Friday Book Report: 212 by Alafair Burk

Alafair Burke takes real life headlines and weaves them into her story to create the crime novel 212.  The third installment of the Ellie Hatcher series is full of compelling storylines, current events and the underlying theme that human instinct isn’t always what it seems.  This book was published in 2010 by HarperCollins Publishing.

Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner J.J. Rogan are called to investigate a homicide in one of New York City’s hippest new buildings, the 212.  As it turns out, the man murdered was a bodyguard of a wealthy and famous entrepreneur in his own penthouse.  Sam Sparks, bachelor playboy and real estate mogul is unwilling to cooperate with their investigation, and thus Hatcher and Rogan are forced to put this case on the backburner when another murder lands on their desk.

Megan Gunther is a New York University sophomore that finds personal threats posted on a website specializing in campus gossip.  She’s disturbed by the posts and the anonymity of those posting threats about her.  She takes her case to the police for help, but there’s nothing they can do for her.  Her friends think it’s just a joke, but suddenly Megan ends up dead and now it’s up to Ellie and her partner to find justice for the young college co-ed.  Hatcher and Rogan investigate all the possibilities of Megan’s death, but it isn’t until another woman is killed that a link between the two is formed and the race is on to find the killer before another young woman dies.

Crime novels aren’t particularly my favorite genre, but I did enjoy this book.  It’s obviously not my favorite book ever, but it kept me interested and it didn’t take me long to finish, so it did hold my attention.  This book reminded me a lot of the show Law & Order, what with the crime and the ensuing investigation that almost always leads to something more than just a simple case of murder.  There are a lot of twists and turns, and lots of red herrings to sort through.  Three seemingly unrelated homicides start to link together as Ellie and Rogan piece the puzzle together, and it’s up to them to solve the mystery before another homicide is added to the list.  I could almost hear the Law & Order theme music in my head while reading this…almost.

I liked the character of Ellie Hatcher, she was strong and resilient and very determined to do her job well.  She has her flaws but for the most part she’s well rounded and not your clichéd “screwed up” cop with issues.  I thought she was very well developed and even though this is the third book in the series (and I have not read the previous two), I didn’t feel like I was missing out on a lot.  There were some backstory moments where reading the first two books would’ve helped, but they weren’t necessary and this book works very well as a stand-alone.  I liked the little character details that Burke adds in to give Ellie a personality; how she always illegally parks when arriving at a crime scene, that she always orders the same drink, the hints about her musical tastes that give the reader a little more background on who the real Ellie is, and not just Detective Hatcher.

I liked that Burke took recent events as used them as background for her story.  There are a lot of similiarities to the the “Craigslist Killer” as well as numerous other political scandals that never seem to go away.  And while she does use current headlines, it never felt like her story was just copying what was written in the newspapers.  While I like the “ripped from the headlines” story Burke had going on, I thought perhaps she used too many headlines to form her storyline.

This is a mystery/suspense crime novel, and therefore there is supposed to be a lot of mystery involved before the real culprit is revealed.  However, I felt this book had way too many twists and turns in the plot to make the story believeable.  This story had so many red herrings, and the investigation of the murders jumps from one suspect to the next, winding and spiraling around that the original plotline starts to become clouded and convoluted.  With so much going on, the reader has to process all kinds of information and dead ends while trying to formulate an actual theory as to “whodunit” and why.  I understand the main concept of a mystery novel is to keep the reader guessing, but in this case I think the author took it a bit overboard.  And instead of allowing the reader to form their own ideas, Burke has Ellie and her partner lay out nearly all the possibilities that lead to the crimes they were investigating.  I’m sure this was an attempt to accurately depict how detectives work in solving crimes, but as for me the reader; I felt that the author was trying to purposely sway me from forming my own opinions and giving me Ellie’s instead.  I would have rather had all of Ellie’s theories kept to herself so I could think about the crimes and try to solve the mystery myself, without the “help” from the author.  I suppose it was meant to distract from who really did it, but instead it frustrated me.

All in all it was an entertaining read.  I give this book a B- grade because it did keep me interested enough to read through quickly, the storyline was well thought out for the most part, and I really enjoyed the character of Ellie Hatcher.  This is a crime novel, and there is some harsh language and disturbing scenes.  This book isn’t for children and I wouldn’t recommend to anyone younger than 17 or 18.  If you are a fan of the mystery/crime genre you just might enjoy Ellie Hatcher in 212.  I’m not particularly a fan of the mystery/crime genre, but I still enjoyed Ellie Hatcher, and I just might have it in mind to read a few more books involving her to see what else she has in store.