Never Tell
By Alafair Burke
Harper. 368 pp. $24.99
Detective Ellie Hatcher returns in a baffling case involving cyberstalking and a teenage suicide in Alafair Burke's new suspense novel, Never Tell.
The daughter of a prominent music-industry producer is found in the bathtub with her wrists slit. A note on her bed says it's a suicide. When Hatcher and her partner arrive, the grieving mother pulls them aside and tells them her daughter would not kill herself. Hatcher, out of compassion, agrees to investigate.
Burke has a knack for making New York City come vibrantly alive on the page. While immersing the reader in the apparent suicide case, she also introduces a traumatized woman who overcomes her tragic past by writing a blog. Her entries reveal an abusive childhood, and the woman hopes that by chronicling what happened to her, she can overcome her feelings and help others with similar experiences.
