Never Tell

Starred review from April 30, 2012
Near the start of Burke’s excellent fourth novel of suspense featuring NYPD Det. Ellie Hatcher (after 2010’s 212), 16-year-old Julia Whitmire, the daughter of legendary music producer Bill Whitmire, is found dead in the bathtub on the top floor of her family’s West Village townhouse with her wrists slashed. Ellie assumes that the Whitmire parents’ social clout is the reason why she and her partner, J.J. Rogan, must investigate an apparent suicide as a potential murder. At Casden, Julia’s elite prep school, they discover a rampant subculture of prescription drug abuse and intense academic pressure. Julia’s friend, Ramona Langston, also points them in the direction of several homeless youths she and Julia befriended over the past year, particularly Casey Heinz, who has a crush on Ramona and keys to the Whitmires’ residence. Ellie becomes less convinced that Julia killed herself as details emerge of a rape survivor blog linked to the case and threats against its anonymous author. The meticulous plotting, coupled with Ellie’s complicated evolution as a heroine, make this Burke’s strongest work to date. 6-city author tour. Agent: Philip Spitzer, the Philip Spitzer Literary Agency.

June 1, 2012
Burke (Long Gone, 2011, etc.) resurrects Ellie Hatcher, an NYPD homicide detective who followed in her father's footsteps. Ellie's father's death, which police claimed was at his own hand, makes the callout to a young girl's suicide even more difficult for Ellie. The girl's grieving mom is a socialite and the wife of a mover and shaker in the music industry, and she's pulled strings to get the homicide division on her daughter's case. Teenager Julia Whitmire, privileged and spoiled but left on her own by her self-involved parents, was found dead of a combination of drugs, alcohol and wrist-slashing in the tub of her bathroom. Everyone, from the EMTs on the scene to the medical examiner who responds to Ellie, writes it off as a clear-cut suicide. Julia even left a note that is undisputedly in her own hand. However, pressure from the bigwigs sends the increasingly impatient Ellie and her partner, Rogan, back to the crime scene to work the case as a murder. In the course of their investigation, Ellie and Rogan meet a motley group of street kids, the family of Julia's best friend, Ramona, and stumble onto a blog written by Ramona's mom, Adrienne, that centers around her own sexual abuse while she was a child. Burke keeps it real by having Ellie unconvinced that Julia's death was anything but a suicide, but her stubborn refusal to envision that the girl was murdered hinders, rather than helps, the probe. Ellie also suffers personal issues in that her boyfriend, an assistant district attorney, wants a little more out of the relationship, and Ellie remains afraid to take that step. In Ellie, Burke has built a likable, flawed heroine trying to leave the things that have haunted her behind and not succeeding very well. Burke's prose falls into an easy, natural rhythm when she enters Ellie Hatcher's world, and her plotting rarely disappoints. A smooth, compelling read that is proof positive that Burke continues to mature as a writer; this entry in the Ellie Hatcher series sings.

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May 1, 2012
What's the connection between the apparent suicide of a 16-year-old girl and a rape-victim blogger being threatened online? When Julia Whitmire, daughter of a prominent music producer, is found with her wrist slit and a handwritten suicide note nearby in the Manhattan townhouse in which she basically lived alone, her mother calls it murder. Detective Ellie Hatcher has her doubts, but then Hatcher's head isn't really in the game early on, as her partner, J. J. Rogan, notes more than once. As Hatcher and Rogan go from posh city digs and Hamptons estates to a young-adult homeless shelter pursuing this high-profile case, a link to the blog is found on Julia's computer, starting them on a circuitous trail. One of Burke's trademarks is connecting disparate plotlines, which she does here in spades. Another is Hatcher's empathy, which allows her to get inside victims' heads, but here the detectivefacing a crisis with her lover, ADA Max Donovanfalls short. And when Hatcher is flat, so is the novel. Skillfully structured, but short on verve.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)