Find Me by Alafair Burke (#1564)

 

There’s no prior review in this blog of a novel by Alafair Burke, a prolific writer in her own right with 18 crime novels and a nomination for the Edgar Award for best novel for The Ex, a 2016 publication. She has had two series, and the novel I just finished Find Me, was published in 2021. Find Me is apparently the sixth and final novel in her Ellie Hatcher series. It sure likes like Men Reading Books has failed to consider this novelist, and it looks like we have 17 more books that deserve a deep dive on our part.

 

Find Me begins with Hope Miller choosing to leave her protected environment in a small New Jersey town. 15 years earlier, she had been in a terrible auto accident when she was thrown from a car only to have no clue as to her identity. Typically patients with traumatic amnesia have a gradual return of their memories, but Hope did not recover any clues about her old self. There was always the background question about whether she was being truthful or was purposely hiding her identity for unknown reasons, and the book brings that issue to rest. (In the course of my career, I’ve only been involved in a couple cases in which traumatic amnesia was an issue, and in each of those, the claim of amnesia proved to be fraudulent.) Her best friend, Lindsay Kelly, was a defense attorney in NYC. She had been Hope’s chief protector for the last 15 years and worried that Hope’s need to strike out on her own was a more dangerous plan that Hope realized. The new home that Hope chose was in East Hampton. Lindsay’s fear materialized when Hope vanished, leaving only a drop of blood which matched a DNA sample that was a connection to a Kansas serial killer. It was that drop of blood that led Lindsay to Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who had been chasing the Kansas killer, the cop who had alleged died by suicide, which Ellie always thought could not be true. (Now I want to read the Ellie Hatcher series.)

 

There are issues from a sexual preditor as well as the connection of that person to someone who was seeking a political career. So, there are a couple old secrets which Burke brings into the plot. This is a well-written book with solid character and plot development. It gets my strong recommendation, and I’m excited to read another Alafair novel, and perhaps I’ll chose The Ex to read next.