`Find the motive, and the motive will lead you to the man.'

books:

	• Dead Connection Alafair Burke Henry Holt and Co., 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good mystery with great new character

Congratulations to Alafair Burke on creating Ellie Hatcher. She is a great character, and I'm eager to read more books based on her.

The mystery novel is compelling and interesting, and the characterization is strong. The biggest flaw is that the author tried to add one too many ingredients into the plot. I could have done without the Russian Mafia stuff. It seemed far-fetched and felt like an editor told the writer she needed more complexity. She didn't.

Easy Weekend Read

Dead Connection is an entertaining, easy read. Detective Ellie Hachter
is temporarily teamed with seasoned, maverick Dectective Flann McIlray. Flann suspects that a serial killer is using the internet dating service First Date to select his victims. Burke provides information on both officers histories ( which plays a part in the story).

The story moves along at a good pace. The dectectives take some wrong turns along the wave but, everything comes together at the end. By the way, Dave Robicheaux makes a cameo appearance in the story. Three of the victims are drawn well. I felt sympathy for them. The officers are okay.

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`Find the motive, and the motive will lead you to the man.'

Detective Ellie Hatcher is specifically sought for a special assignment on the homicide task force when a clue left at the scene of a murder seems to connect two cases to an online dating service. Detective Hatcher is a rookie NYPD detective but Detective Flann McIlroy, seeks her involvement anyway. Why? I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone: suffice to say there is an explanation in the novel.

This thriller is set in the murky world of identity theft and anonymity: both made easy by the use of the internet. While Hatcher and McIlroy set out to solve the crimes, they uncover other crimes that may be related and a number of potential suspects. Along the way, both Hatcher and McIlroy break a number of rules and individual readers may find this irritating if not unbelievable.

And the conclusion? Some aspects are more clear-cut than others, and I found some parts of the storyline more satisfying than others. Overall, though, this was an enjoyable read and well worth picking up if you have a couple of hours to fill.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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Thrilling

Driven, young detective Ellie Hatcher, working scams and robbery in New York receives a surprising special assignment to the homicide department: A young woman had been strangled in an empty alley.
Like her two other victims have been killed. One 12 and one 24 months ago and the fourth victim is coming up.

All woman had something in common: They were connected to an online service named FirstDate. During investigations Ellie and her new partner won't get any help from FirstDate's CEO without a court order.
The killer's changing his M.O. and one victim wasn't even an user of FirstDate but a FBI informant releasing informations about credit card fraud and Russian drug dealers. Mentioning FirstDate to an agent got her killed three days later.

Searching for patterns that don't exist or don't add up Ellie and her partner use the help of former programmer and co-founder FirstDate to solve this case.

A fantastic mystery, very well thought through. As a former deputy district attorney and being the daughter of James Lee Burke, an acclaimed crime writer, Alafair Burke certainly knows what she's writing about. Twist and turns, dramatic and a little love is all this book needed to make it a perfect, suspenseful mystery, very well written and without leaving any questions at the end.

The character Ellie Hatcher is a stand-alone besides the Samantha Kincaid series, which I haven't read yet but certainly will read sometime soon.I read on e Alafair's webpage that there's going to be a series with Ellie. :-)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

In this electrifying thriller, a rookie detective goes undercover on the
Internet dating scene to draw out a serial killer targeting single women
in Manhattan 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 First Date, 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 father lost his life trying to catch a notorious serial murderer.
When the First Date 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 must find the killer before he claims his next victim?who could very well be her.
Expertly plotted and perfectly paced, Dead Connection advances Alafair Burke to the front ranks of American thriller writers.

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