Alafair Burke books in order

A female officer who is attacked in the line of duty must protect her own husband from his worst impulses.

This short story, which was first published in The Blue Religion, was recognized among the Best American Mystery Stories of 2009.

Alice Humphrey finally lands her dream job of managing a new art gallery in Manhattan after months of struggling.

Drew Campbell, the corporate representative who gave her the job, convinces her that Alice will be able to run the gallery on her own—something too good to be true.

Upon arriving to work one perfect morning, Alice is shocked at the discovery that the gallery doesn’t exist anymore.

Even worse is that Drew Campbell’s body lies dead on the floor, with the authorities identifying Drew as someone else.

Desperate to prove the truth, Alice is forced to uncover dark family secrets that had been long buried—secrets which could cost Alice her life.

McKenna Jordan, a Manhattan journalist, is looking to cover the story a mysterious woman who courageously pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks.

Upon finding the video recording of part of the incident, McKenna is convinced that she is ahead of the competition still struggling to identify the mystery heroine, until something captures her attention.

The woman in the video looks a lot like Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who mysteriously disappeared ten years ago.

What should have been a brief metro story soon escalates into a dangerous search that forces McKenna to uncover long hidden secrets a lot closer to home.

“She ruined his life twenty years ago. Now she has the chance to save it.”

Widower Jack Harris has avoided the dating scene ever since his wife was shot dead by a fifteen-year-old boy three years ago.

Ready to finally get back in the dating scene, Jack meets a beautiful stranger; marking the beginning of his nightmare.

When Olivia Randall, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in New York City and Jack’s former fiancé, learns that Jack has been arrested for a triple homicide—with one of the victim’s linked to his wife’s murder—she offers to help as a way of making up for her past mistakes.

Will Olivia however maintain her belief in Jack’s innocence when the evidence against him becomes irrefutable?

Having lost a criminal case, a prosecutor asks herself what extent she would go to protect the young girl who now has an uncertain future.

This e-short features an excerpt from The Wife novel by New York Times bestselling author Alafair Burke.

The meeting between Angela and Jason Powell during a dinner party in East Hampton should have sparked nothing more than a brief fling, yet the two started a romance that would culminate in marriage the following summer.

After her marriage to Jason, a sharp economics professor at NYU, Angela decides to moves to Manhattan with her son hoping to make a fresh start from her turbulent past.

Six years later, just when Jason’s career is on the rise thanks to a bestselling book, a college intern levels an accusation against him, before another woman named Kerry Lynch makes more damning allegations.

Asked to defend Jason in court, Angela must pick between defending her husband and saving herself.

Chloe and Nicky were always two completely different Taylor sisters.

Chloe, though younger one, always seemed in control while Nicky was the restless and reckless kind.

Both however seemed to have found happiness. Chloe moved to New York City after earning a scholarship to an Ivy League school before landing a highly envied publishing job.

Nicky on the other hand married a promising young attorney named Adam Macintosh, with whom they had a baby boy, Ethan.

However, more than fifteen years later, Chloe is now married to Adam. When Adam is murdered, with Ethan accused of the crime, two distant sisters set aside their animosity to confront the truth.

“Crime writers, forgive the pun, are killing it right now creatively,” writes guest editor Alafair Burke in her introduction. “It was difficult—painful even—to narrow this year’s Best American Mystery and Suspense to only twenty stories.”

Spanning from a mediocre spa in Florida, to New York’s gritty East Village, to death row in Alabama, this collection reveals boundless suspense in small, quiet moments, offering startling twists in the least likely of places.

From a powerful response to hateful bullying, to a fight for health care, to a gripping desperation to vote, these stories are equal parts shocking, devastating, and enthralling, revealing the tension pulsing through our everyday lives and affirming that mystery and suspense writing is better than ever before.

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021includes

JENNY BHATT• GAR ANTHONY HAYWOOD• GABINO IGLESIAS• AYA DE LEÓN• LAURA LIPPMAN DELIA C. PITTS• ALEX SEGURA• FAYE SNOWDEN• LISA UNGER and others.

Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children.

Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect—but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.

Now, more than four decades since readers first met Nancy and her children, comes the thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking book that set the stage for future generations of psychological suspense novels. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind.

While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse.

NB: Co-authored with Mary Higgins Clark.

Here is the complete series:

1. Where Are the Children? (1975) by Mary Higgins Clark

2. Where Are the Children Now? (2023) by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

Detective Ellie Hatcher is summoned for a special homicide assignment after two young women are murdered on the streets of New York, exactly one year apart.

Left behind by the killer is a clue linking both cases to a popular online dating service known as First Date.

A sinister figure is using the lure of the internet and the promise of love to launch a deranged killing spree in New York City, and homicide detective, Flann McIlroy is convinced that Ellie is the only one who can help him prove this unsettling theory.

In order to catch the killer, Ellie must enter into a technologically advanced world of stolen identities where nobody is truly who they appear to be.

“In a city full of victims ...it’s hard to choose just one.”

The body of Chelsea Hart, a fresh-faced Indiana college student, is found one morning by joggers in East River Park.

Taking up the case is NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher who homes in a group of wealthy men seen supplying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol at a New York City club the previous night.

When shocking similarities appear between Chelsea’s murder and three other killings that took place nearly a decade ago, Ellie knows she has to work round the clock to solve the case.

But what happens when her quest for the truth not only puts her at loggerheads with fellow cops but also places her under the watchful eye of a deranged killer eager to make the detective his next victim?

NB: This book is also known as City of Fear.

Megan Gunther, a New York University sophomore, is shocked by the personal nature of the threats against her posted on a campus gossip website.

Someone has been keeping a close eye on her and knows about her daily routine down, a figure sheltered by the anonymity of the Internet.

It all seems like a joke to her friends, until Megan is brutally murdered.

Convinced that the online threats are as real as can be, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner J. J. Rogan embark on a mission to uncover the truth.

When clues reveal a correlation between Megan and a murdered real estate agent, and Megan’s roommate suddenly disappears, Ellie knows they have to race against time to prevent another young woman from dying.

NB: This book is also known as City of Lies.

A famous father; a lavish Manhattan townhouse; a place at the renowned Casden prep school; sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire seemingly had it all.

So when her dead body is discovered in her bathtub, with a handwritten suicide note on her bed, her parents insists that their daughter would never kill herself.

From the look of things, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced that it’s a suicide case.

When Julia’s family however use their influence to force a criminal investigation, Ellie finds herself working on a case that she doesn’t believe in.

Forced to find the truth, Ellie is drawn into Julia’s inner circle where she finds an intriguing connection between New York’s most opulent and the city’s most impoverished.

When the body of psychotherapist, Helen Brunswick, is found in her Park Slope office, all fingers point to her estranged husband. That’s however until an anonymous letter is sent to the District Attorney’s office.

Some unsettling detail has been hidden by the police, details revealing how the victim’s death was the signature killing of Anthony Amaro—a serial killer on a life sentence convicted two decades earlier.

With Amaro strongly claiming his innocence, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner J.J. Rogan are brought in to look at the original investigation.

In a case that pitting them against their fellow officers and a tough celebrity defense lawyer with a young associate, what unravels will be unlike anything the detectives have ever experienced.

Some pasts won’t stay forgotten...

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind—or been running from. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again.

Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace—the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father’s death twenty years earlier—and she now fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related.

In pursuit of answers, the women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known.

NB: This book is also known as The Girl She Was.

Upon walking into her office one Monday morning, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid finds the sergeant of the police bureau’s vice unit waiting for her.

A thirteen-year-old girl has been attacked and beaten within an inch of her life in the outskirts of the city.

Going by the insufficient evidence, most lawyers would settle for an assault charge. Samantha however isn’t most lawyers.

Disheartened by the brutality of the crime, the Deputy District Attorney goes for attempted murder.

However, in the process of preparing for the case, Samantha will unearth as a trail leading to a high-profile death penalty case, a prostitution network of underage girls, and a potential serial killer on the loose.

Returning to work with a promotion to the Major Crimes Unit, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid learns that the wife of Clarissa Easterbrook—a Portland city judge—has gone missing.

When the police however unearth evidence of foul play, Samantha finds herself uncovering secrets in Clarissa’s professional and private lives — secrets that many people wanted hidden, including Clarissa.

Pursuing her own leads in a desperate search for answers, Samantha realizes that the corruption trails all the way to the highest echelon of the city’s power structure; threatening not only her job but also her life.

For her thirty-second birthday, Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid receives an unexpected gift in the form of a homicide call-out.

A famous investigative reporter named Percy Crenshaw has been battered to death in his carport in the lavish Hillside neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.

Tensions have been running high in the city recently. A police officer killed an unarmed mother of two just a week ago, igniting antipolice demonstrations.

When two men are arrested from engaging in a string of crimes in the wake of the protests, the case seems straightforward after one of the suspects confesses.

A recant by one of the men however forces Samantha to follow Crenshaw’s steps in search for more evidence; one that eventually establishes a connection between the drug trade in the city and police officers in the Northeast Precinct.

Laurie Moran, a television producer, is pleased when a cold case series that revisits unsolved crimes helps solve an infamous murder in the very first episode.

Next on the episode is the Cinderella Murder.

The death of a stunning talented UCLA student named Susan Dempsey left many unanswered questions.

For instance, why was her car parked so far from her body? Was her disappearance linked to a controversial church that was active on campus?

Was there something more in her close relationship with her computer science professor?

Laurie can’t wait to pursue the case with lawyer Alex Buckley, especially given how former suspects include Hollywood’s elite and tech billionaires—something that will undoubtedly boost the ratings.

This book has been co-authored by Mary Higgins Clark.

Amanda Pierce was set to marry her college sweetheart in a lush ceremony at The Grand Victoria Hotel in Palm Beach, only for her to mysteriously disappear.

Five years later in New York City, it doesn’t take long for Laurie Moran to realize that the case of a missing bride would be perfect for her investigative television series, Under Suspicion.

Going all the way to the Florida resort with Amanda’s friends and family in attendance, Laurie hopes to successfully solve the crime just like in previous episodes.

With an envious sister, philandering groomsmen, and Amanda’s former fiancé now married to a bridesmaid, conspiracy theories run riot as to why Amanda mysteriously disappeared.

For Laurie and the show’s host Alex Buckley, the only certain thing is that whoever is behind the disappearance wants it to remain a secret.

This book has been co-authored by Mary Higgins Clark.

Casey Carter was convicted of killing Hunter Raleigh III, her fiancé and famous philanthropist, a decade and a half ago.

Although Casey claims to be innocent, she was charged and served out her sentence in prison.

Life outside the high concrete walls is however proving to be impossible for Casey.

Whispers follow her everywhere she goes, and she can’t seem to get a job. Even her own mother treats her like she’s guilty.

When her story lures the attention of Laurie Moran, the television producer and her team will do whatever it takes to exonerate a woman who she believes was wrongfully convicted of murder.

This book has been co-authored by Mary Higgins Clark.

Laurie Moran’s professional life may be a success thanks to her television series Under Suspicion which has helped solve many cold cases, but her romantic break from former host Alex Buckley has left her with an intolerable host in Ryan Nichols, and a huge sense of emptiness.

A new case could perhaps be the perfect distraction.

Virginia Wakeling, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the biggest donors to the museum was found dead on the night of the Met Gala three years ago.

The main suspect in the crime is Ivan Gray, her much younger boyfriend and personal trainer at a gym where Ryan frequents.

Despite her initial cynicism in the case, Laurie soon learns just how deep list of suspects trails to.

This book has been co-authored by Mary Higgins Clark.

The recently engaged Laurie Moran is busy planning her summer wedding and honeymoon with the show’s former host, Alex Buckley, when she is approached by Robert and Cynthia Bell—parents of Dr. Martin Bell.

A talented and well known physician, Dr. Bell was shot dead outside his house five years ago, with the parents desperate for justice.

Kendra, Martin’s wife, is viewed as an unpredictable and mentally unstable opportunist capable of killing her own husband.

In her quest to give the parents of the victim closure, Laurie makes herself the target of a dangerous and mysterious stalker whose sinister deeds knows no bounds.

This book has been co-authored by Mary Higgins Clark.

Television producer Laurie Moran and her fiancée, Alex Buckley, the former host of her investigative television show, are just days away from their mid-summer wedding, when things take a dark turn. Alex’s seven-year-old nephew, Johnny, vanishes from the beach, triggering a search party.

Witnesses recall Johnny playing in the water and collecting shells behind the beach shack, but no one remembers seeing him in the afternoon. As the sun sets, Johnny’s skim board washes up to shore, and everyone realizes that he could be anywhere, even under the water.