Find Me: A Novel

by Alafair Burke

Overview

“Alafair Burke's latest propulsive thrill-ride is a suspenseful, twisty mystery about memory, friendship and secrets. A page-turner of the highest order.” -Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me

The disappearance of a young woman leaves her best friend reeling and an NYPD homicide detective digging into her own past in this twisty mystery about the power of female friendships. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife.

Some pasts won’t stay forgotten . . .

She calls herself Hope Miller, but she has no idea who she actually is. Fifteen years ago, she was found in a small New Jersey town thrown from an overturned vehicle, with no clue to her identity. Doctors assumed her amnesia was a temporary side effect of her injuries, but she never regained her memory. Hope eventually started a new life with a new name in a new town that welcomed her, yet always wondered what she may have left behind—or been running from. Now, she’s leaving New Jersey to start over once again.

Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, Hope’s best friend and the one who found her after the accident, understands why Hope wants a new beginning. But she worries how her friend will fare in her new East Hampton home, far away from everything familiar. Lindsay’s worst fears are confirmed when she discovers Hope has vanished without a trace—the only lead a drop of blood found where she was last seen. Even more ominously, the blood matches a DNA sample with a connection to a notorious Kansas murderer.

With nowhere else to turn, Lindsay calls NYPD homicide detective Ellie Hatcher, the daughter of the cop who dedicated his life to hunting the Kansas killer. Ellie has always believed there was more to the story of her father’s death twenty years earlier—and she now fears that Hope’s recent disappearance could be related.

In pursuit of answers, the women search for the truth beneath long-buried secrets. And when their searches converge, what they find will upend everything they’ve ever known. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062853363
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/11/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	10,473
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Alafair Burke is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent novels include The Wife and The Ex, which was nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel. She also co-authors the bestselling Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan and East Hampton.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/15/2021

The fate of Hope Miller, as her friends in Hopewell, N.J., know her, drives Edgar finalist Burke’s scintillating sixth novel featuring NYPD Det. Ellie Hatcher (after 2014’s All Day and a Night). Fifteen years earlier, Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly pulled Hope, who had lost her memory, out of an overturned vehicle on a road near Hopewell. Lyndsay became Hope’s best friend, mentor, and protector. Now, in search of a fresh start, Hope moves to East Hampton, Long Island. Lindsay’s fears that her friend will be lost without her are quickly realized after Hope disappears, the only clue a drop of blood matching a DNA sample related to a Wichita, Kans., serial killer. The subsequent death of an East Hampton businessman leads the police to believe Hope is not a victim but a villain. Enter Ellie, whose late father was so obsessed with his investigation into the Wichita serial killer that he died by suicide. While Hope and Lindsay’s deep friendship takes center stage, Ellie’s intelligence, insight, and lingering grief over her father will keep readers turning the pages. Appealing characters match the meticulous plotting. Burke reinforces her place in the top rank of suspense writers. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Alafair Burke’s Find Me is a total knockout—serpentine in structure, rich in emotional heft and deeply moving as the past comes back not just to haunt the characters but to shudder through their lives, revealing secrets big and small, dangerous and intimate. Not to be missed.

Megan Abbott

The novel has a nice Hitchcockian feel to it as it glides from New Jersey to East Hampton to Wichita.

Washington Post

Burke is a master at plotting and pacing, and doesn’t disappoint here. Not only is this book a true page-turner with an intricate story and well-rounded cast of characters, but it combines a couple of my favorite plot points—amnesia and missing persons—and leads to an exquisite eleventh-hour shocker.

CrimeReads

A skillfully constructed, delightfully twisty thriller powered by Burke’s trademark strong, relatable heroines and realistic foes.

Booklist

"Alafair Burke once again weaves a riveting web of a story, threaded with delicious characters and hot button social issues. If you’re looking for the perfect twisty mystery, you’ve found it in Find Me."

Janelle Brown

Cunning. . . . Readers of The Better Sister, Alafair Burke’s wonderfully twisty new thriller, should get ready to be led down the garden path to a conclusion so morally ambiguous a professional ethicist might have to be called in.

Washington Post on The Better Sister

Coming off of last year’s brilliantly timely The Wife, psychological-suspense master Burke traces the uneasy relationship between two sisters and how it’s tested in the wake of a grisly murder.

Entertainment Weekly on The Better Sister

In addition to being a gripping thriller, this is a poignant look at the lives of two very different sisters—and how seemingly inconsequential events can often bring about great sacrifices. Burke gets better with each new read.

Karin Slaughter on The Better Sister

Alafair Burke’s name on the cover always guarantees a stellar read, and this novel is no exception. Elements of other domestic thrillers are in abundance, but the author knows how to take what could easily be cliché and make it feel brand-new. The realistic family relationship carries this story to great heights and wonderful surprises.

Associated Press

Coming off of last year’s brilliantly timely The Wife, psychological-suspense master Burke traces the uneasy relationship between two sisters and how it’s tested in the wake of a grisly murder.

null Entertainment Weekly on The Better Sister

In addition to being a gripping thriller, this is a poignant look at the lives of two very different sisters—and how seemingly inconsequential events can often bring about great sacrifices. Burke gets better with each new read.

null Karin Slaughter on The Better Sister

Cunning. . . . Readers of The Better Sister, Alafair Burke’s wonderfully twisty new thriller, should get ready to be led down the garden path to a conclusion so morally ambiguous a professional ethicist might have to be called in.

null Washington Post on The Better Sister

In addition to being a gripping thriller, this is a poignant look at the lives of two very different sisters—and how seemingly inconsequential events can often bring about great sacrifices. Burke gets better with each new read.

Karin Slaughter

08/01/2021

After a car wreck, the woman who now calls herself Hope Miller was left with no memory but appreciates how residents of the New Jersey town where she was found took her in. Still, after 15 years she feels the need to start over, moving to East Hampton and promptly disappearing, to the alarm of best friend Lindsay Kelly, a Manhattan defense lawyer.

Library Journal

2021-11-02
A mystery featuring a woman with amnesia in New Jersey, a drowned fishing guide on Long Island, a 15-year-old cold case in Wichita, and much more.

In her 19th mystery, and the sixth to feature detective Ellie Hatcher, Burke has taken the kitchen-sink approach, offering a rare abundance of characters, crimes, and misdemeanors. As much as there is a protagonist, it is a woman who, years ago, was thrown from an SUV in Hopewell, New Jersey, and lost her memory. Hope Miller, as she is now known, has spent the past decade and a half under the wing of a devoted friend she met after the accident, an attorney named Lindsay who lives with a boyfriend named Scott. But as the story opens, Hope has disappeared from Hopewell without leaving Lindsay any information as to her whereabouts. Since she has no legal identity, Hope has to work under the radar; she finds a job staging properties on the East End of Long Island for a sketchy real estate agent named...oh well, turns out he's not that important. Meanwhile, there's Ellie Hatcher, the detective whose series this is. She's on vacation in St. Barth's with her boyfriend, Max, having bad dreams about her dad, a cop who committed suicide because he couldn't find Wichita's College Hill Strangler, who was later arrested and jailed. Then there's this giant home improvement chain also based in Wichita whose female CEO is running for senator...and wait, there's more! This novel seems more like the work of a beginning crime writer than one with Burke's experience. Clues, red herrings, exposition, and "things you should know" are dropped in awkwardly and obviously: "Lindsay had learned that psychological trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder could also induce dissociative fugue, or what used to be called a fugue state—a psychological condition characterized by an inability to recall one’s identity or personality." All this hand-holding aside, the book operates on what feels like a kind of anti–Occam's-razor logic, favoring the most complicated solution to any question. The good news is, there is one.

For those who like a tricky brain teaser and aren't too picky about interesting characters or emotional realism.

Kirkus Reviews

“Scintillating. . . . Appealing characters match the meticulous plotting. Burke reinforces her place in the top rank of suspense writers.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The novel has a nice Hitchcockian feel to it as it glides from New Jersey to East Hampton to Wichita.” — Washington Post

"Burke’s focus on her intelligent characters and smart plotting energizes Find Me….[and her] reputation for delivering highly entertaining, intricately plotted novels continues.” — South Florida Sun Sentinel

“A skillfully constructed, delightfully twisty thriller powered by Burke’s trademark strong, relatable heroines and realistic foes.” — Booklist

“Irresistible . . . .Burke’s arrangement of all the puzzle pieces is wick­edly clever, as are the twists she gives them just when you think you know some­thing. Find Me is beautifully crafted, a swift and gripping read. And those twists keep coming at you until the very last paragraph.”
— Tampa Bay Times

“The two women feverishly piece together the disparate parts of the story, and Burke’s masterful control over pacing and plot reveals will make readers just as anxious to uncover the truth.” — BookPage

“Burke is a master at plotting and pacing, and doesn’t disappoint here. Not only is this book a true page-turner with an intricate story and well-rounded cast of characters, but it combines a couple of my favorite plot points—amnesia and missing persons—and leads to an exquisite eleventh-hour shocker.” — CrimeReads

"Alafair Burke’s Find Me is a total knockout—serpentine in structure, rich in emotional heft and deeply moving as the past comes back not just to haunt the characters but to shudder through their lives, revealing secrets big and small, dangerous and intimate. Not to be missed.” — Megan Abbott, author of The Turnout

“Find Me is a gem, the sort of smart, suspenseful, slow burn that I love. The tension is palpable on every page, and I savored every surprise. Alafair Burke is a treasure.” — Chris Bohjalian, author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

“From one of our greatest contemporary mystery writers comes another superb nail-biting thriller. Alafair Burke uses an intricately layered and twisty plot to ensnare us and then pulls us in for a close examination of intimacy and community. I devoured it, from its riveting first scene to the shocking last page. — Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek 

"Alafair Burke once again weaves a riveting web of a story, threaded with delicious characters and hot button social issues. If you’re looking for the perfect twisty mystery, you’ve found it in Find Me." — Janelle Brown, author of Pretty Things

“Alafair Burke is back in this gripping, head-spinning thriller of the first order. FIND ME is a perfect read: the writing is engaging, the twists are perfectly executed and the exploration of female friendships and identity offers satisfying heft to the plot. I can't wait for Burke's next.”  — Cristina Alger, author of Girls Like Us

From the Publisher

"Burke’s focus on her intelligent characters and smart plotting energizes Find Me….[and her] reputation for delivering highly entertaining, intricately plotted novels continues.

South Florida Sun Sentinel

Irresistible . . . .Burke’s arrangement of all the puzzle pieces is wick­edly clever, as are the twists she gives them just when you think you know some­thing. Find Me is beautifully crafted, a swift and gripping read. And those twists keep coming at you until the very last paragraph.”

Tampa Bay Times

Find Me is a gem, the sort of smart, suspenseful, slow burn that I love. The tension is palpable on every page, and I savored every surprise. Alafair Burke is a treasure.

Chris Bohjalian

From one of our greatest contemporary mystery writers comes another superb nail-biting thriller. Alafair Burke uses an intricately layered and twisty plot to ensnare us and then pulls us in for a close examination of intimacy and community. I devoured it, from its riveting first scene to the shocking last page.

Angie Kim

The two women feverishly piece together the disparate parts of the story, and Burke’s masterful control over pacing and plot reveals will make readers just as anxious to uncover the truth.

BookPage

The novel has a nice Hitchcockian feel to it as it glides from New Jersey to East Hampton to Wichita.

Washington Post

A skillfully constructed, delightfully twisty thriller powered by Burke’s trademark strong, relatable heroines and realistic foes.

Booklist

Alafair Burke is back in this gripping, head-spinning thriller of the first order. FIND ME is a perfect read: the writing is engaging, the twists are perfectly executed and the exploration of female friendships and identity offers satisfying heft to the plot. I can't wait for Burke's next.” 

Cristina Alger

Coming off of last year’s brilliantly timely The Wife, psychological-suspense master Burke traces the uneasy relationship between two sisters and how it’s tested in the wake of a grisly murder.

Entertainment Weekly