The daughter of legendary author James Lee Burke, Alafair Burke has built a considerable reputation for crafting taut mysteries herself. With 212, this former deputy district attorney pens a haunting tale investigating the terrifying realities of Internet anonymity. When a student is murdered following a series of threatening messages posted on a college gossip site, NYPD detectives Ellie Hatcher and J.J. Rogan are assigned the case. As they dig deeper, however, they discover the victim was only one of many-and the killer isn't finished.
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 moment.
A murder case with ties to a convicted serial killer leads a young defense lawyer and an NYPD homicide detective into parallel investigations with explosive and deadly results in this superb mystery from "one of the finest young crime writers working today" (Dennis Lehane).
The latest story dominating New York tabloids, the murder of Park Slope psychotherapist Helen Brunswick, couldn't be further from Carrie Blank's world handling federal appeals at one of Manhattan's most elite law firms. But then a hard-charging celebrity trial lawyer calls Carrie with a case she can't refuse. Anthony Amaro, a serial killer convicted twenty years earlier, has received an anonymous letter containing a chilling detail about Brunswick's murder: the victim's bones were broken after she was killed, the same signature used in the murders attributed to Amaro. Now Amaro is asking to be released from prison.
Carrie has a reason to be interested. Her older sister, Donna, was one of Amaro's victims. Determined to force the government to catch Donna's real killer, Carrie joins Amaro's wrongful conviction team with her own agenda.
On the other side of Amaro's case is NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, who, along with her partner, J. J. Rogan, is tapped as the "fresh look" team to reassess the investigation that led to Amaro's conviction. The case is personal for them, too: Ellie wonders whether they got the assignment because of her relationship with the lead prosecutor, and Rogan has his own reasons to distrust Amaro's defense team.
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.
The second thrilling novel in the New York Times bestselling Under Suspicion series following The Cinderella Murder, featuring intrepid television producer Laurie Moran as she investigates the case of a missing bride.Five years ago Amanda Pierce was excitedly preparing to marry her college sweetheart in a lavish ceremony at The Breakers in Palm Beach. Then, with their guests and families on site, Amanda disappeared. In present-day New York City, Laurie Moran realizes a missing bride is the perfect cold case for her investigative television series, Under Suspicion. She and her team set out to recreate the night of the disappearance at the Florida resort with Amanda's friends and family in attendance, hoping to shed new light on the mystery as the series has done in past episodes. With a jealous sister, playboy groomsmen, Amanda's former fiancé now married to a bridesmaid, and rumors about the "beloved" bride herself, Laurie and Under Suspicion host Alex Buckley quickly realize everyone has a theory about why Amanda vanished into thin air. One thing is certain: whoever was behind Amanda's disappearance plans to keep the truth hidden "until death do they part..." The bestselling Under Suspicion series from Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke offers "plenty of intrigue and excitement" (Publishers Weekly, on The Cinderella Murder). Featuring the chilling suspense and elegant settings listeners have come to love, All Dressed in White is not to be missed.
Alafair Burke writes thrillers that keep readers on the edge of their seats, and as Entertainment Weekly says, she “knows when to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy.” In Angel’s Tip, Detective Ellie Hatcher enters the high-priced world of New York City nightlife when a pretty clubgoer is found brutally murdered. “Be prepared for a knuckle-biting journey that’ll keep you turning pages until the very end.”—Faye Kellerman
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 FirstDate.com, 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 own father lost his life trying to catch a notorious serial murderer. When the FirstDate 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 knows her only choice is to find the killer before he claims his next victim - who could very well be Ellie herself.
"Queen of Suspense" Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke are back with their fourth book in the New York Times bestselling Under Suspicion series; Every Breath You Take follows television producer's Laurie Moran investigation of the unsolved Met Gala murder-in which a wealthy widow was pushed to her death from the famous museum's rooftop.
Laurie Moran's professional life is a success-her television show Under Suspicion is a hit, both in the ratings and its record of solving cold cases. But her romantic break from former host Alex Buckley has left her with on-air talent she can't stand-Ryan Nichols-and a sense of loneliness, despite her loving family.
Now Ryan has suggested a new case. Three years ago, Virginia Wakeling, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the museum's most generous donors, was found in the snow, after being thrown from the museum's roof on the night of its most celebrated fundraiser, the Met Gala. The leading suspect then and now is her much younger boyfriend and personal trainer, Ivan Gray.
Ivan runs a trendy, successful boutique gym called Punch-a business funded in no small part by the late Virginia-which happens to be the gym Ryan frequents. Laurie's skepticism about the case is upended by a tip from her father's NYPD connection, and soon Laurie realizes there are a bevy of suspects-including Virginia's trusted inner circle.
As the Under Suspicion crew pries into the lives of a super wealthy real estate family with secrets to hide, danger mounts for several witnesses-and for Laurie.
The unmissable thriller from the Grande Dame of Suspense, MARY HIGGINS CLARK, and New York Times bestselling author ALAFAIR BURKE.
The Met Gala ball: the world's most glamorous fundraising party, an incredible night where the rich and famous wear extraordinary designer gowns and rub shoulders in New York's famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. People would kill for an invitation.
Three years ago, Virginia Wakeling, a member of the Met's board of trustees and one of the museum's most generous donors, was found dead in the snow outside the building. Police soon discovered that she'd been thrown from the roof during the Met Gala, but no one has ever been arrested for her murder.
Although suspicion has always hovered around Virginia's much younger boyfriend, there are a bevy of suspects. Laurie Moran decides to investigate Virginia's death for her successful cold-cases television show, Under Suspicion. But the more she pries into Virginia's murder, the closer Laurie comes to discovering just how dangerous an invitation to the Met Gala can be…
Praise for Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke
'The grande dame of American thriller writing' Los Angeles Times Book Review
'Clark and Burke's collaboration is as smooth as rum and coke, with just enough kick to make the reader thirsty for another' Publishers Weekly on All Dressed in White
Magazine journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the latest urban folktale the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks seconds before the arrival of an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a video snippet that purportedly captures the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.
McKenna is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend and a classmate of her husband's at West Point who vanished without a trace ten years earlier. The NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity simply started over again somewhere else.
But McKenna has always believed that the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. What might have been a short-lived Metro story sends the former prosecutor turned reporter on a twisting search that leads across New York City and to dark secrets buried dangerously close to home. . . .
After a layoff and months of struggling, Alice Humphrey finally lands her dream job managing a new art gallery in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking District.
According to Drew Campbell, the well-suited corporate representative who hires her, the gallery is a passion project for its anonymous, wealthy, and eccentric owner. Drew assures Alice that the owner will be hands off, allowing her to run the gallery on her own. Her friends think it sounds too good to be true, but Alice sees a perfect opportunity to make a name for herself beyond the shadow of her famous father, an award-winning and controversial film maker.
Everything is perfect until the morning Alice arrives at work to find the gallery gone, the space stripped bare as if it had never existed, and Drew Campbell's dead body on the floor. Overnight, Alice's dream job has vanished, and she finds herself at the center of police attention with nothing to prove her innocence. The phone number Drew gave her links back to a disposable phone.
The artist whose work she displayed doesn't seem to exist. And the dead man she claims is Drew has been identified as someone else.
When police discover ties between the gallery and a missing girl, Alice knows she's been set up. Now she has to prove it, a dangerous search for answers that will entangle her in a dark, high-tech criminal conspiracy and force her to unearth long-hidden secrets involving her own family . . . secrets that could cost Alice her life.
Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan town house, 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 insist that their daughter would never take her own life. But Julia's enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of prescription antidepressants and ADHD medication ran rampant among students; an unlabeled bottle of pills in Julia's purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a search of Julia's computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying against an unlikely victim. NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the truth. When the Whitmires use their power to force a criminal investigation, Ellie's resistance causes trouble for her both at work and in her personal life. As she is pressured to pursue a case she doesn't believe in, she is pulled into Julia's inner circle - an eclectic mix of overly precocious teenagers from Manhattan's most privileged families as well as street kids from Greenwich Village. But when the target of Julia's harassment continues to receive death threats, Ellie is forced to acknowledge that Julia may have learned the hard way that some secrets should never be told.
'Should come with a warning...highly addictive.' Karin Slaughter
When prep school junior Julia Whitmire is found dead in the bathtub of her family's Upper East Side apartment, her left wrist slashed and suicide note resting on her dresser, Ellie Hatcher and her partner, J.J. Rogan initially write the case off as a suicide. Julia's parents insist that their daughter would never take her own life, but Ellie knows all too well that family members can be the last to accept the truth.
But when Julia's mother appeals to her with the evidence - including a hand-written suicide note she believes her internet-obsessed daughter would never have composed - Hatcher is confronted with the possibility of a troubled young girl's murder.
With fans including everyone from Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben, to Tess Gerritsen and Lisa Gardner, Never Tell is another nail-biting thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
