Quick read - good storyline, good characters, good story. Highly recommend the Ellie Hatcher series if you like a mix of police procedurals and thrillers. ( )

212 by Alafair Burke started with the death of one man in a pent house in NY called and ended with crazy drama and plot twists that were all mostly predictable. Here’s the blurb from BN:

When New York University sophomore Megan Gunther finds personal threats posted to a website specializing in campus gossip, she’s taken aback by their menacing tone. Someone knows her daily routine down to the minute and is watching her—but thanks to the anonymity provided by the Internet, the police tell her there’s nothing they can do.
Now, sadly this is highly misleading, the book was not entirely about Megan Gunther, nor her murder, hers was just the tip of the iceberg that lead to escort services, corrupt cops, and lots of Law & Order and CSI bashing.

What I liked:

I did like the lead detective Ellie Hatcher, I thought she was fun, bold and had no trouble expressing herself. I also loved her relationship with her older brother Jesse who has a habit of sleeping on her couch
What I didn’t like:

The plot was unoriginal and predictable, in fact, I just saw a recent Law & Order episode that was similar, but had a much better story line.
I really disliked the Law & Order and CSI bashing, while I understand that you can’t learn criminal law and forensics from such shows there’s no need to constantly bash them. Also the bashing was rather ironic in this case because the whole book read like a really bad episode of Law & Order any way
All the characters but the main character (Ellie) fell very flat.
The plot was all over the place and the “twists” were unoriginal and predictable…only the final twist was unexpected and also highly confusing…it wasn’t really needed.
So all in all this was a mediocre murder mystery. Ok for a rainy day but not overly memorable.

2 out of 5

Happy Readings!

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2.5 because I was surprised by the ending, but for the most part this was pretty predictable albeit entertaining and a fast read. ( )

Suspense and a police procedural. Very complicated, you don't know where the next turn in the timeline will take you.

I wish I could have identified with Ellie Hatcher more, but her character was too flat for me. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a police procedural story. ( )

A number of interesting twists and turns as Burke linked all the women & men together. Slow start but had me hooked by the first third. Look forward to reading the rest of Burke's work ( )