South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Two new good reads: Intricate ‘Find Me’ and the chilling ‘The Overnight Guest’
Amnesia certainly is a familiar plot trope, found in daytime dramas to novels. But in the exciting “Find Me,” Alafair Burke puts a fresh spin on this syndrome by steering the plot device toward friendship and obsession.
“Find Me” works as both a clever standalone novel as well as the solid sixth continuation of Burke’s series featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher.
“Find Me” centers on Hope Miller — at least that is what her friends and neighbors in Hopewell, N.J., have called her for the past 15 years. But no one, not even Hope, knows her real identity because she has suffered from amnesia ever since she was pulled from an overturned vehicle by Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly.
Lindsay became Hope’s best friend and mentor, protecting her and helping Hope establish a new life. Lindsay also have become a bit obsessed with Hope, worrying about her safety and her ability to maneuver her own life.
Needing a change, Hope moves to East Hampton, where she quickly finds a job. But during her second week working for a real estate agent, Hope disappears, the only clue a drop of blood matching a DNA sample related to a serial killer who terrorized Wichita, Kansas, years before. Lindsay contacts Ellie, who is quite familiar with the College Hill Strangler because her father’s obsession
with investigating the killer may have led to his suicide.
Burke’s focus on her intelligent characters and smart plotting energizes “Find Me.” The deep friendship between Lindsay and Hope drives one aspect of the plot while Ellie’s strong investigative skills and her realistic, never-ending grief over her father pull together the intersecting story.
Burke’s reputation for delivering highly entertaining, intricately plotted novels continues with “Find Me.”
Virtual discussion
Join Alafair Burke (“Find Me”), Laura Lippman (“Seasonal Work”) and Megan Abbott (“The Turnout,” which was my top mystery of
2021) for a virtual discussion about their books at
7:30 p.m. Jan. 11 through Murder on the Beach bookstore, 104 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, murderonthebeach.com. Email murdermb@gate.net or 561-279-7790 to receive the Crowdcast link.
Isolated farmhouse
Heather Gudenkauf, who has an affinity for chilling mysteries set in America’s Heartland, takes another leap forward with the tense “The Overnight Guest,” in which dual plotlines converge in a tightly wound story.
“The Overnight Guest” works as a regional mystery, a psychological thriller, a solid police procedural and, in a broad sense, a locked room story. Gudenkauf doesn’t miss a beat as her ninth terrifying mystery moves at a vigorous brisk pace.
True-crime writer Wylie Lark has traveled from her Oregon home, leaving her 14-year-old son with her ex-husband, to Burden, Iowa, to try to finish her fourth book. She’s retreated to a remote farmhouse that has “only the basics — electricity and water,” but no WiFi, no television, no cell phone to distract her. She avoids contact with the residents of the small “agriculturally centered” town, going into Burden only for supplies.
Wylie chose this farmhouse for a reason. About
20 years ago it was the site of a family’s murder; the
12-year-old daughter was injured, her best friend and her teenage brother disappeared that night. Wylie has almost finished her manuscript about the crimes and the aftermath, yet she is, oddly, hesitant to bring the project to a close. A major snowstorm interrupts her writing when Wylie discovers a 5-year-old boy bleeding in her front yard, and later a severely injured woman in a wrecked truck. The woman and child show signs of abuse, but the three are on their own until the weather improves. The storm has taken out Wylie’s electricity and land-line telephone.
Gudenkauf alternates the plot of “The Overnight Guest” from the present and Wylie’s situation to the police investigation into the murders, which doubles as Wylie’s manuscript. Gudenkauf astutely explores how Wylie’s choice of career affects her anxieties and her judgment in dealing with others. The two gripping stories move briskly as Gudenkauf keeps both plot points intriguing.