The bone vault

Following the critically acclaimed and top ten bestseller The Deadhouse, Linda Fairstein now takes us behind the scenes of some of New York's magnificent and mysterious institutions in her most electrifying Alexandra Cooper thriller yet. The Bone Vault begins in the glorious Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where wealthy donors have gathered to hear plans for a controversial new exhibit. An uneasy mix of scholarship and showbiz. The exhibition has raised fierce opposition from some of the museum's elite: IMAX time trips and Rembrandt refrigerator magnets have no place for them at the Met. Assistant DA Alex Cooper, off duty for the evening, observes the proceedings with bemused interest until the Met director suddenly pulls her aside: the body of a young researcher has been found in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Teaming up with cops Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex must penetrate the silent sentinels comprising New York's museum society, investigating not only at the Met but also at the Museum of Natural History and the Cloisters, to find a killer.