Alafair Burke - Dead Connection

When two young women are murdered on the streets of New York, exactly one year apart, Detective Ellie Hatcher is called up for a special assignment on the homicide task force. The killer has left behind a clue connecting the two cases to First Date, a popular online dating service, and Flann McIlroy, an eccentric, publicity-seeking homicide detective, is convinced that only Ellie can help him pursue his terrifying theory: someone is using the lure of the Internet and the promise of love to launch a killing spree against the women of New York City.

To catch the killer, Ellie must enter a high-tech world of stolen identities where no one is who they appear to be. And for her, the investigation quickly becomes personal: she fits the profile of the victims, and she knows firsthand what pursuing a sociopath can do to a cop. Back home in Wichita, Kansas, her father lost his life trying to catch a notorious serial murderer.

When the First Date killer begins to mimic the monster who destroyed her father, Ellie knows the game has become personal for him, too. Both hunter and prey, she must find the killer before he claims his next victim, who could very well be her.

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Driven, young detective Ellie Hatcher, working scams and robbery in New York receives a surprising special assignment to the homicide department: A young woman had been strangled in an empty alley.
Like her two other victims have been killed. One 12 and one 24 months ago and the fourth victim is coming up.

All woman had something in common: They were connected to an online service named FirstDate. During investigations Ellie and her new partner won´t get any help from FirstDate's CEO without a court order.
The killer's changing his M.O. and one victim wasn't even an user of FirstDate but a FBI informant releasing informations about credit card fraud and Russian drug dealers. Mentioning FirstDate to an agent got her killed three days later.

Searching for patterns that don't exist or don't add up Ellie and her partner use the help of former programmer and co-founder FirstDate to solve this case.

A fantastic mystery, very well thought through. As a former deputy district attorney and being the daughter of James Lee Burke, an acclaimed crime writer, Alafair Burke certainly knows what she's writing about. Twist and turns, dramatic and a little love is all this book needed to make it a perfect, suspenseful mystery, very well written and without leaving any questions at the end.

The character Ellie Hatcher is a stand-alone besides the Samantha Kincaid series, which I haven't read yet but certainly will read sometime soon. Hopefully a beginning to a new series !

Rating:
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ISBN-13: 9780805077858
ISBN-10: 0805077855
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: 7/10/2007
Pages: 336
Book Type: Hardcover