April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Linda Fairstein’s latest crime novel, “Lethal Legacy,” drops a corpse into the immense bowels of the stately New York Public Library.

In her 11th outing, New York Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper ventures into the wealthy world of neurotic book and map collectors along with their procurers and restorers.

Fairstein’s novels are partly based on her long legal career: In 1972 she became one of the few female lawyers working in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Taking over the pioneering sex crimes unit four years later, Fairstein forced a rethink of old attitudes on violence against women and children.

We spoke over lunch at Bloomberg’s world headquarters in New York.

Lundborg: Your new book has two instances of impostors ringing the doorbell -- a fake fireman and a fake delivery person. How common is that?

Fairstein: The fake fireman scene which opens the book is based on a real case: a Manhattan man who’d been stalking a woman. When all else failed, he started a fire outside her apartment, set off a smoke bomb, and then, dressed up as a fireman, rang her bell. What woman wouldn’t open a door when she smells smoke?

The fireman scenario is rare, but the fake delivery man is one of the most-used ploys for getting into somebody’s apartment. Everyone wants a package.

For Art’s Sake

Lundborg: A doorman helps, surely?

Fairstein: One of the most common ugly things in buildings with doormen is the delivery boy who comes in, makes his legitimate delivery, and then goes down the hall trying doors to see if any are open.

Lundborg: In your book, crimes are committed for the sake of art. How did you seize on the acquisition of beautiful things as a motivating passion for murder?

Fairstein: I had one case of a book thief who went across the country stealing rare books from libraries, mostly those with colored plates and pictures which can be cut out and sold separately for hundreds of thousands of dollars. He’s long been in the back of my mind.

I also love to explore the institutions of New York City, and my favorite is the Public Library.

Lundborg: So what finally prompted you to do it?

Fairstein: News about a map thief, Forbes Smiley, who’d had free access to the Harvard library, the Beinecke at Yale and the New York Public. He sliced out the rarest of maps with an X-Acto knife and hid them up his sleeve. He was only caught when, in the silence of the Beinecke, he dropped the knife.

Dysfunctional Families

Lundborg: What inspired you to create this family of book nuts?

Fairstein: All the great dysfunctional families of the world. Collections from the Astor, Tilden and Lennox families became the foundation of the New York Public Library, and their descendants have tried to get some of the treasures back, especially if they are not on display. There’s a lack of transparency about what is in these collections, so often objects are quietly de-accessioned. Such a refined world, but it’s seething underneath!

Lundborg: How did you finally gain access to the New York Public?

Fairstein: I was afraid that since I write commercial fiction, the library would have nothing to do with me. As it turns out, David Ferriero, who’s in charge of the research library, reads crime novels, and he took me in. We started with the physical plant. There are seven floors of stacks below Fifth Avenue -- 88 miles of books -- and you could put a body almost anywhere and it could be weeks before somebody gets to it.

Deadly Weapons

Lundborg: What was the best place?

Fairstein: One of the surprises for me was the conservation lab. I was really struck by the coffee mugs on each desk that had the deadliest assortment of weapons you’d ever want to see. Then you think of books that are leather-bound -- it’s animal skin -- and these tools are very sharp. I knew then a conservator was going to die.

Lundborg: Is the age of the library over?

Fairstein: They argue within the library about whether people like me will keep coming to physically hold the real volume, touch it and smell it, or whether the Internet will make libraries into museums of books. In this economic downturn, more people are using libraries. In fact, the biggest single use in libraries nationally now is people coming in and using the computers to surf for jobs.

Strange Bed

Lundborg: What sort of consulting work do you do?

Fairstein: A whole range of things. I met with the Boulder district attorney about a number of cold cases that are being reopened: women who were raped and killed years ago.

An executive called me about his teenage daughter. While they were in New York, she left the hotel with a girlfriend and wound up naked in a strange bed with no memory of how she got there. I’ll meet with her and see if I can help her deal with this. Maybe we can identify the predator. It’s unlikely this is the first time.

“Lethal Legacy” is published by Doubleday (372 pages, $26.00). This interview was adapted from a longer conversation.

(Zinta Lundborg is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own. This interview was adapted from a longer conversation at Bloomberg’s New York offices.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Zinta Lundborg in New York zlundborg@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 1, 2009 00:01 EDT