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Dead Connection
Dead Connection
Dead Connection
Audiobook9 hours

Dead Connection

Written by Alafair Burke

Narrated by Christopher Lane

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

Two young, single women are murdered on the streets of New York City, exactly one year apart. Their only connection: Both had posted profiles on the popular online dating service, FirstDate.com. Enter NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher. She fits the profile of the victims, and is called in for a special assignment to the homicide team.

FirstDate.com promises its online clientele that they'll remain anonymous and safe. But Ellie is about to discover that the company is protecting the identity of the killer more than it protected the safety of his victims...

Soon Ellie is entangled in a web of anonymous identities and false leads as she tries to attract and lure in a suspect. But time is running out to find the killer before he claims his next victim which, in a devastating twist of fate, is looking more and more likely to be Ellie herself....

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 10, 2007
ISBN9781423343417
Dead Connection
Author

Alafair Burke

Alafair Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels, including The Better Sister, The Wife, The Ex, and Find Me, in addition to the Under Suspicion series, coauthored with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in New York City. 

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Reviews for Dead Connection

Rating: 3.7383419170984458 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

193 ratings14 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is one of those books that is super easy to read. The writing, the characters, the storyline - everything just works really well together and before you know it you are finished the story.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. I've already read an Ellie Hatcher book from this series (book 4) and decided to go back to the beginning of the series. This remained suspenseful throughout the story, with a surprise ending (for me at least. I suppose others might have guessed before the conclusion). I like the Ellie character and her brother. I'm keen to read the next in the series, to find out what adventure she embarks on this time.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Story is good, but the narrator is terrible. Sounds like a bad actor.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good cop drama, with a few twists to keep the reader going. Definitely an enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An enjoyable storyline mixing technology and crime. I think my first Ellie Hatcher book. Hopefully not my last.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Detective Ellie Hatcher, raised in Kansas, became a police officer because her father had been one. He had been working on a case involving multiple murders when he allegedly committed suicide. Her brother, Jess, moved to New York City and she soon followed, planning on helping him. When two attractive, single women, around thirty years old, were killed exactly a year apart, the New York Police Department called in Hatcher to help solve the crime even though she had been a detective for only four years and did not serve in the Homocide Unit. When a third victim was murdered a week later, they began to wonder if they were dealing with a serial killer. Clues left with the bodies point them toward FirstDate,com, an internet dating site. Eventually a fourth murder, three years previously, became part of the picture as a bullet from her murder matches that of the one the previous year.As Hatcher and her senior partner, Detective Flann McIlroy began to work the cases, they discovered that the policemen who investigated the first murder were rather sloppy in their work. Along the way, the FBI became involved, also in a manner that was not particularly helpful.They soon realized that the perpetrator was playing games with them, inventing clues calculated to mislead them.The book was well-written and moved at a nice pace. The characters were consistent with their personalities and idiosyncracies. There were several twists to the story though they should have been able to figure out murderer earlier than they did, though that would have lessened the plot.It also provided information explaining how identity theft often works.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dead Connection – A Twist at Every TurnIn her first outing of Ellie Hatcher in All Day and A Night, Alafair Burke follows up her introduction to Ellie Thatcher with Dead Connection. Dead Connection is a sleek first rate thriller, which introduces us to engaging characters that helps to make this thriller so compelling. It is easy to see why Dead Connection and Alafair Burke has been lauded and quite rightly so as she delivers a compelling thriller that delivers on the suspense and thriller aspects to deliver an entertaining read. Detective Ellie Hatcher works out of the NYPD’s Midtown North Precinct dealing with all the general crime in her part of the borough. When her lieutenant tells her that she is going on a temporary to homocide to help a star detective Flan McIlroy who has got a couple of dead females on his hands and no seeming connection to each other than they were both killed with the same bullet. One was a Russian junkie prostitute found dead in the parking lot of a strip club the other a young woman found outside her apartment block.Then another couple of young females are murdered outside their apartments and the women of Mannhatan are running scareed. Three of the murders seem to be connected through a dating website called FirstDate. Questions keep being thrown up by the investigation which seems to lead them in a different direction and as they get closer to the truth McIlroy is killed in the line of duty.It is through that death of her partner that Hatcher is able to find the truth even if her own NYPD do not really want to hear it. With the help of an FBI agent she is able to find the who killed the three connected murders and then finally the murder of the Russian junkie prostitute. The pace of this thriller will leave you breathless turning each page in the hope that Hatcher will be able to get through this case in one piece. Even after the murder of her partner Hatcher is not afraid to keep moving to find the truth. The writing is crisp and clear Hatcher and her brother Jess are engaging characters as well as all other characters that appear in the book. Alafair Burke’s style of writing is so engaging and it draws you in and there is an intense pleasure in reading her work.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed this book but found the main character, Ellie Hatcher, as new homicide detective too trusting and niave. She disregards her experienced partners opinions and advice about the different suspects and people surrounding the murders of 3 women involved in the same internet dating website, stalkers, serial killers, money laundering and the Russian mob. I realized after her first interview who was behind the crime.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was like a TV episode about a serial killer going after women. I felt I had come across the plot more than a few times before.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    SummaryDetective Ellie Hatcher's father Jerry was on the trail of a serial killer in Witchita, Kansas when he allegedly committed suicide. Ellie's mother was left with no pension, no safety net, and no hope, except for Ellie. After moving to New York and falling in love with the city, Ellie decides to follow in her father's footsteps and try to rid the world of its injustices while fighting for her mother and brother Jess by proving that her father was actually murdered.In the midst of this fight, Ellie is noticed by Homicide Detective Flann McIlroy who asks specifically for her help on a new case involving murdered women who have a connection with an online dating service called First Date.com.Ellie dives into the world of Internet dating and finds a killer who holds grudges and likes to play games, not just with his victims, and the Russian mob, but with her as well...all safely hidden away, untouchable it seems, behind his computer screen.What I LikedEllie Hatcher - no whiner here, not perfect, but very responsible and a little OCD...when she gets going on something, she just can't put it down. Peter - one of the most likeable romantic interests of a tough heroine in a long time...his humor, his honesty, his standoffishness and his maturity are all refreshing.James Lee Burke connection - I've only read one other book by James Lee Burke, The Tin Roof Blowdown, but I'm such a doofus I didn't realize Alafair Burke was his daughter. Now that in itself wouldn't have been "a Like" in my review, but at one point in the story Ellie makes a connection with James Lee Burke's male protagonist Dave Robicheaux...It's never fully mentioned, and if you don't know anything about James Lee Burkes' books, you won't catch it. But, if you do, it's really a cool little strategy :) Speed - this was a fast read for me...I read it in just a few hours...but it was as enjoyable as watching a fast paced murder mystery on tv or in the movie theatre...I didn't feel like I was sitting there for a few hours...I just couldn't take my eyes off. I never knew who the murderer was until Ellie realized it, and I almost dropped my Nook when she dropped her phone. To say I was involved in this story would be an understatement. :)What I Didn't LikeFear factor - this one gave me the chills from time to time...and my teenagers keep asking me why all of a sudden I'm so worried about their Internet activities :/Techie talk - there's a little bit of talk about cookies, IP addresses, etc. as you would certainly expect there to be in a case like this one. I don't think it's over the top at all, but it's difficult for me to wrap my mind around just how easy it is for someone to hack into your computer...the technology is so beyond my comprehension...but is enough to scare the bejeebies out of me :(Overall RecommendationIf you like a fast paced mystery/detective series with a gutsy heroine in the lead role, you'll like Ellie. This one's about Internet hacking and the Russian mob too so put on your thinking caps :)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    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 ases to FirstDate.com, 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 theor: 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. This one was OK, but I liked Burkes earlier works better.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ellie Hatcher is a young New York detective working scams and robberies when a special request is made for her to work a homicide case....possibly a serial homicide case. But Ellie also comes with baggage. Her father was a police detective who supposedly committed suicide over a serial murder investigation he conducted years before. In Alafair Burke's first Ellie Hatcher novel, DEAD CONNECTION, Ellie is called up for a case that involves Internet Dating, and she enters the homicide squad to snickering whispers of "Date Bait." But that doesn't deter Ellie; quite the contrary. She's even more determined to do a damn fine job.Two factors continually come up when I comment on a book. The first is characterization. If a book has poor characterization, it doesn't matter how fabulous the plot is. I'm a character person. And this book ABOUNDS in character. Ellie is fascinating - Ellie is REAL! I love the fact that Ellie makes mistakes. She's a young detective and she makes mistakes that inexperienced people make.O.k., so Alafair Burke mastered the art of characterization...my next factor - predictability. After all, how can a suspense novel be suspenseful if you can predict everything that's going to happen, right? Didn't predict a gosh darn thing in this book! The reader is fed the facts in little snippets just like Ellie and McIlroy would discover them. The reader has to fit the disordered puzzle pieces together just like the detectives would. And this is one of those puzzles that you can't figure out until every last piece is in its rightful place...and believe me, some of the pieces look like they could fit where they don't belong, creating a whole different picture. A chuckle came for me in the novel when Ellie calls a detective "Robi --"..."Just call me Dave" from...yep, you guessed it, New Iberia, Louisiana! Gotta love it!Outstanding read!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A little too much coincidence tying the different deaths together—otherwise an intriguing mystery. The Ellie Hatcher works to catch a serial killer who appears to be using an on-line dating service to select his victims. She uses herself as bait so the tension mounts—will she id the killer before he decides to remove her?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Lawyer and college professor Alafair Burke is the daughter of renowned crime novelist James Lee Burke, and following in his footsteps she has written a police procedural mystery set in New York City. NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher is called by a more experienced detective to help in the case of young women who are being stalked and killed after posting ads on an Internet dating site. It’s an interesting plot device that combines technology, sleuthing and Hatcher make for an interesting tough female lead. The problem is that the writing and the characters in this novel never seem to really gel, and the wooden nature of the killer and his victims keeps the chills to a minimum. The wise-cracking cop buddy angle is also a little stale, it’s something we’ve seen in many books and films. Fans of strong female leads may be able to look past the story’s faults, but my hope is that the next Ellie Hatcher story will surround this intriguing character with better conceived allies and adversaries.