March 24, 2014
Has suspected serial killer Anthony Amaro spent 18 years in New York’s Five Points Correctional Facility for a murder he didn’t commit? In Burke’s gripping fifth novel of suspense featuring NYPD Det. Ellie Hatcher (after 2012’s Never Tell), Ellie must suss that out in the wake of a fresh slaying in Brooklyn with the same signature, for which Amaro has an ironclad alibi. She must also consider the evidence against Amaro in five earlier murders in his hometown of Utica, N.Y., for which he was never prosecuted. That Ellie has recently moved in with the guy calling the shots, ADA Max Donovan, complicates matters, as does Carrie Blank, the associate of the lawyer handling Amaro’s wrongful-conviction claim, being the half-sister of one of the Utica victims. Burke sets the equally driven Ellie and Carrie on a collision course in a propulsive thriller marred only by the plot’s overreliance on coincidence. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary Agency.