BY GRACE MCQUADE
Little did former Manhattan prosecutor turned New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein know when she first picked up one of her older brother’s Hardy Boys’ mysteries as a child that the seeds for what would become a fruitful and fulfilling career had been sown.
She soon discovered the Nancy Drew mystery series for girls, and wrote a story in elementary school, “The Secret of Apple Tree Farm,” modeled after the cases solved by her favorite sleuth.
“Those books really had a lot to do with making me want to become a writer,” Fairstein said during a phone interview last week. “I loved the stortytelling… they really captured my imagination.”
Now, after a high-profile career working for 30 years in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and with 18 bestselling crime novels under her belt, Fairstein still recalls where it all began.
“For the women who were Carolyn Keene…,” the pseudonym for the authors of the Nancy Drew novels, “you set my course” are the words on the opening, dedication page of her 19th novel, “Deadfall,” on sale this week.
To coincide with the release, Fairstein will participate in a special event hosted by Turn of the Corkscrew Books and Wine and the Madison Theatre at Molloy College this coming Sunday, July 30 at 2 p.m.
Long Island literary icon Nelson DeMille will lead their conversation about the art of mystery writing and the evolution of Fairstein’s career, which has taken her from the heights of City Hall and One Police Plaza to her second act in life, realizing her childhood dream of writing mystery novels.
When it comes to writing books, the adage is to write what you know, and Fairstein certainly knows a lot.
After graduating from Vassar College and the University of Virginia Law School, she joined the Manhattan DA’s office in 1972 as an Assistant District Attorney, and then was chosen to direct the Sex Crimes Unit from 1976 to 2002, where she prosecuted high-profile cases, including the conviction of Robert Chambers, dubbed the Preppy Murderer.
During her tenure, she fought for legislative reform for acts of sexual violence and rape, and pioneered techniques to allow these victims to finally triumph in the courtroom.
She was also one of the first prosecutors in the country to introduce DNA evidence into trials when it was still in its infancy.
Given these trailblazing accomplishments, it was no surprise when the New York Daily News called Fairstein “Hell on Heels” in its cover Sunday magazine feature on her first, non-fiction book, “Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape,” published in 1993.
Fairstein soon became the model for many of the strong, female prosecutors portrayed on popular TV crime shows, namely “Law & Order: SVU,” the series that was inspired by the highly-publicized Preppy Murder case.
Yet it was at the height of her career that Fairstein revisited the idea of writing fiction.
“I never gave up the desire to write good stories,” she said.
Her first novel, “Final Jeopardy,” came out in 1996, introducing readers to her one-of-a-kind heroine, Alexandra Cooper (“Coop”).
Like Fairstein, Cooper is a graduate of a prestigious, women’s college, Wellesley, and the UVA Law School.
Cooper also works as a Manhattan Assistant DA in the Sex Crimes Unit, where she takes on her fair share of tragic, and often gruesome, cases.
Cooper also enjoys fine food and wine from restaurants like Primola and Patroon in Manhattan, summering in Martha’s Vineyard, and her daily dose of the game show “Jeopardy” — just like Fairstein.
“How you create the characters is so important in structuring a series,” Fairstein says. “Either people relate to your characters and come back book after book or they don’t.”
In Fairstein’s case, readers continue to come back in droves to discover Cooper’s latest caper — and personal drama.
Described in “Deadfall” as a “fair-haired golden girl” by her partner in crime (and love), Mike Chapman, Cooper is tough when she needs to be and has gotten herself into — and out of — many precarious situations.
That’s where the similarities end, Fairstein says. “Alex puts herself out there in the field far more than we did.”
In “Killer Heat” (2008), partially set on Governor’s Island, Cooper gets caught in a chilling shoot-out.
“Bad Blood” (2007) took Cooper into the water tunnels under New York. For her research, Fairstein went down the 600 feet to see the tunnels herself, but came right back up, only experiencing the chilly elevator ride. “Alex had to stay there for a while,” Fairstein said with a laugh.
And in the more recent “Devil’s Bridge” (2015), Cooper gets into her most life-threatening predicament when she is kidnapped.
“Deadfall” picks up from there, with Cooper on a leave-of-absence from her post. Although she is trying to fly under the radar, she soon finds herself at the center of the news once again and the prime suspect in the assassination of her long-time mentor, Manhattan DA Paul Battaglia, when he falls into her arms after being fatally shot on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
To prove her innocence, she is forced to come out of hiding and do her own digging, pitting her and NYPD detectives Chapman and Mercer Wallace, against the Feds.
Their hunt exposes shady characters connected to Battaglia in the days leading up to his murder, and unexpectedly leads them into the world of big-game hunting and the illicit business of animal poaching.
As part of her research, Fairstein spent much time at the Bronx Zoo, a place that brings back fond memories from her youth since the zoo was only twenty minutes from her childhood home.
And the Wildlife Conservation Society that runs the zoo, who she credits in her Acknowledgments for the wonderful work they do to preserve wildlife, gave her great access.
In typical Fairstein fashion of including “fun facts” in her novels about many of New York’s famous landmarks, she shares an interesting chapter in history about New York City’s zoos that involves a well-known figure connected to the North Shore of Long Island.
“People in the 1860s, ‘70s and ‘80s were going on exotic trips and coming back with things like bison from the west and ostriches or swans,” Fairstein said. “When they realized these were things you could not keep at home, they just donated them and left them off at the menagerie.”
But the menagerie, what the Central Park Zoo was called back then, was only meant for the exhibition of wild animals — it wasn’t about conservation or educating the public about them.
“Then when all the mansions went up along Fifth Avenue, rich people like the Vanderbilts and Astors didn’t like the smell of the animals so much so the city had to look for a new place to put them,” Fairstein said.
“The Bronx was a wilderness back then,” providing an ideal setting, “with the Bronx River running through it, wild trees and open plains,” she explained. “So the 265 acres that the city acquired would become the Bronx Zoo all because the menagerie on Fifth Avenue smelled so bad,” she said.
In her novel, Fairstein also reveals that one of the leaders of the movement to create this real zoo and preserve the animal species was big-game hunter, environmentalist and future president, Teddy Roosevelt, who lived in the city and his Sagamore Hill estate in Oyster Bay at the time.
With his friends, Roosevelt created the Boone and Crocket Club – named after the famous frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett – early crusaders for saving wildlife and the driving force behind creating the Bronx Zoo.
While Fairstein didn’t elaborate on how Alex Cooper uses this information to unravel the crime and what’s in store for her future, she did say that her character will have to decide if she wants a piece of the political pie or continue to do the work she loves.
As for Fairstein, she left the legal limelight more than a decade ago and now writes full-time from her homes in Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard.
In addition to her Alex Cooper series, she’s started a new series of novels for young readers about a Nancy Drew-like, young detective, Devlin Quick, that will also come out once a year.
Fairstein enjoys her monthly dinners with fellow writers like DeMille of Garden City and Susan Isaacs of Sands Point, among other seasoned authors, where they share tools of the trade — and lots of laughs.
She also likes meeting her many fans while on book tours, with her event on Long Island this weekend, a perfect outing for everyone who loves good crime dramas and wants the next best beach read.
The Madison Theatre at Molloy College is located at 1000 Hempstead Ave. in Rockville Centre.
Tickets to the event are still available at $35 per person, which includes a pre-signed copy of the book.
To purchase tickets and for more information about the event, go to www.madisontheatreny.org.
