If You Were HereIf You Were Here by Alafair Burke is a is a thrilling novel of suspense from Alafair Burke, the author Dennis Lehane calls “one of the finest young crime writers working today.” Publisher: HarperCollins, June 2013

Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks. When she locates a video that captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine, but is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier.

What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman—a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home.

I could not put down this fast-paced and non-stop action drama that quickly became a page turner. The characters, the dialogue, the suspense, the revelations all had me glued to the page as we moved to a conclusion that I was eager to reach and boy did I enjoy this novel when it was all over. Alafair is a proficient writer who knows how to tell a story and make you believe that you are there right in the thick of things. This was a good read and I look forward to more stories from Ms. Burke.