Alafair S. Burke (born October 1969) is an American
crime novelist,
professor of law
Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular j ...
, and legal commentator. She is a'' New York Times'' bestselling author of 18 crime novels, including ''The Ex, The Wife,'' and ''The Better Sister,'' and two series—one featuring
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
Detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
Ellie Hatcher, and the other,
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
,
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
Samantha Kincaid.
Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Background
Burke was born in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...
, and raised primarily in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
, where her mother, Pearl Pai Chu,
was a school librarian and her father, fellow
crime novelist James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won Edgar Awards for ''Black Cherry Blues'' (1990) and ''Cimarron Rose'' (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master ...
,
was a professor of English. She traces her fascination with crime to the hunt for the serial killer known as
BTK, who was active in Wichita during the 1970s.
Burke received her
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
from
Reed College
Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
, in Portland, Oregon, completing the senior thesis "Emotion's effects on memory: spatial narrowing of attention." She went on to
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...
in California, graduating as a member of
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...
. After law school, she served as a judicial clerk to
Betty Binns Fletcher
Betty Binns Fletcher (March 29, 1923October 22, 2012) was an American lawyer and judge. She served as a United States circuit judge of the San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit between 1979 and 2012. Fletcher wa ...
of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
, and then as a
Multnomah County
Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...
Deputy District Attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...
in Portland, where she prosecuted domestic violence offenses and served as an in-precinct advisor to the police department.
She currently lives in New York City and is a professor of law at
Hofstra University School of Law
The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University (commonly known as Hofstra Law) is a law school located in Hempstead, New York on Long Island, affiliated with Hofstra University. Founded in 1970 and accredited by the ABA in 1971, th ...
. She has served on the board of directors of the
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City.
The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.
It presents the Edgar Award ...
and as president of its New York chapter. In 2017, she was elected as a member of the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...
. She is also a member of the board of directors of the
Authors Guild
The Authors Guild is America's oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among ...
Foundation.
In 2014, publisher
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
announced that
Mary Higgins Clark
Mary Higgins Clark (born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins (December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2020) was an American author of suspense novels. Each of her 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of he ...
and Burke were collaborating on the ''Under Suspicion'' series, featuring an intrepid television journalist who reinvestigates cold cases.
In 2017, Burke was nominated for an
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
for Best Novel for her book, ''The Ex''.
Burke currently serves as the President of Mystery Writers of America and is the first woman of color to be elected to that position.
Writing techniques
Burke's novels are known for their authenticity and often draw on real-world cases and the author's personal and professional experiences.
Burke's Samantha Kincaid series is set in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, where Burke worked in the 1990s.
In creating NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, Burke drew on her experience growing up in Kansas. Like Burke, Hatcher was raised in Wichita. Hatcher's father was a Wichita police detective, who spent his career hunting a serial killer who evaded police for 30 years.
Burke's first novel, ''Judgment Calls'', is loosely based on the case of
Keith Hunter Jesperson
Keith Hunter Jesperson (born April 6, 1955) is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many lett ...
, a serial killer known as the "Happy-Face Killer" for the smiley faces he drew on his many letters to the media.
''Angel's Tip'' was loosely based on the murders of
Imette St. Guillen and
Jennifer Moore.
In ''Dead Connection'', Ellie Hatcher tracks a serial killer who uses an online dating service to locate his victims. Burke has said that the plot was inspired by her worst nightmares while briefly enrolled on
Match.com
Match is an online dating service with web sites serving over 50 countries in twelve languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match is ...
. Burke subsequently dedicated the book to her husband, writing, "For Sean, I can't believe I found you on a computer."
In the author's note to ''The Better Sister,'' Burke described her novels ''The Ex,'' ''The Wife,'' and ''The Better Sister'' as "a thematic trilogy of novels that explore the complexity of female relationships and the diverse roles that women play in contemporary society."
Novels
Samantha Kincaid series
*''Judgment Calls'' (Samantha Kincaid 1) (2003)
*''Missing Justice'' (Samantha Kincaid 2) (2004)
*''Close Case'' (Samantha Kincaid 3) (2005)
Ellie Hatcher series
*''Dead Connection'' (Ellie Hatcher 1) (2007)
*''Angel's Tip'' (Ellie Hatcher 2) (2008) (published in the UK as ''City of Fear'')
*''212'' (Ellie Hatcher 3) (2010) (published in the UK as ''City of Lies'')
*''Never Tell'' (Ellie Hatcher 4) (2012)
*''All Day and a Night'' (Ellie Hatcher 5) (2014)
*''Find Me'' (Ellie Hatcher 6) (2022)
Under Suspicion series
* ''The Cinderella Murder'' (2014) (with co-author
Mary Higgins Clark
Mary Higgins Clark (born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins (December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2020) was an American author of suspense novels. Each of her 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of he ...
)
* ''All Dressed in White'' (2015) (with co-author Mary Higgins Clark)
* ''The Sleeping Beauty Killer'' (2016) (with co-author Mary Higgins Clark)
* ''Every Breath You Take'' (2017) (with co-author Mary Higgins Clark)
* ''You Don't Own Me'' (2018) (with co-author Mary Higgins Clark)
* ''Piece of My Heart'' (2020) (with co-author Mary Higgins Clark)
Other novels
*''Long Gone'' (2011)
* ''If You Were Here'' (2013)
* ''The Ex'' (2016)
* ''The Wife'' (2018)
* ''The Better Sister'' (2019)
* ''Find Me'' (2021) (published in the UK as ''The Girl She Was'')
Short stories
*''Winning'' (2008) (selected for Best American Mystery Stories of 2009)
*''The Mother'' (2012)
Other works
* ''Got a Warrant?: Breaking Bad and the Fourth Amendment,'' 13 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 191 (2015)
* ''Consent Searches and Fourth Amendment Reasonableness,'' 67 FL. L. REV. 509 (2015)
* ''Review: Prosecution (is) Complex,'' 10 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 703 (2013)
* ''Policing, Protestors, and Discretion,'' 40 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 999 (2013)
* ''Prosecutors and Peremptories,'' 97 IOWA L. REV. 1467 (2012)
* ''The Community Prosecutor: Questions of Professional Discretion,'' 47 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 285 (2012) (with co-author Bruce Green)
* ''I Got the Shotgun: Reflections on The Wire, Prosecutors, and Omar Little,'' 8 OHIO ST. CRIM. L. J. 447 (2011)
* ''When Family Matters,'' 119 YALE L. J. 1210 (2010)
* ''Prosecutorial Agnosticism,'' 57 8 OHIO ST. CRIM. L. J. 79 (2010)
* ''Talking About Prosecutors,'' 31 CARDOZO L. REV. 2119 (2010)
* ''Classroom Storytelling,'' 78 UMKC L. REV. 1031 (2010)
* ''Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Prosecutions and the New Policing, in'' CRIMINAL LAW CONVERSATIONS (Robinson, Ferzan, and Garvey eds.) (Oxford University Press, 2009)
* ''Revisiting Prosecutorial Disclosure,'' 84 INDIANA LAW J. 481 (2009)
* ''Comment, Brady's Brainteaser: The Accidental Prosecutor and Cognitive Bias,'' 57 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 575 (2007)
* ''Prosecutorial Passion, Cognitive Bias, and Plea Bargaining,'' 91 MARQUETTE L. REV. 183 (2007)
* ''Neutralizing Cognitive Bias: An Invitation to Prosecutors,'' 2 N.Y.U. LAW & LIBERTY 512 (2007)
* ''Domestic Violence as a Crime of Pattern and Intent: An Alternative Reconceptualization,'' 75 GEORGE WASHINGTON L. REV. 552 (2007)
* ''Lawless Neptune,'' in NEPTUNE NOIR (Rob Thomas, ed., 2007) (discussing the depiction of law in the popular television show Veronica Mars)
* ''Improving Prosecutorial Decision Making: Some Lessons of Cognitive Science,'' 47 WILLIAM & MARY L. REV. 1587 (2006)
* ''"Administrative Searches," "Arrest Without Warrant," and "Board of Education v. Earls,"'' in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES (2006)
* ''Review: Murder and the Reasonable Man: Passion and Fear in the Criminal Courtroom,'' 103 MICH. L. REV. 1043 (2005)
* ''Unpacking New Policing: Confessions of a Former Neighborhood District Attorney,'' 78 WASH. L. REV. 985 (2003)
* ''Rational Actors, Self-Defense, and Duress: Making Sense, Not Syndromes, Out of the Battered Woman,'' 81 N.C. L. REV. 211 (2002)
* ''A Few Straight Men: Homosexuals in the Military and Equal Protection,'' 6 STAN. LAW & POL. REV. 109 (1994)
* ''Note, Reconciling Professional Ethics and Prosecutorial Power: The No Contact Rule Debate,'' 46 STAN. L. REV. 1635 (1994)
* ''Remembering Emotional Events,'' 20 MEMORY & COGNITION 277 (1992) (with co-authors F. Heuer & D. Reisberg).
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Alafair
1969 births
Living people
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American women writers
American legal scholars
American mystery writers
American crime fiction writers
American women novelists
Hofstra University faculty
Reed College alumni
Stanford Law School alumni
Women legal scholars
Women mystery writers
Writers from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
American women academics
Television personalities from Florida