From my cousin
, Alafair’s blog:
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
With each book, I cross my fingers and hold my breath as I wait for the influential Publishers Weekly review. I’m delighted to report that 212 has PW’s stamp of approval:
Burke’s third white-knuckle thriller finds NYPD Det. Ellie Hatcher (after Angel’s Tip) and her partner, J.J. Rogan, investigating the murder of NYU student Megan Gunther, who’s the target of threatening posts on a college gossip Web site. The death of bodyguard Robert “Robo” Mancini, whose bullet-ridden corpse turns up in a swanky new building, the 212, built by Sam Sparks, the high-powered Manhattan real-estate developer Robo worked for, ups the ante. When Sam makes it clear that the police won’t have access to any company records, Ellie’s interest is piqued. As she and J.J. try to piece together Megan’s life, they discover a link between the student and a recently murdered real estate agent. With her usual tenacity, Ellie pursues leads that put both her career and her life at risk. Burke expertly weaves real-life headlines into her plot—particularly the Craig’s List Killer and the slew of recent political scandals—without ever sacrificing originality.
Powered by ScribeFire.
a southern gal in the north 
So, is James Lee Burke your uncle? Wow. I hadn’t noticed that Alafair had started writing too, but then I thought she was a fictional character. I am now better informed and have ordered the first two.
LikeLike
thanks for visiting helen! i love your blog.
James Lee is my cousin (his father and my grandmother were siblings). and thus Alafair is too!
as long as i am about it – Andre Dubus Jr (In the Bedroom was made from one of his short stories) and Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog) are my uncle and cousin respectively and my sister and mother are authors too.
no we dont like writers in our family – much!
Enjoy Alafair’s books – they are quite good!
hope you like
LikeLike
Thanks 🙂 I’m a very keen fan of James Lee Burke – I think I’ve read all his books. Even the titles – how could a book called ‘In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead’ disappoint? Or ‘Cadillac Jukebox’. I think Purple Cane Road is the best – book, I mean, not the title. There are things in that book that aren’t written down; they’re in the spaces between the words.
I started ‘House of Sand and Fog’ but my sympathies were so perfectly balanced between the two main characters that I couldn’t bear for either of them to lose and I never finished it. Pathetic, eh? But then that’s what good writing’ll do to you.
My father was a journalist but never made the move into books. That’s his typewriter I’m sitting at in my blog photo.
LikeLike