Books

If You Were Here

  • Feb 24, 2021
  • Alafair Burke
  • 735 responses.

If You Were Here Magazine journalist McKenna Wright is chasing the latest urban folktale the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks seconds before an oncoming train

  • Title: If You Were Here
  • Author: Alafair Burke
  • ISBN: 9780062208354
  • Page: 373
  • Format: Hardcover

    • Magazine journalist McKenna Wright is chasing the latest urban folktale the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks, seconds before an oncoming train When McKenna locates a short video snippet that purportedly captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery hMagazine journalist McKenna Wright is chasing the latest urban folktale the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks, seconds before an oncoming train When McKenna locates a short video snippet that purportedly captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.She is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier Investigating her disappearance, the NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity simply left town to start over again somewhere else.But McKenna has always believed the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached, and sees Susan s resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found Yet when she shares the image with her husband, Patrick, who was Susan s classmate at West Point, he isn t convinced.What would have been a short lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman, a twisting journey through New York City that will force her to unearth long buried truths much closer to home to her own husband, who seems to know much about Susan than McKenna could have ever imaginedPage Numbers Source ISBN 0062208357

    • If You Were Here Best Read || [Alafair Burke]
      373 Alafair Burke
    If You Were Here

    About "Alafair Burke"

    1. Alafair Burke

      Alafair Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of two power house series Sun Sentinel that have earned her a reputation for creating strong, believable, and eminently likable female characters, such as NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid Alafair s novels grow out of her experience as a prosecutor in America s police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and have been featured by The Today Show, People Magazine, The New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Chicago Sun Times According to Entertainment Weekly, Alafair is a terrific web spinner who knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy A graduate of Stanford Law School and a former Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon, Alafair is now a Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School, where she teaches criminal law and procedure Her books have been translated into 12 languages.Alafair s work has been praised by some of the world s most respected crime writers, including Gillian Flynn, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben, Lisa Scottoline, Lisa Unger, and Nelson DeMille Learn about Alafair at alafairburke

    735 Comments

    1. Help Wanted Editor willing to cut repetitive and non essential information and assure the writer that readers will remember a main character went to West Point without being told so every few pages I feel badly about being so snarky, but I m going I let this stand The synopsis intrigued me, but the actual narrative is disappointingly amateurish.

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    2. disappointing convoluted too many plotlines mc is bit of a dim bulb still jumps to illogical conclusions and was left with a couple of questions do secret ecoterrorists really wear logo buttons and why did susan disappear couldn t understand the underlying premise of the entire book.

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    3. If I could use any f as a metaphor for this book it would have to be thisThe author took something pretty that could have been dolled up perfectly in the right hands, and turned it into an overdone mess I really like Alafair Burke s Ellie Hatcher series I find her to be an engaging author who can create an interesting female lead and a decent mystery with believable suspense, so I m not sure what the hell happened herebut it wasn t good Covering the story of a man who is saved by the woman he tr [...]

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    4. This book was mailed to me from the publishing company after I didn t get a copy from BEA13 I waited in line for a while only to find out I just missed out I left my information and honestly didn t think they would send me a copy the following week like they said I think it actually showed up three weeks after BEA13 and I had completely forgotten about it.If you had a friend who just vanished of the Earth, would you consider her dead after five years or just think she is in hiding A mysterious w [...]

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    5. While pursuing a lead about a young man pulled from the subway tracks by a mysterious woman, lawyer turned journalist McKenna Wright uncovers than she bargained for A video shot on a cell phone reveals the identity of the woman someone who looks a lot like McKenna s old friend Susan, who went missing five years before under mysterious circumstances Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, McKenna begins to slowly peel back the layers of the current story and discover just how much of a connection [...]

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    6. McKenna Wright is a heroine I can believe in No super powers or jumping into a situation wiser women would get away from She s smart, yes, but also blessed with common sense She s married to a West Point grad and they were both friends with one of his classmates, Susan Hauptmann They were aware that Susan had problems with her stern military father Then Susan seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth She left behind everything in her life in New York City, and no clue where she had gone No [...]

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    7. I liked the writing okay, but the book not so much This author, Alafair Burke, is the female answer to John Grisham, as she usually pens legal thrillers A former District Attorney McKenna Jordan who left her job after exposing a cop as a liar, now works for a NY magazine as a journalist In researching a story about a young kid who was pulled off a subway track by a mystery woman, she realizes the woman is her old friend Susan, who she thought died ten years ago Thus, the plot is born tracking do [...]

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    8. I picked up this audiobook hoping to read work by this author after enjoying a book she co wrote with Mary Higgins Clark.First off, the voice reader for this audiobook could not differentiate her male voices from her female characters It was almost painful to listen to A good voice actor can make a good book great That is not the case with If You Were Here.Back to the case, the story starts out with all kinds of potential A mysterious woman saves the thief of her own cell phone from certain dea [...]

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    9. Good summer, beach read Very plot driven bookaracter development seriously lacking Characters felt stilt, flat wasn t interested in getting to know any of them better Too many twists turns in the end Lots of repetitive jargon, think this book would have been better if it was maybe 50 pages shorter If You Were Here is probably my least favorite Burke read, however, it was still a decent enough read to hold my interest and keep me reading until the last page.

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    10. I have a confession to make I only read Part I and Part V and skimmed the rest In short, I got my closure on the mystery but, developed no feeling for the characters, well except for Patrick, Paul and Potter Hmmm AB must like the letter P so much.McKenna Jordan I thought McKenna was her last name saw her missing friend of 10 years saved a teenager s life And it became her mission to find the truth It was kind of weird I did not get any best friend vibe from McKenna and Susan What you re doing ri [...]

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    11. If You Were Here is Alafair Burke s 9th novel but only my 1st In fact, I had never heard of her before getting this ARC from HarperCollins I have to say that I liked it quite a bit It s very humbling to learn that there are a ton of authors that I don t know who have all written a bunch of books I would have to read 700 books a year instead of 70 to begin to know who s out there.But enough about my literary inadequacy If You Were Here has a very intricate plot I ll give you a brief synopsis 10 y [...]

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    12. I loved this newest book of Ms Burke s There has been a lot said about the lead character, McKenna Wright not being comfortable in her own skin or jumpy and not focused I agree with these sentiments However, instead of finding fault with the writing or book based on these assertions, I actually felt it made the character relatable Who can keep their focus and not jump to conclusions when emotionally invested in the subject Which of us does not have flaws we need to overcome as a person For me, [...]

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    13. McKenna, a disgraced former Assistant District Attorney turned reporter for a gossip rag, is assigned a story about a mysterious woman who saved a boy from being crushed by a subway train She is shocked to see that the grainy cellphone video of the event shows the face of her friend, Susan Hauptmann, who disappeared mysteriously 10 years earlier So she starts asking questions And strange things start happening her email accounts get broken into, her predictable husband starts acting out of chara [...]

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    15. I wanted to love this book, and was prepared to love it But after a few fits and starts, I finally resolved to sit down and read the entire thing That should have been a clue It just didn t flow for me the way this author s other books do.The biggest thing it had in its favor for me was that there was a strong and interesting female lead, and the other women in the book were also well rounded and layered characters McKenna Jordan, the main protagonist is flawed and complicated and very human She [...]

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    16. This is a mystery thriller than one or the other, and the twists did surprise me although in retrospect one of them was a little telegraphed McKenna yes, that s the first name is a former prosecutor, one brought down by apparently falsely accusing a police officer of using a drop piece to claim that his shooting was in self defense It turns out this was one of those odd consequences, she was wrong, she was vilified and lost her job Ten years later she s married and has reinvented her life as a [...]

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    17. This is my first Burke novel, and it was a winner I like a good mystery, and this smart, fast paced political legal thriller doesn t disappoint When 40 year old McKenna Jordan, a former assistant district attorney and currently a journalist, views a cell phone video of a woman saving a teenage boy from an oncoming train, she sees a ghost The woman, she believes, is none other than her former roommate and good friend, Susan, who disappeared nearly 10 years before The daughter of a general, Susan [...]

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    18. At first I was afraid I would tire of this book quickly and toss it across the room if the author didn t stop trying to impress us with descriptions and phrases that crossed the line into the trying too hard camp I d be reading blissfully along in the flow of words that sounded like what a normal person would think and suddenly BOOM, there would be a phrase screaming Look, I m literary or Look, I m so creative with my descriptions It was jarring Fortunately, this didn t last much beyond the firs [...]

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    19. Can we really know another person That question is at the crux of this excellent Alafair Burke standalone suspense novel.McKenna Wright Jordan thought she knew Susan Hauptmann, her friend who d vanished a decade ago, and was devastated when the police and everyone else gave up hope Susan was still alive.Then, suddenly, a scratchy video of a woman rescuing a youth from death in a subway accident, revives hope she d been right all along.But police, friends and even Patrick, her husband, who d been [...]

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    20. Alafair Burke wowed me Several times throughout this book I thought I knew how all the pieces fell into place, only to find out that I didn t This was a book that was filled with rich wonderful characters that tore at your heart strings, caused you to hold your breath and run with the character in a hurry I loved this book, esp because it wasn t all pat and dry I loved the fact that there was than one main character All the characters were fully developed into people you felt you knew Most writ [...]

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    21. review in bullet format, because what are paragraphswhat I liked the plot was very intricate, to the point where I get a minor headache when trying to put it all together I cared about the characters by the endwhat I didn t like the writing was boring I can t find another way to put it very plain descriptions, no color it could ve used a nice haircut it was about 80 pages too long out of 360 , and a trim would ve made it readable and tense the heavy legal jargon I understand that it s a legal t [...]

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    22. Wowwhat a twisted plot As much as I love both the Ellie Hatcher and Samantha Kincaid series, I also love both of Burke s stand alone novels I thought this story line was especially well done and such an interwoven complex cast of characters and plot Quite enthralling I read this in one day and am thrilled I didn t have to stop reading it to sleep Fantastic story I am anxious for the discussion with her on Tuesday

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    23. really enjoyed this mystery the fast pace of the opening scene definitely hooked me the entire story was well written and contained plenty of twists to keep me guessing all the way to the end this is the second book i ve read by AB and i can t wait to read another now my only dilemma is which one to read next

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    24. A totally page turning NYC mystery You ve got to read it I love McKenna Jordan as a character and I hope she comes back again

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    25. This was my first book by Alafair Burke, who has a number of mystery novels in her name This sounded like an interesting novel a woman who thinks she sees her old friend Susan on a video recording at the underground station, although Susan has been missing for ten years.Of course, as a reader, you re not going to think it s not Susan There wouldn t be a book if the woman didn t turn out to be Susan, or at least a look alike that was interesting enough investigate The mystery is how this woman ca [...]

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    26. In her ninth novel, and second standalone, Alafair Burke introduces McKenna Jordan, a writer for the fictitious NYC Magazine Before her marriage five years ago, she was McKenna Wright, who had spent four years as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, a job she lost in the aftermath of a police officer s shooting of a 19 year old youth, there being a question as to whether or not the boy had been unarmed, the gun found nearby planted McKenna s zealous investigation into that incident, accu [...]

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    27. Thrilling After reading the synopsis, I expected to follow the story of a superhero A woman worthy of appearing in X Men, who managed to save a boy from a fall on the metro, before disappearing in the wildness of New York Imagine, what was my surprise to come across an exciting thriller written as an investigative inquirywith nothing supernatural but however an exciting manhunt.The reader follows a former prosecutor turned journalist, McKenna She made headlines, when she lost her job in pinpoint [...]

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    28. This is an action packed story that involves McKenna Jordan, now a magazine journalist after her career as Assistant District Attorney goes bust One day while following the story of a teenage boy rescued from the tracks just before a train arrives by a woman who hurries away after the rescue, McKenna thinks she recognises the woman She believes it to be Susan Hauptmann, who disappeared ten years earlier McKenna sets out to investigate further but no one she talks including the police, wants the [...]

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    29. Another five star read for me from this author This is my second by her and another I greatly enjoyed It kept me entertained the whole way through There were a lot of twists n turns and just when you figured it out it headed off into a whole other direction I liked the Tears For Fears quotation at the beginning that made me smile Also the reference to Sean at the end made me teary very nice THAT list of readers she mentions at the end of her books certainly take up than a few pages, tooough I t [...]

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    30. Journalist McKenna Wright sees footage of a woman rescuing a teenager who had fallen onto the train tracks.McKenna recognizes the woman as an old friend who had disappeared nearly ten years ago This woman, Susan Hauptmann, was a classmate of McKenna s husband when he was at West Point.Thinking that this might be a good story for her paper, McKenna begins looking into Susan s disappearance not realizing that in doing so, she s placing her life and her husband s in danger.Also taking up McKenna s [...]

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