Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

The Death Instinct

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

It's a bit intimidating reviewing a book after having read an earlier review in the New York Times. But I'll give it a shot because I very much enjoyed Jed Rubenfeld's The Death Instinct and want to share this with you.  If you're curious about what the Times said about the book - head over here.  Another interesting tidbit about Jed Rubenfeld - he's married to Amy Chua of the Tiger Mom fame/author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom.

Review:
Jed Rubenfeld's The Death Instinct is a detective novel set in 1920s New York.  World War I is over (but the Roaring 20s haven't arrived) and factories are closing, unemployment is rampant and Prohibition has just been imposed.  In this environment of desperation and dissatisfaction, Wall Street explodes.  New York City suffers the most destructive and deadly terrorist attack on US soil.  Enter the war veteran and wealthy Boston Brahmin Dr. Stratham Younger, his colleague NY detective Jimmy Littlemore, and the beautiful and mysterious French physicist Colette Rousseau.

In The Death Instinct, Rubenfeld has taken a historical event that remains unsolved - and created an engrossing tale of injustice, mystery, and adventure.  Stratham, Colette and Jimmy follow the evidence from the streets of New York to the corridors of power in the Capitol to devastated Vienna and the war torn villages in Europe.  They meet with Sigmund Freud, Madame Curie, and JP Morgan's right hand man, Lamont - and take readers on an engrossing and satisfying escape.

ISBN-10: 1594487820 - Hardcover $26.99
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; Reprint edition (January 20, 2011), 464 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.



About the Author:
Rubenfeld was a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1980) and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D., 1986).  He also studied theater in the Drama Division of the Juilliard School between 1980-1982. Rubenfeld clerked for Judge Joseph T. Sneed on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1986-1987.
After his clerkship, he worked as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
He joined the Yale Law School faculty in 1990 and was appointed to a full professorship in 1994. Rubenfeld has also taught as a visiting professor at both the Stanford Law School and the Duke University School of Law.
In September 2006, Rubenfeld's first novel, The Interpretation of Murder, was published by Henry Holt & Co. It was a number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, and it sold over a million copies worldwide.
Rubenfeld is married to Yale Law School professor Amy Chua, author of the books World on Fire and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. They have two daughters, Sophia and Louisa.

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