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Born in October 1969, Alafair Burke is the New York Times bestselling American crime writer, legal commentator and professor of the Law. She is the author of popular book series one which features Samantha Kincaid, a Portland Oregon Prosecutor and the other one that features Ellie Hatcher an NYPD detective. Most of Alafair Burke novels have been translated into over ten languages.
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Order of Samantha Kincaid Series
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Judgment Calls | 2003 | Description / Buy | |
2 | Missing Justice | 2004 | Description / Buy | |
3 | Close Case | 2005 | Description / Buy |
Order of Ellie Hatcher Series
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Dead Connection | 2007 | Description / Buy | |
2 | Angel's Tip / City of Fear | 2008 | Description / Buy | |
3 | 212 / City of Lies | 2010 | Description / Buy | |
4 | Never Tell | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
5 | All Day and a Night | 2014 | Description / Buy | |
6 | Find Me / The Girl She Was | 2022 | Description / Buy |
Order of Under Suspicion Series with Mary Higgins Clark
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | I've Got You Under My Skin | 2014 | Description / Buy | |
2 | The Cinderella Murder | 2014 | Description / Buy | |
3 | All Dressed in White | 2015 | Description / Buy | |
4 | The Sleeping Beauty Killer | 2016 | Description / Buy | |
5 | Every Breath You Take | 2017 | Description / Buy | |
6 | You Don't Own Me | 2018 | Description / Buy | |
7 | Piece of My Heart | 2020 | Description / Buy | |
8 | It Had to Be You | 2024 | Description / Buy |
Order of Where Are The Children Series
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Where are the Children? | 1975 | Description / Buy | |
2 | Where Are the Children Now? | 2023 | Description / Buy |
Order of Alafair Burke Standalone Novels
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Long Gone | 2011 | Description / Buy | |
2 | If You Were Here | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
3 | The Ex | 2016 | Description / Buy | |
4 | Waking Kylie (Short Story) | 2017 | Description / Buy | |
5 | The Wife | 2018 | Description / Buy | |
6 | The Better Sister | 2019 | Description / Buy |
Order of Alafair Burke Short Stories/Novellas
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Winning (Short Story) | 2010 | Description / Buy |
Alafair Burke Anthologies
# | Read | Title | Published | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The Blue Religion | 2008 | Description / Buy | |
2 | The Best American Mystery Stories 2009 | 2009 | Description / Buy | |
3 | Vengeance | 2012 | Description / Buy | |
4 | Inherit the Dead | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
5 | Suspense Magazine June 2013 | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
6 | When a Stranger Comes to Town | 2021 | Description / Buy | |
7 | Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 | 2021 | Description / Buy |
Alafair Burke was born in Florida and spent most of her childhood years in Wichita, Kansas where her father, James Lee Burke worked as an English professor and her mother; Pearl Pai Chu worked as a school librarian. Her interest in writing crimes was sparked by the hunt for a serial killer popularly known as BTK who committed several murders during the 70’s. She attended Reed College where she graduated with a Bachelors degree in Psychology, later she went to Stanford Law School in California. After graduating from the law school, she worked as Deputy District Attorney in Multnomah County where she prosecuted domestic violence crimes and served as an advisor to the police department. Alafair Burke currently lives in New York City.
Alafair Burke novels are authentic and are often related to the real world cases based on her professional and personal experiences. Her first novel Judgment Calls published in 2003 is based on Keith H. Jesperson also known as the Happy Face Killer. Angel’s Tip is also somehow based on the killings of Jennifer Moore and Imette St. Guillen. In her fourth novel Dead Connection published in 2007, the protagonist, a famous character Ellie Hatcher hunts down a serial killer using online dating platforms to locate his victims. The author, Burke claims that the novel was inspired by her personal experiences when she enrolled on Match.com. Samantha Kincaid series is based in Multnomah County D.A office where Burke served during the 90’s. On the other hand, Ellie Hatcher series rests on the authors growing up experiences in Kansas.
BEST ALAFAIR BURKE BOOKS:
These are the three best novels by Alafair Burke, All the Day and a Night (2014), 212 (2010), and The Wife (2018).
All the Day and a Night: The murder of a psychotherapist Helen Brunswick is the latest story in the newspapers. This case could not be further from Carrie Blank, a lawyer handling federal firms at a renowned law firm in Manhattan. However, then, a hard-charging lawyer proposes an offer that Carrie will find it impossible to resist- the serial killer cop; Anthony Amaro the person responsible for the death of Carrie sister, Donna. The “serial killer cop” believe that he has found some evidence connected to the psychotherapist killing that he hopes can acquit him. Determined to catch Donna real killer, Carrie tracks down Anthony wrongful conviction idea.
On the other hand, Ellie Hatcher, an NYPD detective along with her partner JJ Rogan is tasked to make a reassessment of what led to the conviction of Anthony Amaro. The work seems personal to them, as Rogan has his good reasons to distrust Anthony defense team while Ellie thinks that she got the task due to her relationship with the prosecutor.
As the Amaros Lawyers and the NYPD search for the truth among the conflicting evidence, their investigations lead them back to Carrie native town and the deep secrets buried there. Moreover, when Carrie is attacked, it becomes evidently clear that she already got too close to finding the truth.
212: A famous tycoon bodyguard has brutally murdered in his boss luxurious apartment at unshared Manhattan address. At New York University, a second-year student is threatened on the internet, stalked and then brutally murdered. Then a real estate broker moonlights a call girl only to be found dead after being tortured in a first class hotel. These three cases, shocking as they are assigned to the number one NYPD murder Detective Hatcher and JJ Rogan. The two partners soon find a related thread in what appears to unrelated cases and what they soon find is just a tip of the iceberg and because a city that never sleeps so does death.
Alafair Burke novels are one of a kind; the author has a unique way of delivering exactly what the readers want. Her characters are uniquely explained, not to mention the plot twists and the proper flow from chapter to the other thus ensuring reader’s attention from the first to the last word.
The Wife: Alfair Burke’s The Wife has drawn comparisons to Gone Girl and Behind Closed Doors. This book tells the very difficult story of a woman faced with an impossible choice: save herself or defend her husband.
The book tells the story of Angela, a single mom that wasn’t looking for much until she met Jason Powell. She thought their romance would be a short lived fling as she lived in the Hamptons and met Jason at a dinner party. He was an NYU professor and would be heading back after the summer, that’s how these things go.
Jason had other ideas though and the romance turned into a marriage. The marriage was a big deal for Angela who used it to reboot her life. She was able to move her son out of her mother’s home and into a posh Manhattan place where she could forget about her past and move on.
Flash forward six years later and the marriage is going strong and Jason is having tremendous success. He has a bestselling book and a growing media career. This is great for Jason, but bad for Angela as she had worked so hard to avoid the spotlight and all that might come with it. When Jason is accused of something by a college intern and then another woman comes forward with an even more troubling accusation, their perfect life is in trouble. Jason swears innocence and his wife believes her, but when the accuser goes missing she’s forced to take a closer look at both the man she loved and the victim she chose not to listen to.
When Does The Next Alafair Burke book come out?
Alafair Burke doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Find Me / The Girl She Was and was released on January, 11th 2022. It is the newest book in the Ellie Hatcher Series.
I’ll start by saying that I’ve only read “If You Were Here”, but hello! How can I not start with a book that’s subtitle is “A Novel of Suspense”?! It’s interesting to me that the main character, Mckenna, would take up a career as a journalist after failing as a prosecutor. Wouldn’t you want a more low-key career after publicly failing at your former career? But it’s questions like these that draw me into the book; I recommend and let me know what I should read next!