If You Were Here

A Novel of Suspense

By: Alafair Burke

Narrated by: Roxanne Hernandez

Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Magazine journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the latest urban folktale - the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks seconds before the arrival of an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a video snippet that purportedly captures the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.

McKenna is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend - and a classmate of her husband's at West Point - who vanished without a trace 10 years earlier. The NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan - forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity - simply started over again somewhere else.

But McKenna has always believed that the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. What might have been a short-lived Metro story sends the former-prosecutor-turned-reporter on a twisting search that leads across New York City - and to dark secrets buried dangerously close to home....

©2013 Alafair Burke (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

So disappointed..

I've loved Alafair Burke's previous books -- really loved them, in fact, I said things like, 'She's much better than her father ever was' -- which is saying something.

But this one? I couldn't get into it. I listened to the first 3.5 hours, realized my mind had never really keyed in, but -- only because it was Alafair Burke! -- I decided it must be my fault, this was a book I was obviously going to love! So I went back and started again.

It didn't help. It wasn't me. There's something unfocused about this story -- a lot of sound and fury, signifying not much of anything at all. Lots going on, but the plates just spin and spin. Where was the editor??? So much repetition -- I normally don't mind the 'three-quarters of the book review of facts', but in this book, she kept doing it over and over and over, all through the book. Maybe her mind was wondering, too.

Part of it was the narrator. When she was just straight reading the text, she was fine -- no complaints. But when she was interpreting several of the characters, she insisted on giving them voices that might more properly have come out of zombies. Not just raspy, but really obnoxiously grating. I might not have felt so disinclined to trash those characters had they had themselves a better voice.

I'm disappointed, but this was another stand-alone book. Maybe Miz Burke will get her groove back in one of the series books again. I'll give her another try, just because she's Alafair Burke.

Twisty plot--great story

Alafair Burke is an excellent writer, but then again, she comes from a family of writers. Her father Jamie Burke is a famous mystery author. Alafair is currently a law professor in New York City and in her spare time she writes. This book does not belong to either of her series. In this book the heroine is a magazine journalist, who ten years prior, was an ADA with the DA office in NYC. In hunting for a story she see a video taken from a cell phone of a women jumping down on the subway track to rescue a teenage boy, she dead lifts him up on to the platform then runs away. McKenna Jordan (our hero) think she recognizes the woman as Susan Hauptmann a friend of hers that went missing ten years before. The plot is complex and twist here and there creating more and more suspense. McKenna keeps getting herself into more trouble. The story is told in the first person and we follow McKenna throughout the story. This book is showing off Alafair growing skills as a writer. Roxanne Hernandez does a good job narrating the story. If you are a fan of mystery stories, give the book a try, you will enjoy it.

Horrible Narrator

This is the first book by Alafair Burke that I've read and looked forward to it after reading favorable reviews on Amazon.com. Perhaps if I had read the book, this review would be more favorable. The narrator is absolutely horrible and ruined Ms. Burke's book for the listening audience. A woman the age of McKenna Wright, the main character, would not sound like someone fresh out of high school or college. Every female character sounded the same, as did each male character. I forced myself to listen to the end, even though the much anticipated "The Cuckoo's Calling" by J.K. Rowling alias Robert Galbraith was next in my queue (finished it today--a fabulous read). Where could the author improve most? Character development and fewer sub-plots.

Will I try another of Alafair's books? Yes, but I'll read the Kindle version.

Not as good as some other Burke books

The narrator spoke annoyingly slow. I checked the speed a few times thinking it was on the slowest option but it was not. Story was a good premise but also moved a bit slower than other Alafair books

Couldn't wait for it to end...Narrator terrible

What would have made If You Were Here better?

The narrator was awful. The accents made no sense and changed all the time for the one character. The narrator's voice for Patrick made him sound like a sniveling fool that you won't imagine McKenna with. Susan had an on and off southern accent that made no sense. I couldn't wait to finish it.

If you’ve listened to books by Alafair Burke before, how does this one compare?

I LOVED the Ex and this one didn't come close. Not sure if the story was good or bad, but I will say it seemed to go in too many different directions and it took too long to tell important facts such as how McKenna was let go of the DA office. I am certain it was to make it more suspenseful but it just added more unnecessary details later in the story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

In every way possible. I would start to get into the McKenna character and then she would have a conversation with Patrick and the voice made me cringe.

What character would you cut from If You Were Here?

Dana

Any additional comments?

I think the story was good but to long and to complex.

A little slow, not like her usual.

I had a hard time really getting into this one. It was a little slow. Her other books are definitely better than this one. I finished the book, though. Even later on in the book it didn't have that wow factor, that deep mystery and intrigue she normally has. I mean... Yes, there is mystery, it's a whodunit, and the end throws a little curve ball, but it's so drawn out that it's like blah. I just wasn't feeling it. I expected to LOVE it like all of her other books and was shocked and let down honestly.

good read

it was good. the twist was good. worth the read. not her best but still good.

Excellent plot

You think it's finished and yet story changes once and again. Very well developed. Really interesting and with twists I never saw coming

Starts slow, but gets better

This took me some time to get into, mainly because the narration was so slow. I ended up increasing it to 1.4X and it was much better. The story was kind of all over the place at first with many side stories and I found my mind to wander often. About halfway through the book, they started to come together and make sense. I loved the strength of the main character, so that was enjoyable. Worth a credit, in my opinion.

The Ex & The Wife great. Not this.

I eventually got through this book. Not only were there a couple of not believable parts of the story line, the reader’s interpretation was something I never could get past. It’s possible this book is better than I thought because of the interpretation of how certain personalities and their dialogue came across. Burke has learned how to write much better, and maybe this book was something that showed promise. She is certainly not her father, and it’s not fair to compare her. Maybe I gave her a better chance in the first place because of her father being James Lee Burke. It’s possible I might give one more book a chance, one of her cowrites perhaps, but maybe not. My overall rating of three stars is generous, probably because I think she’s got some good insight into people.