Alafair Burke
Author of I've Got You Under My Skin
About the Author
Alafair Burke graduated from Reed College and Stanford Law School. After graduating, she became a Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon where she worked as a trial lawyer prosecuting domestic violence offenses and as a liaison to the police department. After five years of working at the show more District Attorney's Office, she decided to start writing. Her first novel, Judgment Calls, was published in 2003. Her other works include Long Gone, If You Were Here, The Ex, A Samantha Kincaid Mystery series, the Ellie Hatcher series, and the Under Suspicion series written with Mary Higgins Clark. She currently teaches criminal law and procedure at Hofstra Law School. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series
Works by Alafair Burke
Burke Alafair 1 copy
Associated Works
Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars (2007) — Contributor — 232 copies, 3 reviews
The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase (2008) — Contributor — 172 copies, 7 reviews
Crimespree Magazine #50 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969-10
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Stanford University (Law ∙ 1994)
Reed College (BA ∙ Psychology ∙ 1991) - Occupations
- academic
legal commentator
author - Organizations
- Hofstra University
- Relationships
- Burke, James Lee (father)
Michel, Delauné (second cousin)
Dubus, Elizabeth Nell (cousin) - Short biography
- Alafair S. Burke is an American author, professor of law and legal commentator, born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is the author of two series of crime novels, one featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, the other featuring Portland prosecutor Samantha Kincaid. She received her B.A. in psychology from Reed College, completing the senior thesis "Emotion's effects on memory: spatial narrowing of attention". Burke is a graduate of Stanford Law School, served as a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon and is now teaching law at Hofstra Law School. She is the daughter of fellow mystery novelist James Lee Burke.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Portland, Oregon, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Discussions
Long gone by Alafair Burke: an excellent thriller in Reviews of Early Reviewers Books (August 2011)
Reviews
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.
It was meant to be a harmless prank.
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.
But even good girls have secrets. show more And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.
When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.
What had they gone and done?
The Note is a page-turner of the highest order from one of our greatest contemporary suspense writers.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Every single person in this book is supremely, unpleasantly toxic. This is by design, not incompetence on the author's part; she's imbibed storycraft with her every breath, being James Lee Burke's child. As a choice, then, I can only call it questionable because most of us...even thriller readers...prefer to see someone in the cast we can at least believe will end up in a better place than they have started. It doesn't help that May, our more central character, gets a lot of carping criticism at every turn from Lauren and Kelsey (her lifelong "friends"). Which, to be scrupulously honest, she returns with interest. Not one of them seems to realize every finger they're pointing at the others has four times as many pointing right back at them.
So the cast didn't elicit my readerly sympathy. I was more interested in their barbs, their curious blindness to their own flaws, as they went away for a girls' escape weekend to the Hamptons after they've each suffered a more or less public shaming. Reconnecting amid the hustle of adulthood can work wonders and revive a relationship or crash and burn. I was sure it would be the latter as May seemed to me to be a bit too tunnel-visiony, Kelsey too unconcerned about her shaming, and Lauren too smug for Author Burke to be setting anything else up.
What kept me going wasn't suspense, exactly, since who did the awful thing that's done was not hard to guess, but the way Author Burke unfolded it. It's an episode of Real Housewives of {Awful-Place Name Here} meets Knives Out. There's slap-and-tickle levels of sex; the women are plainly out for the thrill but we're not taken along for the consummation. The violence of death isn't in your face, either, which can be the case in thrillers versus series mysteries. It isn't ever going to be my steady diet but as a menu of tapas it was fun enough and fine in the craft sense. I was surprised at enjoying the ending as much as I did.
May's Chinese heritage plays a role in the proceedings that I was mildly over-aware of but I decided early on it was me not the story. I get twitchy when "race" (loathsome inaccurate term) rears its deformed deforming skull. Her trajectory is pretty predictable. Kelsey's slightly older place and Lauren's ultra-privileged position don't make for shocking reveals. They're who they appear to be from giddy-up to whoa. It's a good afternoon's reading, it will definitely keep the holiday bustle at bay, the investment of time and treasure is modest...a winning proposition. show less
The Publisher Says: A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.
It was meant to be a harmless prank.
Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.
But even good girls have secrets. show more And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.
When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.
What had they gone and done?
The Note is a page-turner of the highest order from one of our greatest contemporary suspense writers.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Every single person in this book is supremely, unpleasantly toxic. This is by design, not incompetence on the author's part; she's imbibed storycraft with her every breath, being James Lee Burke's child. As a choice, then, I can only call it questionable because most of us...even thriller readers...prefer to see someone in the cast we can at least believe will end up in a better place than they have started. It doesn't help that May, our more central character, gets a lot of carping criticism at every turn from Lauren and Kelsey (her lifelong "friends"). Which, to be scrupulously honest, she returns with interest. Not one of them seems to realize every finger they're pointing at the others has four times as many pointing right back at them.
So the cast didn't elicit my readerly sympathy. I was more interested in their barbs, their curious blindness to their own flaws, as they went away for a girls' escape weekend to the Hamptons after they've each suffered a more or less public shaming. Reconnecting amid the hustle of adulthood can work wonders and revive a relationship or crash and burn. I was sure it would be the latter as May seemed to me to be a bit too tunnel-visiony, Kelsey too unconcerned about her shaming, and Lauren too smug for Author Burke to be setting anything else up.
What kept me going wasn't suspense, exactly, since who did the awful thing that's done was not hard to guess, but the way Author Burke unfolded it. It's an episode of Real Housewives of {Awful-Place Name Here} meets Knives Out. There's slap-and-tickle levels of sex; the women are plainly out for the thrill but we're not taken along for the consummation. The violence of death isn't in your face, either, which can be the case in thrillers versus series mysteries. It isn't ever going to be my steady diet but as a menu of tapas it was fun enough and fine in the craft sense. I was surprised at enjoying the ending as much as I did.
May's Chinese heritage plays a role in the proceedings that I was mildly over-aware of but I decided early on it was me not the story. I get twitchy when "race" (loathsome inaccurate term) rears its deformed deforming skull. Her trajectory is pretty predictable. Kelsey's slightly older place and Lauren's ultra-privileged position don't make for shocking reveals. They're who they appear to be from giddy-up to whoa. It's a good afternoon's reading, it will definitely keep the holiday bustle at bay, the investment of time and treasure is modest...a winning proposition. show less
The backstory: Angel's Tip is the second mystery in Alafair Burke's Ellie Hatcher series, after Dead Connection.
The basics: When Ellie Hatcher discovers the murdered body of Chelsea Hart, an Indiana college student who was visiting New York City with her friends, during her morning run, she takes the case as her own.
My thoughts: After liking but not loving Dead Connection, I was curious what Angel's Tip would bring. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic mystery as well as an show more impressive amount of character development for Ellie Hatcher. As the novel opens, some time has passed since the end of Dead Connection. Immediately, this time allows for Ellie to step out of some of the lingering shadows from the last novel and embrace her new promotion to a homicide detective. The reader jumps right into her new normal, and readers who didn't read Dead Connection could still enjoy this mystery.
What often seems to be a contrived plot: a case impacting a detective personally and professionally, is original here. As the more and more gruesome details about a serial killer emerge, the intensity of this mystery also ramps up. The glimpses inside the mind of the killer have a Criminal Minds level of intensity. A sense of foreboding takes over this mystery, but it's conclusion is an adrenaline rush.
Favorite passage: "Ellie’s father used to say that was the worst part of the job—the knowledge that good people would forever remember your voice, your words, that one phone call, as the moment that changed everything."
The verdict: Angel's Tip is an intense, gritty, police procedural. The mystery is twisting and intriguing, and Burke develops the character of Ellie personally and professionally. This fast-paced, surprising mystery wowed me, and I'm already eagerly awaiting 212, the next Ellie Hatcher mystery. show less
The basics: When Ellie Hatcher discovers the murdered body of Chelsea Hart, an Indiana college student who was visiting New York City with her friends, during her morning run, she takes the case as her own.
My thoughts: After liking but not loving Dead Connection, I was curious what Angel's Tip would bring. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fantastic mystery as well as an show more impressive amount of character development for Ellie Hatcher. As the novel opens, some time has passed since the end of Dead Connection. Immediately, this time allows for Ellie to step out of some of the lingering shadows from the last novel and embrace her new promotion to a homicide detective. The reader jumps right into her new normal, and readers who didn't read Dead Connection could still enjoy this mystery.
What often seems to be a contrived plot: a case impacting a detective personally and professionally, is original here. As the more and more gruesome details about a serial killer emerge, the intensity of this mystery also ramps up. The glimpses inside the mind of the killer have a Criminal Minds level of intensity. A sense of foreboding takes over this mystery, but it's conclusion is an adrenaline rush.
Favorite passage: "Ellie’s father used to say that was the worst part of the job—the knowledge that good people would forever remember your voice, your words, that one phone call, as the moment that changed everything."
The verdict: Angel's Tip is an intense, gritty, police procedural. The mystery is twisting and intriguing, and Burke develops the character of Ellie personally and professionally. This fast-paced, surprising mystery wowed me, and I'm already eagerly awaiting 212, the next Ellie Hatcher mystery. show less
You Don’t Own Me by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke is a 2018 Simon & Schuster publication.
A multi-layered cold case mystery!
The latest cold case for Laurie Moran’s popular program, “Under Suspicion” involves the unsolved murder of Dr. Martin Bell, a prominent physician. Martin’s parents are convinced his troubled wife, Kendra, was behind his murder and they want Laurie to feature his case on her show. What they don’t know is that Kendra has already been approached about show more cooperating with them, but she refused to participate. But, after a second visit from Laurie and her partner, Ryan Nichols, Kendra is convinced it might be in her best interest to go along with it.
Meanwhile, Laurie and Alex are making wedding plans and looking for the perfect place to begin their new lives together, while also celebrating Alex’s appointment to a Federal Judgeship position.
But the reader knows something they don’t- Laurie is being followed and her stalker has murder on his mind…
I’ve followed this series from the beginning and I have loved every single installment. I will say the last chapter in the series was maybe the weakest one and I was just little concerned about the series running out of steam.
However, I needn’t have worried. This latest edition was one of the darkest and most layered cold cases so far. Most of you have heard me say that of all the various tropes in the mystery/thriller categories, cold cases are my favorite. Naturally, this series would appeal to me on that basis alone. Add in the fact that it is co-written by two of the best female mystery/suspense writers out there, and you have an unbeatable combination.
It seems every character in this story has an explosive secret, one that could cast suspicions on them. Even the murder victim has secrets, secrets that could give someone a nice motive for murder. This installment has some really nice and well-timed twists, which kept me on my toes and guessing all the way to the bitter end.
There was a lot going on in this story, with Alex, the stalker, and the murder case, but these clever and seasoned authors brought all the threads together for a rousing and suspenseful conclusion.
I can’t wait to see what these ladies will bring us next in this series!
4 stars show less
A multi-layered cold case mystery!
The latest cold case for Laurie Moran’s popular program, “Under Suspicion” involves the unsolved murder of Dr. Martin Bell, a prominent physician. Martin’s parents are convinced his troubled wife, Kendra, was behind his murder and they want Laurie to feature his case on her show. What they don’t know is that Kendra has already been approached about show more cooperating with them, but she refused to participate. But, after a second visit from Laurie and her partner, Ryan Nichols, Kendra is convinced it might be in her best interest to go along with it.
Meanwhile, Laurie and Alex are making wedding plans and looking for the perfect place to begin their new lives together, while also celebrating Alex’s appointment to a Federal Judgeship position.
But the reader knows something they don’t- Laurie is being followed and her stalker has murder on his mind…
I’ve followed this series from the beginning and I have loved every single installment. I will say the last chapter in the series was maybe the weakest one and I was just little concerned about the series running out of steam.
However, I needn’t have worried. This latest edition was one of the darkest and most layered cold cases so far. Most of you have heard me say that of all the various tropes in the mystery/thriller categories, cold cases are my favorite. Naturally, this series would appeal to me on that basis alone. Add in the fact that it is co-written by two of the best female mystery/suspense writers out there, and you have an unbeatable combination.
It seems every character in this story has an explosive secret, one that could cast suspicions on them. Even the murder victim has secrets, secrets that could give someone a nice motive for murder. This installment has some really nice and well-timed twists, which kept me on my toes and guessing all the way to the bitter end.
There was a lot going on in this story, with Alex, the stalker, and the murder case, but these clever and seasoned authors brought all the threads together for a rousing and suspenseful conclusion.
I can’t wait to see what these ladies will bring us next in this series!
4 stars show less
There was an awful lot going on here: women being murdered on their way home from dates set up through the same website, a murdered former sex worker, credit card fraud, a shady FBI agent and a possibly dodgy police officer. Then there was the detailed, confusing and almost entirely irrelevant backstory of our heroine Ellie. Ellie is seconded to the investigation for reasons which I never grasped - her partner Flann gave differing versions - despite her relative inexperience, but took to show more things like a duck to water, bossing Flann around, defying her superior officers, and generally bending the truth to achieve what she saw as justice. Everything came together in the end, but the final chapters consisted of a lot of explanations of exactly what had happened, which I always see as a sign that the preceding chapters could have been better clued.
This was first published in 2007 and it shows - I think we are all familiar with how online dating, cookies, browser histories etc work, although it seems back in the day this required explanation. show less
This was first published in 2007 and it shows - I think we are all familiar with how online dating, cookies, browser histories etc work, although it seems back in the day this required explanation. show less
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