The Lively “Dead”

Linda L. Richards has nothing bad to say about Alafair Burke’s new novel, Dead Connection. In fact, any normal author would probably want to quit writing right now, after receiving such glowing critical praise as this:

Midway through Dead Connection there’s this moment where everything seems to hang in the balance and you wonder how author Alafair Burke is going to pull this thing off. The story is just so ambitious. And there are enough good ideas here for three smart books. Internet dating. The Russian mafia. Corrupt cops and compromised FBI agents. Identity theft. A possible serial killer. More. And in this midway moment you think there’s just no way that all these things will come together in a manner that will make any kind of satisfying sense. And then it does. I mean, it really does.

But then, Burke isn’t any normal author. She’s the daughter of James Lee Burke (whose latest novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown, I am currently reading), and has received sumptuous praise in the past for her crime fiction. Richards confirms that such congratulations were not at all misplaced, and that more are likely to come Ms. Burke’s way. After reprising the plot of Dead Connection, which finds a young New York City police detective named Ellie Hatcher helping a more “colorful” homicide detective investigate a series of murders that appear linked to “an Internet introduction service,” she remarks: “As much as I enjoyed Burke’s earlier novels--and I really, really did--Dead Connection leaves them in the dust. Smart, sophisticated and with a plot so twisty, no one will beat the protagonist to the conclusion, Burke has delivered her best book thus far.”

You can read all of Richards’ fine review here.