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Summary
Summary
From Michael Baden (former New York City chief medical examiner, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police and for the U.S. Congress investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and host of the hit HBO series Autopsy) and Linda Kenney (civil rights attorney and guest legal commentator on Court TV, CNN, and MSNBC), a masterful debut crime novel--the first in a stunning new series in contemporary suspense--that brilliantly mines the worlds of forensic science and law and introduces an irresistible crime-fighting team. Philomena "Manny" Manfreda is a crusading attorney for the disenfranchised. Five years out of law school, with an apartment not much bigger than one of her beloved Prada shoe boxes and a burgeoning reputation as one of the city's fiercest litigators, Manny is an unabashed shopaholic who changes her hair color weekly, carries her poodle, Mycroft, everywhere, and whose idea of therapy is the preparation of an eight-course Italian meal. Dr. Jake Rosen is the deputy chief medical examiner of New York City, a confirmed workaholic and bachelor who lives alone in an oversized nineteenth-century Manhattan brownstone littered with morbid memorabilia and forensic artifacts, and who divides his life between the autopsy table and Chinese takeout. When a body is unearthed beneath the construction site of a mall near the Catskill Mountains, Jake is called to the scene by his elderly mentor, Dr. Pete Harrigan, to examine the bones. Further investigation reveals a gruesome discovery: additional skeletal remains with striking abnormalities. After one of the victims is identified, the family of the deceased retains Manny to represent them, and, with Jake, she is swept into a terrifying vortex of murder and deceit, where a mounting body count hides both a shocking cover-up and a devastating love story. A chilling debut that introduces a major new voice in crime fiction. From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
Michael Baden, M.D., is a visiting professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Albany Medical Center, and New York Law School, and has also lectured extensively to law enforcement agencies. He lives in New York City.
(Publisher Provided)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Married couple Baden, former New York City medical examiner, and Kenney, legal commentator for CNN and Court TV, team up for this debut thriller starring a romantic and professional pair with job titles remarkably similar to their own. Dr. Jake Rosen, deputy chief medical examiner for New York City, gets a call from his beloved mentor, Dr. Pete Harrigan, who as county medical examiner in his retirement upstate, has just been handed a pile of bones dug up in an excavation for a new mall. After Harrigan identifies the bones of Korean War vet James Albert Lyons, who mysteriously disappeared in 1963, Jake suggests that Lyons's daughter hire an attorney, Philomena "Manny" Manfreda, a fashionista spitfire who specializes in representing the downtrodden. On their first date, Jake takes Manny to dinner and then to an emergency autopsy, where they banter cute while he dissects the corpse. After Harrigan dies of apparently natural causes, the body count rises, the romance between Manny and Jake heats up and soon nefarious experiments by the government come to light. Pedestrian writing and an implausible ending detract from this vehicle for Baden and Kenney's medical and criminal expertise. 11-city author tour. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A tightly plotted but clumsily written debut thriller by a husband-and-wife team with high-profile careers in forensic pathology and law. Baden (former New York City medical examiner; chief forensics pathologist for the Congressional investigations into the assassinations of JFK and MLK; host of HBO's Autopsy) and Kenney (civil-rights and criminal lawyer; frequent Court TV talking head) offer dual--and sometimes dueling--protagonists: Dr. Jake Rosen is New York's deputy chief medical examiner, a rumpled, absent-minded professor type, while Philomena "Manny" Manfreda is a brassy, expensively clothed civil-rights litigator. The only thing they have in common is that they seem to have marched onto the page straight from central casting. Rosen is summoned to the upstate town where his revered mentor lives to assist in the investigation of human bones unearthed during the building of a mall, and he and Manfreda are soon unraveling a decades-long conspiracy involving Cold War-era medical experiments, the mentor's dark secrets and, more recently, the local sheriff's suspicious hostility to a forensic investigation that's holding up construction on a high-dollar development. (In their downtime, the pair yield to their grudging mutual attraction and--surprise!--hook up.) If read simply for story, the twists come reliably and the pages breeze by. But much of it is disposable. The authors have a fatal knack for broad, pulpy prose that robs their characters of the subtlety that would make them come alive. And interior thoughts ("Too late. Dear God, forgive me. Too late," as Jake says after finding a friend dead) are expressed with the nuance of a wrecking ball. Light and not terribly original. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Baden, a former medical examiner and host of the HBO series Autopsy and Kenney, a legal analyst for several cable news programs, add some sparkle to a rapidly growing subgenre with this energetic thriller that introduces a pair of strong-willed, affable protagonists who come to grips with bodies both long dead and hardly cold. Jake Rosen won't turn up on anyone's best-dressed list, but he's a crackerjack medical examiner, and he doesn't hesitate when he's summoned by his mentor to scrutinize human remains uncovered by a crew clearing land for a shopping center abutting the grounds of a state mental hospital. He stubbornly pursues the case, despite a series of occurrences obviously meant to warn him off. Just as obdurate as Jake is attorney Philomena Manfreda (Manny for short), fighter for the underdog, whose client is the daughter of one of the dearly departed. Cruising around in her sports car, impeccably attired Manny seems flaky at first, but in terms of wits and courage, she's a perfect match for Jake. If not entirely bloodless, the forensic details are surprisingly tidy, delivered with an almost tutorial detachment, and the quirky personalities of the characters, especially Manny, add a layer of comedy unheard of in forensic thrillers. There's even a little romance. All in all, it's a very promising start to a new series; expect demand. --Stephanie Zvirin Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this forensic mystery with a lighter side, medical examiner Jacob "Jake" Rosen is called upon to investigate multiple human remains found at a construction site and suspects that an adjacent but now defunct psychiatric facility is somehow related. A short time later, feisty, fashion-obsessed legal crusader Philomena "Manny" Manfreda is hired by the family of a missing former patient of the facility. Together, Manny and Jake set out to identify the bodies and determine why they were buried so unceremoniously in the field behind the institute. Standing in their way is someone who will resort to murder to ensure that information remains secret. Baden, a former New York City medical examiner and host of HBO's Autopsy, and Kenney, a legal commentator for CNN and Court TV, have written a brisk debut novel full of forensic details and unforgettable characters. Fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs who appreciate a little humor with their thrillers will enjoy this one. Recommended for popular reading collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/05.]-Leslie Madden, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.