences, but you get the idea.

Our wedding was beautiful but almost didn’t happen. Not because of us or our relationship, but because of my crazy father. you’ll have to wait for the book to get all the juicy details!

Larry has always supported and encouraged me in whatever I wanted to do. When I started my own website back in the Geocities days, he bought me my own domain. I was in my 40’s when I decided to go back and finish college and he was thrilled for me. When I decided to go to library school at age 50, he was there for me, picking up the slack at home, driving me across the state when I had an occasional class in Tampa. When I was invited to speak at various conferences around the country, he was driving me to the airport and even came along on some trips.

Larry has stood by me and given me strength when I needed it most. When our son was born 6 weeks premature and I was freaking out about bringing home a 4 lb. baby on a heart monitor, he calmed me down and made me feel like we would be just fine. And we were. And when I couldn’t get pregnant the second time, and would burst into tears whenever I spotted a baby, he comforted me. And when we needed to go through all those infertility tests, and our crappy insurance didn’t cover any of it, somehow we managed. Eventually we had a beautiful daughter and our family was complete.

Larry has always made me feel special, and beautiful, and loved. He’s surprisingly romantic, caring, thoughtful and understanding. He’s an awe-inspiring father, and an outstanding son. I couldn’t ask for a better husband. I can only wish for thirty-five more years with this man.