A mystery featuring a woman with amnesia in New Jersey, a drowned fishing guide on Long Island, a 15-year-old cold case in Wichita, and much more. In her 19th mystery, and the sixth to feature detective Ellie Hatcher, Burke has taken the kitchen-sink approach, offering a rare abundance of characters, crimes, and misdemeanors. As much as there is a protagonist, it is a woman who, years ago, was thrown from an SUV in Hopewell, New Jersey, and lost her memory. Hope Miller, as she is now known, has spent the past decade and a half under the wing of a devoted friend she met after the accident, an attorney named Lindsay who lives with a boyfriend named Scott. But as the story opens, Hope has disappeared from Hopewell without leaving Lindsay any information as to her whereabouts. Since she has no legal identity, Hope has to work under the radar; she finds a job staging properties on the East End of Long Island for a sketchy real estate agent named...oh well, turns out he's not that important. Meanwhile, there's Ellie Hatcher, the detective whose series this is. She's on vacation in St. Barth's with her boyfriend, Max, having bad dreams about her dad, a cop who committed suicide because he couldn't find Wichita's College Hill Strangler, who was later arrested and jailed. Then there's this giant home improvement chain also based in Wichita whose female CEO is running for senator...and wait, there's more! This novel seems more like the work of a beginning crime writer than one with Burke's experience. Clues, red herrings, exposition, and "things you should know" are dropped in awkwardly and obviously: "Lindsay had learned that psychological trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder could also induce dissociative fugue, or what used to be called a fugue state--a psychological condition characterized by an inability to recall one's identity or personality." All this hand-holding aside, the book operates on what feels like a kind of anti--Occam's-razor logic, favoring the most complicated solution to any question. The good news is, there is one. For those who like a tricky brain teaser and aren't too picky about interesting characters or emotional realism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

After a car wreck, the woman who now calls herself Hope Miller was left with no memory but appreciates how residents of the New Jersey town where she was found took her in. Still, after 15 years she feels the need to start over, moving to East Hampton and promptly disappearing, to the alarm of best friend Lindsay Kelly, a Manhattan defense lawyer.

Defense attorney Lindsay Kelly battles skeptical detectives and buried secrets after her best friend's suspicious disappearance. Lindsay and Hope Mills have been like sisters since Lindsay rescued Hope from a car accident and helped her manage life with lingering amnesia. Now, despite finding traces of blood at the scene of Hope's disappearance, East Hampton PD detective Carter Decker is dismissive. Decker's suspicion that Hope's amnesia is a cover for a long con gains credence when local fishing guide Alex Lopez is murdered and Decker uproots troubling connections between Lopez and Hope's shrouded past. In a perplexing turn, the blood found at the site of Hope's disappearance matches a sample taken a decade ago in the College Hill Strangler case. Lindsay teams with NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher, whose father investigated the College Hill murders, and they discover a high-stakes cover-up tangled in Ellie and Hope's pasts. A skillfully constructed, delightfully twisty thriller powered by Burke's trademark strong, relatable heroines and realistic foes; recommended this one to fans of Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter, and Lisa Scottoline.

The fate of Hope Miller, as her friends in Hopewell, N.J., know her, drives Edgar finalist Burke's scintillating sixth novel featuring NYPD Det. Ellie Hatcher (after 2014's All Day and a Night). Fifteen years earlier, Manhattan defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly pulled Hope, who had lost her memory, out of an overturned vehicle on a road near Hopewell. Lyndsay became Hope's best friend, mentor, and protector. Now, in search of a fresh start, Hope moves to East Hampton, Long Island. Lindsay's fears that her friend will be lost without her are quickly realized after Hope disappears, the only clue a drop of blood matching a DNA sample related to a Wichita, Kans., serial killer. The subsequent death of an East Hampton businessman leads the police to believe Hope is not a victim but a villain. Enter Ellie, whose late father was so obsessed with his investigation into the Wichita serial killer that he died by suicide. While Hope and Lindsay's deep friendship takes center stage, Ellie's intelligence, insight, and lingering grief over her father will keep readers turning the pages. Appealing characters match the meticulous plotting. Burke reinforces her place in the top rank of suspense writers. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary. (Jan.)