Superb.... Equal measures superlative mystery and crack courtroom thriller reminiscent of the great John Lescroart or the William Diehl classic Primal Fear. We literally never know what's coming next. . . a wholly satisfying and brilliantly constructed whiz bang of a tale. -- Providence Journal
In this breakout standalone novel of suspense in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on a Train, a woman agrees to help an old boyfriend who has been framed for murder--but begins to suspect that she is the one being manipulated.
Twenty years ago she ruined his life. Now she has the chance to save it.
Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife Molly by a fifteen-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night's party dress, barefoot, enjoying a champagne picnic alone, reading his favorite novel. Everything about her reminds him of what he used to have with Molly. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That's when Jack's world falls apart.
Olivia Randall is one of New York City's best criminal defense lawyers. When she hears that her former fiancé, Jack Harris, has been arrested for a triple homicide--and that one of the victims was connected to his wife's murder--there is no doubt in her mind as to his innocence. The only question is who would go to such great lengths to frame him--and why?
For Olivia, representing Jack is a way to make up for past regrets, to absolve herself of guilt from a tragic decision, a secret she has held for twenty years. But as the evidence against him mounts, she is forced to confront her doubts. The man she knew could not have done this. But what if she never really knew him?
Soon to be a Prime Video TV series starring Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel
A Washington Post and Sun Sentinel Best Book of the Year
Cunning. . . . Get ready to be led down the garden path to a conclusion so morally ambiguous a professional ethicist might have to be called in. -- Washington Post
From Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of the runaway hit The Wife, comes another twisty tale of domestic noir. When a prominent Manhattan lawyer is murdered, two estranged sisters--one the dead man's widow, the other his ex--must set aside mistrust and old resentments. . . but can they escape their past?
Keep your enemies close and your sister closer.
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky--always restless and more than a little reckless--was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.
For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.
Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different--and Chloe is married to Adam. When he's murdered by an intruder at the couple's East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson's biological mother--her estranged sister, Nicky--back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father's death, the two sisters are forced to unite . . . and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.
In Alafair Burke's electrifying thriller, Dead Connection, a rookie detective goes undercover on the Internet dating scene to draw out a serial killer targeting single women in Manhattan.
When two young women are murdered on the streets of New York, exactly one year apart, Detective Ellie Hatcher is called up for a special assignment on the homicide task force. The killer has left behind a clue connecting the two cases to First Date, a popular online dating service, and Flann McIlroy, an eccentric, publicity-seeking homicide detective, is convinced that only Ellie can help him pursue his terrifying theory: someone is using the lure of the Internet and the promise of love to launch a killing spree against the women of New York City. To catch the killer, Ellie must enter a high-tech world of stolen identities where no one is who they appear to be. And for her, the investigation quickly becomes personal: she fits the profile of the victims, and she knows firsthand what pursuing a sociopath can do to a cop--back home in Wichita, Kansas, her father lost his life trying to catch a notorious serial murderer. When the First Date killer begins to mimic the monster who destroyed her father, Ellie knows the game has become personal for him, too. Both hunter and prey, she must find the killer before he claims his next victim--who could very well be her. Expertly plotted and perfectly paced, Dead Connection advances Alafair Burke to the front ranks of American thriller writers.If You Were Here is a thrilling novel of suspense from Alafair Burke, the author Dennis Lehane calls one of the finest young crime writers working today.
Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks. When she locates a video that captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine, but is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier.
What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman--a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home...
Long Gone is a tremendous novel, and Alafair Burke is one of the finest young crime writers working today.
--Dennis Lehane, author of Moonlight Mile
Echoing the intensity of Harlan Coben's Tell No One and the psychological depth of Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, Alafair Burke's first stand-alone novel catapults her into the top ranks of modern suspense. In New York City's cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving--especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.
This might be the most gripping, insightful work from the best-selling author Alafair Burke yet. She poses a seemingly impossible, if undeniably compelling, challenge: a woman must either save her life or defend her husband, but not both. -- Entertainment Weekly
From New York Times bestselling author Alafair Burke, a stunning domestic thriller in the vein of Behind Closed Doors and The Woman in Cabin 10--in which a woman must make the impossible choice between defending her husband and saving herself.
His Scandal - Her Secret
When Angela met Jason Powell while catering a dinner party in East Hampton, she assumed their romance would be a short-lived fling, like so many relationships between locals and summer visitors. To her surprise, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. For Angela, the marriage turned out to be a chance to reboot her life. She and her son were finally able to move out of her mother's home to Manhattan, where no one knew about her tragic past.
Six years later, thanks to a bestselling book and a growing media career, Jason has become a cultural lightning rod, placing Angela near the spotlight she worked so carefully to avoid. When a college intern makes an accusation against Jason, and another woman, Kerry Lynch, comes forward with an even more troubling allegation, their life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, and Angela believes him. But when Kerry disappears, Angela is forced to take a closer look--at both the man she married and the women she chose not to believe.
This much-anticipated follow-up to Burke's Edgar-nominated The Ex asks how far a wife will go to protect the man she loves.
The plot of an Alafair Burke thriller doesn't just rip from the headlines. She's one step ahead of them. 212 scares you and keeps you turning the pages into the wee hours.
--Harlan Coben
Burke has created a strong female protagonist in the tradition of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone.... Utterly authentic.
--Boston Globe
212 is acclaimed author--and former deputy district attorney--Alafair Burke's gripping thriller featuring hip, Manhattan-based detective Ellie Hatcher. Fans of Lisa Gardner, Sandra Brown, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, Sue Grafton, and PJ Tracy will find it hard to put 212 down until the very last page.
Absorbing...Burke confidently lays out the procedural details. --Publishers Weekly on Close Case
Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid likes to be where the action is: at the scene of a crime, at the arrest of a suspect, with the cops on the Major Crimes Team. But when street smart, plugged-in reporter Percy Crenshaw is brutally murdered in the midst of pursuing a major story, she knows the stakes are high... Within days, cops have a suspect; then a confession. Yet Samantha suspects that something is very wrong, and her concerns keep coming back to the police. The cop who got the confession used tough tactics. The murdered reporter was romantically linked to a cop's wife. And all of the cops she's concerned about are close to her live-in boyfriend, Detective Chuck Forbes. Forced to prosecute a case in which the defendant may be an innocent man, Samantha must tread carefully to uncover the truth about Percy's murder -- without tearing her career, her home life, and the city apart. But just when she thinks her job can't get any more difficult, another more shocking crime comes to light...Angel's Tip is a riveting read that snaps with the beat of New York....A knuckle-biting journey that'll keep you turning pages until the very end.
--Faye Kellerman, bestselling author of the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus novels
Alafair Burke has created a winning heroine in Ellie Hatcher, someone to root for.
--Tami Hoag, bestselling author of Down the Darkest Road
Complex plotting, multi-layered characters, a creepy serial killer--in Angel's Tip, Burke has once again proven herself a terrific storyteller.
--Sandra Brown, bestselling author of Lethal
Acclaimed thriller writer Alafair Burke delves into the underworld of the Manhattan nightclub scene in Angel's Tip. Burke is the daughter of crime fiction superstar James Lee Burke, creator of Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux, prompting the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to proclaim that this fast-paced-but-human thriller proves that writing talent is genetic. A superb crime novel featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher (a strong female protagonist in the tradition of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone --Boston Globe), Angel's Tip follows Ellie's investigation into the murder of a young college student, quite possibly by a member of New York's young moneyed elite, and fans of Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, and Sue Grafton will most definitely want to trail along.
This addictive thriller from acclaimed suspense writer Alafair Burke draws its details from the author's own experiences as a criminal law professor and deputy district attorney, creating an exhilarating, true-to-life tale of crime and its consequences.
Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan townhouse, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insists that their daughter would never take her own life.
Detective Ellie Hatcher will be forced to uncover the truth behind this apparent suicide, navigating Julia's intriguing connections to both New York's wealthiest--and its most dispossessed.
A new murder case with ties to a convicted serial killer leads Detective Ellie Hatcher into a twisting investigation with explosive and deadly results in this superb mystery from the terrific web spinner (Entertainment Weekly) Alafair Burke.
When psychotherapist Helen Brunswick is murdered in her Park Slope office, the entire city suspects her estranged husband--until the District Attorney's office receives an anonymous letter. The letter's author knows a chilling detail that police have kept secret: the victim's bones were broken after she was killed. Her injuries were eerily similar to the signature used twenty years earlier by Anthony Amaro, a serial killer serving a life sentence for his crimes. Now, Amaro is asking to be released from prison, arguing that he was wrongly convicted, and that the true killer is still on the loose.
NYPD Detectives Ellie Hatcher and JJ Rogan are tapped as the fresh look team to reassess the original investigation that led to Amaro's conviction. The case pits them against both their fellow officers and a hard-charging celebrity defense lawyer with a young associate named Carrie Blank, whose older sister was one of Amaro's victims.
As the NYPD and Amaro's lawyers search for certainty among conflicting evidence, their investigations take them back to Carrie's hometown, where secrets buried long ago lead to a brutal attack--one that makes it terrifyingly clear that someone has gotten too close to the truth.
In the second entry in Alafair Burke's sharp, new crime series, the search for a missing judge leads Samantha Kincaid into Portland politics and a labyrinth of crime, corruption, and cover-ups -(Publishers Weekly)
Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid is back at work after an attempt on her life and a promotion into the Major Crimes Unit. When the husband of Portland, Oregon, city judge Clarissa Easterbrook reports her missing and Samantha is called out on the case, she assumes her only job is to make the district attorney look good until the judge turns up. When the police discover evidence of foul play, however, Samantha finds herself unearthing secrets that Clarissa had wanted to stay hidden, the lingering personal tolls of a crime that occurred decades ago. And when those secrets lead to the discovery of corruption at the highest levels of the city's power structure, Samantha realizes that her quest for justice could cost her not only her job but her life. In the skillfully plotted, highly suspenseful follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Judgment Calls, Alafair Burke once again demonstrates that she's got what it takes (Michael Connelly). With its irreverent heroine and seamless blend of squad rooms, street scenes, and courtroom drama, Missing Justice confirms Burke's place among the genre's most talented and exciting newcomers.Alafair Burke's latest propulsive thrill-ride is a suspenseful, twisty mystery about memory, friendship and secrets. A page-turner of the highest order. -Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me
The disappearance of a young woman leaves her best friend reeling and an NYPD homicide detective digging into her own past in this twisty mystery about the power of female friendships. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife.
Some pasts won't stay forgotten . . .
She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind--or been running from. Now, she's leaving New Jersey to start over once again.
Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope's best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay's worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace--the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.
With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father's death twenty years earlier--and she now fears that Hope's recent disappearance could be related.
In pursuit of answers, the women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they've ever known.
Soon to be a Prime Video TV series starring Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel
A Washington Post and Sun Sentinel Best Book of the Year
Cunning. . . . Get ready to be led down the garden path to a conclusion so morally ambiguous a professional ethicist might have to be called in. -- Washington Post
From Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of the runaway hit The Wife, comes another twisty tale of domestic noir. When a prominent Manhattan lawyer is murdered, two estranged sisters--one the dead man's widow, the other his ex--must set aside mistrust and old resentments. . . but can they escape their past?
Keep your enemies close and your sister closer.
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky--always restless and more than a little reckless--was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.
For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.
Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different--and Chloe is married to Adam. When he's murdered by an intruder at the couple's East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson's biological mother--her estranged sister, Nicky--back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father's death, the two sisters are forced to unite . . . and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.
Long Gone is a tremendous novel, and Alafair Burke is one of the finest young crime writers working today.
--Dennis Lehane, author of Moonlight Mile
Echoing the intensity of Harlan Coben's Tell No One and the psychological depth of Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, Alafair Burke's first stand-alone novel catapults her into the top ranks of modern suspense. In New York City's cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving--especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.
In this breakout standalone novel of suspense in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on a Train, a woman agrees to help an old boyfriend who has been framed for murder--but begins to suspect that she is the one being manipulated.
And look for Alafair Burke's latest heart-racing novel of psychological suspense, The Wife, coming in January 2018.
Twenty years ago she ruined his life. Now she has the chance to save it.
Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife Molly by a fifteen-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night's party dress, barefoot, enjoying a champagne picnic alone, reading his favorite novel. Everything about her reminds him of what he used to have with Molly. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That's when Jack's world falls apart.
Olivia Randall is one of New York City's best criminal defense lawyers. When she hears that her former fianc , Jack Harris, has been arrested for a triple homicide--and that one of the victims was connected to his wife's murder--there is no doubt in her mind as to his innocence. The only question is who would go to such great lengths to frame him--and why?
For Olivia, representing Jack is a way to make up for past regrets, to absolve herself of guilt from a tragic decision, a secret she has held for twenty years. But as the evidence against him mounts, she is forced to confront her doubts. The man she knew could not have done this. But what if she never really knew him?
This might be the most gripping, insightful work from the best-selling author Alafair Burke yet. She poses a seemingly impossible, if undeniably compelling, challenge: a woman must either save her life or defend her husband, but not both. -- Entertainment Weekly
From New York Times bestselling author Alafair Burke, a stunning domestic thriller in the vein of Behind Closed Doors and The Woman in Cabin 10--in which a woman must make the impossible choice between defending her husband and saving herself.
His Scandal - Her Secret
When Angela met Jason Powell while catering a dinner party in East Hampton, she assumed their romance would be a short-lived fling, like so many relationships between locals and summer visitors. To her surprise, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. For Angela, the marriage turned out to be a chance to reboot her life. She and her son were finally able to move out of her mother's home to Manhattan, where no one knew about her tragic past.
Six years later, thanks to a bestselling book and a growing media career, Jason has become a cultural lightning rod, placing Angela near the spotlight she worked so carefully to avoid. When a college intern makes an accusation against Jason, and another woman, Kerry Lynch, comes forward with an even more troubling allegation, their life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, and Angela believes him. But when Kerry disappears, Angela is forced to take a closer look--at both the man she married and the women she chose not to believe.
This much-anticipated follow-up to Burke's Edgar-nominated The Ex asks how far a wife will go to protect the man she loves.