I first read Alafair Burke because she was James Lee Burke's daughter, assuming that some of his story telling ability would have rubbed off on her. Her first three novels, set in the Pacific Northwest and detailing the adventures of Samantha Kincaid, increasingly proved that she was a writer on her merits. (See review of Close Case).
In Dead Connections she has created a new character, Ellie Hatcher, who begs to have a sequel. Perhaps now that Burke is teaching law at Hofstra, there will be ample incentive to continue to base stories in New York. Hatcher, rookie detective, goes to the homicide unit on temporary assignment to work with Flann McIlroy, a veteran homicide detective known as one who tends to operate on his own. As they investigate, Ellie branches out on her own (not sticking closely to departmental regulations) in the Internet dating scene in order to find the serial killer of single women in Manhattan.
In Dead Connections she has created a new character, Ellie Hatcher, who begs to have a sequel. Perhaps now that Burke is teaching law at Hofstra, there will be ample incentive to continue to base stories in New York. Hatcher, rookie detective, goes to the homicide unit on temporary assignment to work with Flann McIlroy, a veteran homicide detective known as one who tends to operate on his own. As they investigate, Ellie branches out on her own (not sticking closely to departmental regulations) in the Internet dating scene in order to find the serial killer of single women in Manhattan.
Two women have been killed in two different ways a year apart. Apparently, the only connection between them is their membership in FirstDate, an Internet dating site. Then two more deaths are linked, each in a manner common to the first two. Add in a potentially bad cop; an FBI agent who may or may not be bad, the Russian mafia, and Burke brews a succotash of perfidy, double dealing, and questionable activity.
The ramifications of the complications caused by misused Internet opportunities make one rush to turn off the computer and break all connections to the electronic world. Failing that, one sees the necessity of building walls of security around our Internet use and exercising due diligence when surfing the net. That being said, it takes only one bad geek to create ways around each wall of "invincible" security. That reality is what makes this novel so frightening. One has only to follow the news in the slightest to read or hear stories of computer scams and insidious worms designed to wreck as many computers as possible.
A graduate of Stanford Law School, Alafair Burke lives in New York City. She continues to provide commentary on Court TV. Clearly, her experience as a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon and the obvious close connection to police work have helped make this an excellent summer read. Burke sets the best features of the standard detective murder mystery within the relatively new world of the Internet and that helps make her fourth novel a first rate mystery. Dead Connection will be published in July 2007.
