4. Dead Connection by Alafair Burke

read on my Kindle
2007, Henry Hold
336 pgs.
Adult murder mystery/Police procedural
Finished 2-1-17
Goodreads rating:  3.73 - 2803 ratubgs
My rating: 4
Setting:  Contemporary NYC

First line/s:  "The man's first look at the newspaper item was a casual one, followed immediately by a more deliberate perusal."

My comments:  I read this book over the course of at least a month, and for some reason had no difficulty remembering details during the spans of nonreading time.  The storyline was interesting with a number of surprises, and the protagonist, Ellie Hatcher, was smart and real.  She took chances, sometimes without thinking things entirely through, and was willing to bend rules a little bit. I liked her a lot, as well as her brother, Jess, and the guy she ended up "seeing" by the end of the book, Peter.  There are a handful of Ellie Hatcher books following this one, and I'm looking forward to reading at least the next.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this electrifying thriller, a rookie detective goes undercover on the 

Internet dating scene to draw out a serial killer targeting single women
in Manhattan

           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.

           Expertly plotted and perfectly paced, Dead Connection advances Alafair Burke to the front ranks of American thriller writers.