Alafair Burke: Missing Justice

Samantha Kincaid - Deputy District Attorney,  Major Crimes Unit
In the first book in this series "Judgement Calls" Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid was working in Portland’s Drug and Vice Division. After a much needed vacation following an attempt on her life she is back at work with a promotion to the Major Crimes Unit. In the early morning of the day she starts work again she gets a call about the disappearance of city administrative judge Clarissa Easterbrook. Clarissa is the wife of a top surgeon and has close friends with powerful political connections.

The case rapidly goes downhill and Samantha finds herself right in the middle of a possible homicide prosecution which her bosses may not want her to handle. Kincaid soon gets involved with police investigations, and has doubts that the suspect that they have arrested may be guilty.

Kincaid is a great female lead who does what she feels is needed to make sure that justice is served. This means that she frequently goes it alone and frequently upsets the police and her supervisors. In this case going alone means taking on powerful local business and political interests who may be involved in high level corruption that is difficult to prove.

Samantha also has to learn to live with conflicting interests in her personal life - her current love interest who is one of the top detectives in the MCU, and her father who was once a policeman himself and understands the impact of political and business power.

This is a very skillfully plotted, well written and legally complex thriller that clearly shows Alafair Burke's experience as a prosecutor in Portland's Attorney General's office and currently as a law professor. I have already read several of Alafair Burke's Ellie Hatcher series and have made a resolution to read the other books in the Samantha Kincaid series.

Alafair Burke:All Day and a Night

Another excellent Ellie Hatcher police thriller
Alafair Burke has written another first class police crime thriller in the Ellie Hatcher series which shows that she is at the top of her class for this genre. This time she has created a first rate psychological thriller about serial killings and the possible conviction of an innocent man.

In prison parlance "All Day" relates to a life term and "All Day and a Night" is a life sentence without parole. Anthony Amaro was given the latter sentence eighteen years ago for a single murder and barely avoided death row as he was suspected of killing a further five women. An anonymous letter is sent to the DA's office claiming that Amaro is innocent because a killer with the same signature (which was never made public) is still at large. Psychologist Helen Brunswick was shot and killed recently and her death had the serial killer's signature - her limbs were broken after death.

Ellie Hatcher and her police partner, JJ Rogan, are asked by Max Donovan, a Deputy Attorney General, to take a fresh look at the cases. Max has selected them as the best detectives available to track down this cold case - what makes this different and possibly difficult is that Max is Ellie's live-in boyfriend. The case is made even more difficult when a grandstanding defense attorney, Linda Moreland, applies for Amaro's release on the basis of the new evidence. It is made even more unusual because Linda has just hired Carrie Blank, an up-and-coming lawyer, who is the step-sister of the woman for whose murder Amaro was convicted.

Alafair Burke then takes us on a complex ride around the cold-case murders, the case for Amaro's release, and the new murder. They are led back to Carrie's old hometown, the local police force and especially a gung-ho but very successful police sergeant (now retired) who extracted Amaro's confession. This is sharp and gripping stuff as Burke weaves the plot around and about, creates new leads (and some diversions) and uncovers old ones against a background of lies, deceit and danger and violence that stalks the major players.

This is a great police thriller that delivers the goods skillfully without going outside the bounds of believability that is the signature of so many top authors of the genre these days. While it could help to have read some of the previous four books in the series it can easily be read standalone as the back-story of Ellie's personal history and life is really only peripheral to your enjoyment of the book.

I strongly recommend this book as one of the best of the current genre of US police thrillers written by an author at the top of her form. Highly recommended.

Alafair Burke: 212

Masterly police procedural
I have been meaning to read Alafair Burke's books for a while and I am delighted that I took the plunge with 212, part of the Ellie Hatcher series about a young, smart and brave NYPD homicide detective. This is a fast paced and intriguing mystery loosely based on actual events but woven into a page-turning plot that is as good as most of the top crime thrillers I have read this year.

The story starts with the murder of bodyguard Robert Robo Mancini, whose bullet-ridden corpse turns up in a luxury apartment in a top of the market building, the "212".  Mancini worked for Manhattan property tycoon Sam Sparks who lets his trusted employees and friends use the apartment from time to time. The 911 call comes from an unknown female and there are no clues about how she be found. During the investigation Ellie and her partner get interested in how the apartment has been used and asks a judge court for permission to pursue the accounts of Sparkes' business. Accidentally Ellie gets on the wrong side of the judge and spends a night in the cells.

Ellie and her detective partner then investigate the lives and deaths of part-time high class call girls and the story twists and turns unexpectedly as the lives of the call girls get connected with the original murder. While she makes some mistakes, she is a top-class investigator who keeps on working the case until she discovers the truth.

I will certainly be reading more books in this series and adding Alafair Burke to my list of favourite authors.