Dead Connection

Ellie Hatcher is a young New York detective working scams and robberies when a special request is made for her to work a homicide case....possibly a serial homicide case. But Ellie also comes with baggage. Her father was a police detective who supposedly committed suicide over a serial murder investigation he conducted years before.

In Alafair Burke's first Ellie Hatcher novel, DEAD CONNECTION, Ellie is called up for a case that involves Internet Dating, and she enters the homicide squad to snickering whispers of "Date Bait." But that doesn't deter Ellie; quite the contrary. She's even more determined to do a damn fine job.

Two factors continually come up when I comment on a book. The first is characterization. If a book has poor show more characterization, it doesn't matter how fabulous the plot is. I'm a character person. And this book ABOUNDS in character. Ellie is fascinating - Ellie is REAL! I love the fact that Ellie makes mistakes. She's a young detective and she makes mistakes that inexperienced people make.

O.k., so Alafair Burke mastered the art of characterization...my next factor - predictability. After all, how can a suspense novel be suspenseful if you can predict everything that's going to happen, right? Didn't predict a gosh darn thing in this book! The reader is fed the facts in little snippets just like Ellie and McIlroy would discover them. The reader has to fit the disordered puzzle pieces together just like the detectives would. And this is one of those puzzles that you can't figure out until every last piece is in its rightful place...and believe me, some of the pieces look like they could fit where they don't belong, creating a whole different picture.

A chuckle came for me in the novel when Ellie calls a detective "Robi --"..."Just call me Dave" from...yep, you guessed it, New Iberia, Louisiana! Gotta love it!

Outstanding read! 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 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 show more 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

I enjoyed this book but found the main character, Ellie Hatcher, as new homicide detective too trusting and niave. She disregards her experienced partners opinions and advice about the different suspects and people surrounding the murders of 3 women involved in the same internet dating website, stalkers, serial killers, money laundering and the Russian mob. I realized after her first interview who was behind the crime.

A really good intro to Ellie & Jess. As a Michael Connelly fan, Flann reminded me a lot of Harry Bosch. Interesting case although I think the ending was put together a little too clumsily.

I enjoyed this 1st in the Ellie Hatcher mystery series. Ellie is an intelligent, energetic, caring detective in New York. She is asked to join the homicide team temporarily on a series of violent murders of young women. She is a great match with Detective Flann McIlroy; and they work well together investigating an online dating site, chasing down leads and interviewing anyone relevant and not so relevant.

They are both independent and have different styles but have strong moral compasses.

I appreciated Burke not putting in more characters than necessary which makes mystery novels overly complicated. Ellie's personal back story adds to her sensitivity and determination to get justice for victims' families.

Good timing, dialog, show more characters, and plot.

Looking forward to the next book in the series. show less

Summary
Detective Ellie Hatcher's father Jerry was on the trail of a serial killer in Witchita, Kansas when he allegedly committed suicide. Ellie's mother was left with no pension, no safety net, and no hope, except for Ellie. After moving to New York and falling in love with the city, Ellie decides to follow in her father's footsteps and try to rid the world of its injustices while fighting for her mother and brother Jess by proving that her father was actually murdered.
In the midst of this fight, Ellie is noticed by Homicide Detective Flann McIlroy who asks specifically for her help on a new case involving murdered women who have a connection with an online dating service called First Date.com.
Ellie dives into the world of Internet show more dating and finds a killer who holds grudges and likes to play games, not just with his victims, and the Russian mob, but with her as well...all safely hidden away, untouchable it seems, behind his computer screen.

What I Liked
Ellie Hatcher - no whiner here, not perfect, but very responsible and a little OCD...when she gets going on something, she just can't put it down.
Peter - one of the most likeable romantic interests of a tough heroine in a long time...his humor, his honesty, his standoffishness and his maturity are all refreshing.
James Lee Burke connection - I've only read one other book by James Lee Burke, The Tin Roof Blowdown, but I'm such a doofus I didn't realize Alafair Burke was his daughter. Now that in itself wouldn't have been "a Like" in my review, but at one point in the story Ellie makes a connection with James Lee Burke's male protagonist Dave Robicheaux...It's never fully mentioned, and if you don't know anything about James Lee Burkes' books, you won't catch it. But, if you do, it's really a cool little strategy :)
Speed - this was a fast read for me...I read it in just a few hours...but it was as enjoyable as watching a fast paced murder mystery on tv or in the movie theatre...I didn't feel like I was sitting there for a few hours...I just couldn't take my eyes off. I never knew who the murderer was until Ellie realized it, and I almost dropped my Nook when she dropped her phone. To say I was involved in this story would be an understatement. :)

What I Didn't Like
Fear factor - this one gave me the chills from time to time...and my teenagers keep asking me why all of a sudden I'm so worried about their Internet activities :/
Techie talk - there's a little bit of talk about cookies, IP addresses, etc. as you would certainly expect there to be in a case like this one. I don't think it's over the top at all, but it's difficult for me to wrap my mind around just how easy it is for someone to hack into your computer...the technology is so beyond my comprehension...but is enough to scare the bejeebies out of me :(

Overall Recommendation
If you like a fast paced mystery/detective series with a gutsy heroine in the lead role, you'll like Ellie. This one's about Internet hacking and the Russian mob too so put on your thinking caps :) show less

Detective Ellie Hatcher, raised in Kansas, became a police officer because her father had been one. He had been working on a case involving multiple murders when he allegedly committed suicide. Her brother, Jess, moved to New York City and she soon followed, planning on helping him.
When two attractive, single women, around thirty years old, were killed exactly a year apart, the New York Police Department called in Hatcher to help solve the crime even though she had been a detective for only four years and did not serve in the Homocide Unit. When a third victim was murdered a week later, they began to wonder if they were dealing with a serial killer. Clues left with the bodies point them toward FirstDate,com, an internet dating site. show more Eventually a fourth murder, three years previously, became part of the picture as a bullet from her murder matches that of the one the previous year.
As Hatcher and her senior partner, Detective Flann McIlroy began to work the cases, they discovered that the policemen who investigated the first murder were rather sloppy in their work. Along the way, the FBI became involved, also in a manner that was not particularly helpful.
They soon realized that the perpetrator was playing games with them, inventing clues calculated to mislead them.
The book was well-written and moved at a nice pace. The characters were consistent with their personalities and idiosyncracies. There were several twists to the story though they should have been able to figure out murderer earlier than they did, though that would have lessened the plot.
It also provided information explaining how identity theft often works. show less