Book Review: If You Were Here by Alafair Burke

Article originally published as Book Review: ‘If You Were Here’ by Alafair Burke on Blogcritics.org

About:

If You Were Here by Alafair Burke is a fictional mystery taking place in New York City. Ms. Burke is a best-selling author, former prosecutor and a teacher of criminal law.

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post.

• 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper (June 4, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062208357

My rat­ing for If You Were Here — 3
Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format*
More Books by Alafair Burke

Thoughts:

I don’t know what to think about If You Were Here by Alafair Burke. On one hand this was a well written, fast paced novel, on the other the plot was convoluted. While I appreciate intricate storylines, this one just seemed to be made out of separate puzzles which are somewhat forced together.

At first I thought this would be a quick read, but I soon discovered that to keep track of the storyline I had to read carefully because an off the wall comment could be the next be clue (as is sometimes in real life). The narrative had me guessing until the end which was surprising but somehow anti-climatic.

To me the story seemed farfetched to the point where it was getting convoluted. While I liked the fact that Ms. Burke drew on life-like events like the comments described in the previous paragraph, the whole plot was over the top and the characters lacked depth to make it more believable. The protagonist, McKenna, is a smart, strong woman but the author keeps bringing up her past career as a lawyer every few pages as if to remind the reader that McKenna is a … smart, strong woman.

Overall the novel was not a bad summer read, I’d certainly recommend it if you like mysteries and are going on a vacation soon. I did like the way the book is written and will certainly pick up a different book by the author if I get a chance.

Synopsis:

Journalist McKenna Wright is writing a fluff piece when she thinks she saw an old friend who disappeared ten years ago without a trace. Using her connections as a former prosecutor and her investigator’s instincts, McKenna pursues the matter in a search across New York City and finds long buried, dark secrets of those she loves the most.

Buy this book in paper or elec­tronic format*
More Books by Alafair Burke

Give­away

• Give­away ends: July 02, 2013

• US/Canada Ship­ping Addresses Only

• No PO Boxes

• Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked

Congratulations: bethvollbach@

TLC Book Tour for If You Were Here by Alafair Burke :

• Wednesday, June 5th: nomadreader
• Thursday, June 6th: A Dream Within a Dream
• Monday, June 10th: Kritters Ramblings
• Tuesday, June 11th: Tales of a Book Addict
• Thursday, June 13th: Jen’s Book Thoughts
• Monday, June 17th: 5 Minutes For Books
• Tuesday, June 18th: Under My Apple Tree
• Wednesday, June 19th: From the TBR Pile
• Thursday, June 20th: A Bookworm’s World
• Friday, June 21st: A Bookish Way of Life
• Monday, June 24th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
• Tuesday, June 25th: Good Girl Gone Redneck
• Wednesday, June 26th: Man of La Book
• Thursday, June 27th: Sara’s Organized Chaos
• Friday, June 28th: Reflections of a Bookaholic
• Monday, July 1st: Book Reviews by Elizabeth White
• Tuesday, July 2nd: Veronica MD

Zohar — Man of la Book

Dis­claimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours.

*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account

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