"Long Gone" by Alafair Burke (A Book Review)

I love mysteries.  I almost never miss "48 Hours," and I like to think I could actually solve real-life crime.  If I didn't have to spend most of my days in a law office.

I  downloaded Alafair Burke's, "Long Gone" on my kindle a few months ago when it was a "Deal of the Day."  I thought, "Her dad's a fantastic writer, but is she a good author or just the daughter of a good author?"  Of course, I knew the name "Alafair," but had no idea about the real life Alafair.

Well, it's obvious that talent runs in the Burke family.

I was captivated from the time I met the novel's main character, Alice Humphrey.  This is a perfect case of when bad things happen to good people.  

This was one of those novels, where you started to think, "This could really happen!"

Ms. Burke's fast-pace, contemporary style, descriptive narrative and ability to keep you off track, just put her on my list of "must read everything she's written," authors.

Every time I thought I had the case solved, the story took another unexpected and bizarre turn.

Skeletons were falling out of the closet in nearly every chapter.  Highly recommended!


Author's Description:  

"After a layoff and months of struggling, Alice Humphrey finally lands her dream job managing a new art gallery in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District. According to Drew Campbell, the well-suited corporate representative who hires her, the gallery is a passion project for its anonymous, wealthy, and eccentric owner. Drew assures Alice that the owner will be hands off, allowing her to run the gallery on her own. Her friends think it sounds too good to be true, but Alice sees a perfect opportunity to make a name for herself beyond the shadow of her famous father, an award-winning and controversial film maker.

The artist whose work she displayed doesn’t seem to exist. And the dead man she claims is Drew has been identified as someone else.

Everything is perfect until the morning Alice arrives at work to find the gallery gone—the space stripped bare as if it had never existed—and Drew Campbell’s dead body on the floor. Overnight, Alice’s dream job has vanished, and she finds herself at the center of police attention with nothing to prove her innocence. The phone number Drew gave her links back to a disposable phone.

When police discover ties between the gallery and a missing girl, Alice knows she’s been set up. Now she has to prove it—a dangerous search for answers that will entangle her in a dark, high-tech criminal conspiracy and force her to unearth long-hidden secrets involving her own family… secrets that could cost Alice her life."  (from http://alafairburke.com/books/long-gone)