If You Were Here - Alafair Burke

Alafair Burke is the author of two wonderful series featuring recurring characters Samantha Kincaid, a lawyer and Detective Ellie Hatcher. In her latest book If You Were Here (a stand alone) she brings us another great protagonist - and another fantastic book for some hot summer reading.

McKenna Jordan is a journalist for a NYC magazine. This is a second career for McKenna. She was an Assistant District Attorney for the city, but she resigned in disgrace after badly fumbling her first big case.

Looking for her next story for the magazine, McKenna decides to follow up on a report of a woman rescuing a young man from certain death on the subway tracks; then disappearing. Bystander cell phone footage is blurry, but McKenna is sure the woman is her old friend Susan - who disappeared ten years ago. Her husband Patrick went to school with Susan and he's equally sure it can't be her.

"She watched the video one more time. There was no way to be certain, but somehow the woman in the video looked more like Susan with every viewing. If Susan was still alive, where had she been all this time? Why did she leave? Why didn't she tell anyone? And why was she back now?

Hooked! Oh yes, I do love this kind of book. And Burke takes it to a new level with If You Were Here. I loved the slow peeling back of layers as McKenna revisits the disappearance of Susan, the case that cost her her ADA career - and her relationship with her husband. We're along for the ride with McKenna chasing leads and wondering who is telling the truth. I really enjoyed McKenna as a character - she's dogged and determined, but not perfect.

Burke's plotting was complex and intricately carved from seemingly disparate puzzle pieces just waiting to be clicked into place. Read carefully - ostensibly innocuous comments end up being subtly inserted clues to the final answer. And that final answer was nowhere near where I thought the book would go. Burke kept me guessing and kept me engaged from first page to last. This one's on my hot summer reads list. If you haven't read Alafair Burke yet - what are you waiting for?! Read an excerpt of If You Were Here.

"Alafair Burke is the author of “two power house series” (Sun-Sentinel) that have earned her a reputation for creating strong, believable, and eminently likable female characters, such as NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. Alafair’s novels grow out of her experience as a prosecutor in America’s police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and have been featured by The Today Show, People Magazine, The New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Chicago Sun-Times. According to Entertainment Weekly, Alafair “is a terrific web spinner” who “knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy.” You can find Alafair Burke on Facebook and on Twitter."


See what others on the TLC book tour thought. Full schedule can be found here.