Part of Alexandra Cooper, book 4
First published 2003
Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper faces a puzzling murder during the holiday season. Professor Lola Dakota lies dead in an elevator shaft at an elite New York college, strangled and clutching hair strands. A paper in her pocket bears the words "The Deadhouse." Cooper teams with detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to unravel the case. Evidence points to Lola's husband Ivan, who wanted her dead but claims an alibi. Could he have hired someone? Lola's academic colleagues tell stories that don't add up. The investigation deepens when Cooper discovers Lola kept a photograph of Charlotte Voight, a student who disappeared from her dorm eight months earlier. The connection between the two women remains unclear. Cooper must decode Lola's link to the Deadhouse, an abandoned structure on an East River island where people once suffered slow deaths. The building may hold the key to both disappearances, but it also threatens Cooper as she closes in on the killer.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, academic
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, investigation, mystery
Setting: East River, New York, The Deadhouse
Period: Holiday Season
528 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Pocket Books
Content warnings: death, murder, violence