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Thrilled to spend the final hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite Manhattan club, fresh-faced Indiana college student Chelsea Hart remains behind when her girlfriends call it a night. The next morning, joggers find her body in East River Park, her blond hair brutally hacked off.
NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher believes the group of privileged men last seen plying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol most likely includes a murderer. But after building a tight case against a young hedge-fund manager, Ellie has her doubts, because Chelsea's slaying is eerily similar to three other murders from nearly a decade ago. Continuing the investigation long after the department brass is satisfied with their case, hard-headed Ellie plunges into a late-night party world of conspicuous wealth and hedonistic consumption to catch the real killer—unaware that a psychopath is watching her every move...and eager to kill again.
Near the start of Burke's gripping second procedural to feature NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher (after Dead Connection), Ellie happens on the mutilated body of college student Chelsea Hart in East River Park while on her morning jog. Friends of the victim point the cops toward posh nightclub Pulse, located in the trendy Meatpacking district, where Ellie and partner J.J. Rogan are able to match a VIP's credit card receipt to young and arrogant investment banker Jake Meyers, with whom Chelsea was last reported seen. But pinning the case on him doesn't feel right when Ellie discovers similarities between Chelsea's murder and two others from years past. Meanwhile, local media keep getting hold of unreleased facts of the case, making Ellie's superiors suspicious of her romantic relationship with Daily Post crime reporter Peter Morse. Knowing the cops aren't on the right track lends a sense of dread to the plot. Burke leaves her principle characters little time to sleep; readers will relate. Author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.New York City rookie police detective Ellie Hatcher, first introduced in Dead Connection, is out on her morning run when she discovers the corpse of a teenage girl who's been strangled, stabbed, and shorn of her blond hair. The 19-year-old had been visiting the Big Apple with friends and hitting all the clubs while on break from college. Her murder creates a whirlwind of bad publicity for the city, but the NYPD breaks the case very quickly-or have they? Turns out there are weird similarities to some cold cases that Hatcher's deceased partner had been checking out, and she is unconvinced they have the right perp. When another young woman is killed in a similar fashion, even the hunky district attorney has to admit the case has problems. Hatcher, meanwhile, is getting an uneasy feeling that somehow it's personal. Lots of suspense and plot twists galore keep the pages turning, but the story lines about Hatcher, her boyfriend, her brother, and her partner deserve the credit for making this novel a winner. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ5/15/08.]
—Stacy Alesi
ALAFAIR BURKE is the bestselling author of seven previous novels, including the standalone Long Gone and the Ellie Hatcher series: 212, Angel’s Tip, and Dead Connection. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan.
He was good at blending into the background in even the most generic settings, but he certainly wasn't going to stand out here, given the commotion at the other end of the bar. Four men in suits and loosened ties were throwing back limoncello shots, their second round with the group of girls that had brought the man to the restaurant in the first place. Actually, his interest was not in all three-just the tall blond one.
He was used to taking more time with his selections, but he needed to find a girl tonight. This would be his first time on a schedule, let alone a tight one. NoLIta had seemed as good a starting point as any. Lots of bars. Lots of booze. Lots of beautiful young people trying so hard to have fun that they paid little attention to someone like him.
He had been wandering the neighborhood for about half an hour when he'd spotted the trio crossing Prince Street, the blonde the obvious leader. The other two were nothing special: one average-looking brunette in average-looking clothes; the other, petite one slightly more interesting with her close-cropped black hair and bright yellow dress.
But it was the tall blonde who was a head-turner, and she knew it. She wore tight black pants and a low-cut red satin tank over a gravity-defying push-up bra. Topping off the ensemble was a well-placed V-shaped choker necklace-the equivalent of a vertical arrow sign hanging from her clavicle, instructing, "Direct Gaze Here." And her hair was perfect-long, shiny, white-blond waves.
He'd ducked into Lord Willy's on Mott and perused the dress shirts while they'd passed, then continued his pace about forty feet behind them until they'd parked themselves next to the bar at Luna. Fortunately, the girls had been kept waiting for their eight o'clock table, so he'd had plenty of time to study the blonde up close before making a final decision.
He liked what he saw. He even had a chance to speak to her briefly when she split off from her friends to go to the restroom. That had been risky on his part. But her two gal pals were so smitten with the limoncello boys that they hadn't noticed the exchange.
He felt a twinge of disappointment as the hostess notified the girls their table was ready. Then he heard a male voice. "Stay for one more shot." Apparently the men in suits believed that plying the girls with drinks was going to get them somewhere.
Instead, the short girl in the yellow dress handed one of the men her cell phone and asked him to take a picture of the three friends. Mission accomplished, the brunettes followed the hostess to their table with barely a thank-you to their liquor-pouring benefactors. At least the blonde gave them each a hug before she trailed along.
The decibel level in the bar area fell noticeably in the wake of the girls' departure. The other patrons seemed relieved, but he took it as a signal to leave.
On Mott, he walked north toward Houston, forcing himself to adopt a leisurely pace. His car was parked only ten blocks away, and the girls would need at least an hour for dinner.
He had plenty of time.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Angel's Tip by Alafair Burke Copyright © 2008 by Alafair Burke. Excerpted by permission.
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Overview
Thrilled to spend the final hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite Manhattan club, fresh-faced Indiana college student Chelsea Hart remains behind when her girlfriends call it a night. The next morning, joggers find her body in East River Park, her blond hair brutally hacked off.
NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher believes the group of privileged men last seen plying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol most likely includes a murderer. But after building a tight case against a young hedge-fund manager, Ellie has her doubts, because Chelsea's slaying is eerily similar to three other murders from nearly a decade ago. Continuing the investigation long...