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If You Were Here
Magazine journalist McKenna Wright is chasing the latest urban folktale-the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks, seconds before an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a short video snippet that purportedly captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.
She is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier. Investigating her disappearance, 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 left town to start over again somewhere else.
But McKenna has always believed the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached, and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. Yet when she shares the image with her husband, Patrick, who was Susan's classmate at West Point, he isn't convinced.
What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman, a twisting journey through New York City that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home-to her own husband, who seems to know much more about Susan than McKenna could have ever imagined...
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062208357
She is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier. Investigating her disappearance, 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 left town to start over again somewhere else.
But McKenna has always believed the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached, and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. Yet when she shares the image with her husband, Patrick, who was Susan's classmate at West Point, he isn't convinced.
What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman, a twisting journey through New York City that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home-to her own husband, who seems to know much more about Susan than McKenna could have ever imagined...
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062208357
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2013
873 people are currently reading
7057 people want to read
About the author
Alafair Burke
60 books5,648 followersAlafair Burke is the New York Times, Edgar-nominated author of fourteen crime novels, including The Ex, The Wife, The Better Sister, and the forthcoming Find Me. She is also the co-author of several novels with Mary Higgins Clark. A graduate of Stanford Law School and a former Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon, Alafair is now a Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School, where she teaches criminal law and procedure.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 817 reviews
March 29, 2022
*3.5 stars*
“If You Were Here” centres around McKenna Jordan, journalist and legal thriller writer. Ten years previously she had left her post as an assistant district attorney, after a case in which a police officer had shot a young man called Marcus Jones, this was a case that had gone badly wrong. Now her editor wants to resurrect the story.
Then she hears about a teenager who had been saved from certain death by an unknown woman, when he fell from the platform on to a subway track. The woman leapt down and rescued him. However, this woman isn’t unknown to McKenna. When she sees a video clip of the incident, she recognises her. It’s Susan Hauptmann, a former flatmate of hers, who had disappeared ten years previously and had not been heard of since.
McKenna feels she must investigate, not least because it was Susan who introduced her to Patrick Jordan, now McKenna’s husband to whom she has been married for several happy years. But the story of Susan Hauptmann is hard to unravel, especially since the case of Marcus Jones is by no means over. Following the two strands takes McKenna into uncharted and very dangerous waters.
“If You Were Here” could easily have been shorter and had fewer unnecessary characters, but it was still a suspenseful read.
“If You Were Here” centres around McKenna Jordan, journalist and legal thriller writer. Ten years previously she had left her post as an assistant district attorney, after a case in which a police officer had shot a young man called Marcus Jones, this was a case that had gone badly wrong. Now her editor wants to resurrect the story.
Then she hears about a teenager who had been saved from certain death by an unknown woman, when he fell from the platform on to a subway track. The woman leapt down and rescued him. However, this woman isn’t unknown to McKenna. When she sees a video clip of the incident, she recognises her. It’s Susan Hauptmann, a former flatmate of hers, who had disappeared ten years previously and had not been heard of since.
McKenna feels she must investigate, not least because it was Susan who introduced her to Patrick Jordan, now McKenna’s husband to whom she has been married for several happy years. But the story of Susan Hauptmann is hard to unravel, especially since the case of Marcus Jones is by no means over. Following the two strands takes McKenna into uncharted and very dangerous waters.
“If You Were Here” could easily have been shorter and had fewer unnecessary characters, but it was still a suspenseful read.
July 28, 2013
Help Wanted: Editor willing to cut repetitive and non-essential information and assure the writer that readers will remember a main character went to West Point without being told so every few pages.
I feel badly about being so snarky, but I'm going I let this stand. The synopsis intrigued me, but the actual narrative is disappointingly amateurish.
I feel badly about being so snarky, but I'm going I let this stand. The synopsis intrigued me, but the actual narrative is disappointingly amateurish.
June 15, 2024
This book had a lot going on! Alafair Burke is an author whose work I enjoy, most of the previous ones I’ve read being legal thrillers. In this novel, McKenna is a prosecutor turned journalist turned searcher for a friend who disappeared ten years before who she thinks maybe she might have spotted in a video when a boy is saved from the train tracks of the subway. But that turns out to be just the inciting event and things quickly spiral out of control…
This one had a lot of subplots and backstory to unpack including ecoterrorists, corruption in the DA’s office, a friend who wasn’t really a friend?, the friend’s sister, their controlling military father, McKenna’s husband, assassins, a killing of a black man by a white police officer that caused uproar in the community and may have triggered someone to come after McKenna ten years later, and a prostitute… I found myself trying to keep characters straight in a place or two, but overall sucked into the story. Wonderful worldbuilding and another great tale.
This one had a lot of subplots and backstory to unpack including ecoterrorists, corruption in the DA’s office, a friend who wasn’t really a friend?, the friend’s sister, their controlling military father, McKenna’s husband, assassins, a killing of a black man by a white police officer that caused uproar in the community and may have triggered someone to come after McKenna ten years later, and a prostitute… I found myself trying to keep characters straight in a place or two, but overall sucked into the story. Wonderful worldbuilding and another great tale.
July 8, 2013
disappointing. convoluted--too many plotlines. mc is bit of a dim bulb--still jumps to illogical conclusions. and was left with a couple of questions--do secret ecoterrorists really wear logo buttons? and why did susan disappear? couldn't understand the underlying premise of the entire book.
August 22, 2022
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This wasn't great.
The whole premise of the book really lets the possibilities be limitless, giving an opportunity for all kinds of suspense and tension. But it seems the author got distracted by how many different directions this story could go that she picked all of her favourite ones and jammed them into one messy novel.
Each storyline has its own red herrings and twists and it all required pages of explanations of past events, that took soooo long to get through, that any thrilling pace the plot could have built was totally quashed.
By the time I was 60% through, I was getting a little annoyed with the plot(s), the absurd amount of detail, the shallow main character of McKenna Wright and all of the why did you have to go and make things so complicated-ness of it all. I mean, even the main character had two names she was referred to throughout the whole novel.
It's in the execution and the editing that this book really most me. By 75%, I couldn't believe there was a whole quarter of a book left. I buckled in to hate-reading this to the bitter end, wading through a sea of more explanations, loose ends that never connect and detail that overwhelmed any suspense.
Mostly I would say if you're interested in reading Alafair Burke for the first time, you should get into the Ellie Hatcher series, but this isn't it.
⭐⭐ | 2 stars
This wasn't great.
The whole premise of the book really lets the possibilities be limitless, giving an opportunity for all kinds of suspense and tension. But it seems the author got distracted by how many different directions this story could go that she picked all of her favourite ones and jammed them into one messy novel.
Each storyline has its own red herrings and twists and it all required pages of explanations of past events, that took soooo long to get through, that any thrilling pace the plot could have built was totally quashed.
By the time I was 60% through, I was getting a little annoyed with the plot(s), the absurd amount of detail, the shallow main character of McKenna Wright and all of the why did you have to go and make things so complicated-ness of it all. I mean, even the main character had two names she was referred to throughout the whole novel.
It's in the execution and the editing that this book really most me. By 75%, I couldn't believe there was a whole quarter of a book left. I buckled in to hate-reading this to the bitter end, wading through a sea of more explanations, loose ends that never connect and detail that overwhelmed any suspense.
Mostly I would say if you're interested in reading Alafair Burke for the first time, you should get into the Ellie Hatcher series, but this isn't it.
⭐⭐ | 2 stars
June 17, 2013
If you were here by Alafair Burke is a HarperCollins publication. This was a June 2013 release.
I received a copy of this book from the publishers and Edelweiss.
Nicky has been stealing cell phones from New Yorkers until one day in the subways he stole from the wrong lady. He was chased down and nearly killed on the tracks. The woman saved his life and also retrieved her cell phone.
Now McKenna is doing a story for the magazine publication she works for about the incident. When a cell phone video surfaces, McKenna is stunned to see the woman in the subway bears a striking resemblance to her good friend, Susan , that disappeared ten years ago.
McKenna begins to obsess about the disappearance again and contacts the detective assigned to Susan's case. This brings back memories of another time in MeKenna's life when she worked for the District Attorney's office. She had had to leave that job due to delving into an officer involved shooting of a young black man, that was supposed to have been self defense, but McKenna believed there was more to it.
Soon after McKenna begins to look back into Susan's disappearance, things start to get ugly for her. She has major work related issues, and worst of all she feels like her husband is holding information about Susan and she can no longer trust anyone.
Is Susan still alive? What does everyone else seem to know, but McKenna?
This is a multi layered mystery suspense novel. Two old cases, one mostly forgotten and the truths long buried, the other one cold as ice.
Now, someone is trying to kill people that were involved in both of those cases, and McKenna is at the very heart of the story.
Everything unfolds at the perfect pace. The mystery continues to deepen and the suspense continues to build, with one twist after another. We are all pulling for McKenna and we hope she will be able to finally find peace in her personal life and in her professional life.
The secondary characters that work with McKenna are also interesting and we hope they will also be able to finally shut the door on past resentments and find peace in their personal lives as well.
This was very interesting and original novel. I recommend this novel to those who enjoy mystery, suspense with a bit of a darker tone.
Overall an A
I received a copy of this book from the publishers and Edelweiss.
Nicky has been stealing cell phones from New Yorkers until one day in the subways he stole from the wrong lady. He was chased down and nearly killed on the tracks. The woman saved his life and also retrieved her cell phone.
Now McKenna is doing a story for the magazine publication she works for about the incident. When a cell phone video surfaces, McKenna is stunned to see the woman in the subway bears a striking resemblance to her good friend, Susan , that disappeared ten years ago.
McKenna begins to obsess about the disappearance again and contacts the detective assigned to Susan's case. This brings back memories of another time in MeKenna's life when she worked for the District Attorney's office. She had had to leave that job due to delving into an officer involved shooting of a young black man, that was supposed to have been self defense, but McKenna believed there was more to it.
Soon after McKenna begins to look back into Susan's disappearance, things start to get ugly for her. She has major work related issues, and worst of all she feels like her husband is holding information about Susan and she can no longer trust anyone.
Is Susan still alive? What does everyone else seem to know, but McKenna?
This is a multi layered mystery suspense novel. Two old cases, one mostly forgotten and the truths long buried, the other one cold as ice.
Now, someone is trying to kill people that were involved in both of those cases, and McKenna is at the very heart of the story.
Everything unfolds at the perfect pace. The mystery continues to deepen and the suspense continues to build, with one twist after another. We are all pulling for McKenna and we hope she will be able to finally find peace in her personal life and in her professional life.
The secondary characters that work with McKenna are also interesting and we hope they will also be able to finally shut the door on past resentments and find peace in their personal lives as well.
This was very interesting and original novel. I recommend this novel to those who enjoy mystery, suspense with a bit of a darker tone.
Overall an A
January 25, 2015
I picked up this audiobook hoping to read more work by this author after enjoying a book she co-wrote with Mary Higgins Clark.
First off, the voice reader for this audiobook could not differentiate her male voices from her female characters. It was almost painful to listen to. A good voice actor can make a good book great. That is not the case with If You Were Here.
Back to the case, the story starts out with all kinds of potential. A mysterious woman saves the thief of her own cell phone from certain death on a subway track. McKenna recognizes mystery woman as old friend who disappeared years before. The plot takes many twists and turns from here but too much repetition of the limited facts made this thriller less than thrilling. A bit of deus ex machina near the end and a fairly obvious telegraphed ending and this became a very ho hum thriller.
First off, the voice reader for this audiobook could not differentiate her male voices from her female characters. It was almost painful to listen to. A good voice actor can make a good book great. That is not the case with If You Were Here.
Back to the case, the story starts out with all kinds of potential. A mysterious woman saves the thief of her own cell phone from certain death on a subway track. McKenna recognizes mystery woman as old friend who disappeared years before. The plot takes many twists and turns from here but too much repetition of the limited facts made this thriller less than thrilling. A bit of deus ex machina near the end and a fairly obvious telegraphed ending and this became a very ho hum thriller.
February 18, 2014
I liked the writing okay, but the book not so much. This author, Alafair Burke, is the female answer to John Grisham, as she usually pens legal thrillers.
A former District Attorney -- McKenna Jordan -- who left her job after exposing a cop as a liar, now works for a NY magazine as a journalist. In researching a story about a young kid who was pulled off a subway track by a mystery woman, she realizes the woman is her old friend Susan, who she thought died ten years ago. Thus, the plot is born: tracking down Susan and the mysteries that caused her disappearance -- which merge with McKenna's own former job loss.
The plot took a long time to really start, and once it did, I found I didn't care about Susan, who is supposed to be this super compelling figure, the center of this big mystery. She was just annoying. She was portrayed as a slutty, aggressive woman, a WestPoint grad whose sole purpose in life was to please her overbearing general father.
Then Susan gets caught up in tons of illegal shit...
I just didn't buy the two of them as friends to begin with. They were so completely different. The book kept telling me that Susan was a central figure in McKenna's life. But, really, she was just some girl she knew. Who cares? All the fond "Susan memories" the author kept chucking out every few pages made Susan seem like a crazy, erratic bitch, and the main character McKenna as too dense to see it.
Lots of the characters didn't seem to be developed as they needed to be to care about them. The bombshells of plot went off (and off and off) and lives changed forever -- but it had little effect.
A former District Attorney -- McKenna Jordan -- who left her job after exposing a cop as a liar, now works for a NY magazine as a journalist. In researching a story about a young kid who was pulled off a subway track by a mystery woman, she realizes the woman is her old friend Susan, who she thought died ten years ago. Thus, the plot is born: tracking down Susan and the mysteries that caused her disappearance -- which merge with McKenna's own former job loss.
The plot took a long time to really start, and once it did, I found I didn't care about Susan, who is supposed to be this super compelling figure, the center of this big mystery. She was just annoying. She was portrayed as a slutty, aggressive woman, a WestPoint grad whose sole purpose in life was to please her overbearing general father.
Then Susan gets caught up in tons of illegal shit...
I just didn't buy the two of them as friends to begin with. They were so completely different. The book kept telling me that Susan was a central figure in McKenna's life. But, really, she was just some girl she knew. Who cares? All the fond "Susan memories" the author kept chucking out every few pages made Susan seem like a crazy, erratic bitch, and the main character McKenna as too dense to see it.
Lots of the characters didn't seem to be developed as they needed to be to care about them. The bombshells of plot went off (and off and off) and lives changed forever -- but it had little effect.
July 14, 2018
The audio reader is not very good, but neither is the story.
August 8, 2013
Good summer, beach read. Very plot driven book...character development seriously lacking. Characters felt stilt, flat; wasn't interested in getting to know any of them better. Too many twists/turns in the end. Lots of repetitive jargon, think this book would have been better if it was maybe 50 pages shorter. If You Were Here is probably my least favorite Burke read, however, it was still a decent enough read to hold my interest and keep me reading until the last page.
July 24, 2021
I wanted to love this book, and was prepared to love it. But after a few fits and starts, I finally resolved to sit down and read the entire thing. That should have been a clue. It just didn't flow for me the way this author's other books do.
The biggest thing it had in its favor for me was that there was a strong and interesting female lead, and the other women in the book were also well-rounded and layered characters. McKenna Jordan, the main protagonist is flawed and complicated and very human. She was utterly believable. Her best friend, Susan, who has been missing for a decade and suddenly reappears in the grainy footage of a subway incident is also complicated and in many ways, somewhat more interesting than McKenna. These two women, and their shared history kept me turning the pages.
But this wasn't a book just about a complex relationship between two women, it was about the mystery of Susan's disappearance and reappearance and the connection it may have to McKenna's very public fall from grace (ten years earlier) as an Assistant District Attorney; and her more current fall from grace as a reporter. That's where Alafair Burke lost me.
The connection between Susan's disappearance and McKenna's disgrace was so convoluted that it required many long paragraphs of internal monologue and dialogue to explain it. And even then, I found myself wrinkling my brow and going, "Wait, what?" It was all too intricate to keep track of, understand, or at the end of the day care much about. I think the main problem I have is that with mystery-suspense, you want to reach the end and feel like the author dropped you little breadcrumbs along the way that would have you, at the end of the book going, "Ohhh! I saw that!" Even if you didn't understand what it meant when you saw it. In this case the breadcrumbs were too well-dispersed and sometimes outright hidden, so that by the end, extended explanation by the characters was essential for you to know what was going on.
On the plus side, the prose was as clear as it always is from this author, doesn't get in the way of the story and moves things along unobtrusively. This wasn't my favorite, but it certainly won't prevent me from reading more of this author's work (I have almost all of them) and looking forward to whatever she does next.
The biggest thing it had in its favor for me was that there was a strong and interesting female lead, and the other women in the book were also well-rounded and layered characters. McKenna Jordan, the main protagonist is flawed and complicated and very human. She was utterly believable. Her best friend, Susan, who has been missing for a decade and suddenly reappears in the grainy footage of a subway incident is also complicated and in many ways, somewhat more interesting than McKenna. These two women, and their shared history kept me turning the pages.
But this wasn't a book just about a complex relationship between two women, it was about the mystery of Susan's disappearance and reappearance and the connection it may have to McKenna's very public fall from grace (ten years earlier) as an Assistant District Attorney; and her more current fall from grace as a reporter. That's where Alafair Burke lost me.
The connection between Susan's disappearance and McKenna's disgrace was so convoluted that it required many long paragraphs of internal monologue and dialogue to explain it. And even then, I found myself wrinkling my brow and going, "Wait, what?" It was all too intricate to keep track of, understand, or at the end of the day care much about. I think the main problem I have is that with mystery-suspense, you want to reach the end and feel like the author dropped you little breadcrumbs along the way that would have you, at the end of the book going, "Ohhh! I saw that!" Even if you didn't understand what it meant when you saw it. In this case the breadcrumbs were too well-dispersed and sometimes outright hidden, so that by the end, extended explanation by the characters was essential for you to know what was going on.
On the plus side, the prose was as clear as it always is from this author, doesn't get in the way of the story and moves things along unobtrusively. This wasn't my favorite, but it certainly won't prevent me from reading more of this author's work (I have almost all of them) and looking forward to whatever she does next.
January 31, 2014
Well thought out, engaging mystery. Probably could have been easy to figure out, but I just enjoyed the ride and liked how things unfolded. A few of the threads were kind of red herrings, but that's to be expected. I appreciated how the author revealed the back story--she did it in small portions, but I was never left feeling like I was being kept in the dark too long. The timing was well done.
February 13, 2015
This book was mailed to me from the publishing company after I didn’t get a copy from BEA13. I waited in line for a while only to find out I just missed out. I left my information and honestly didn’t think they would send me a copy the following week like they said. I think it actually showed up three weeks after BEA13 and I had completely forgotten about it.
If you had a friend who just vanished of the Earth, would you consider her dead after five years or just think she is in hiding? A mysterious woman chances a boy who just stole her cell phone though the crowds of a New York subway platform. The video of the chase goes viral when someone sees her lift the fallen kid off the tracks before the on coming train runs him over. Yes! She saves his life, gets her phone back and no one knows who this super woman is. Once the whole world has seen it one person thinks she knows the name of the mysterious super woman but that would mean she was not dead after all.
There are some books that love to create a web of several story lines only to bring you back full circle. Then there are the others that make a small situation into the end of the world complicated. This book is a bit of both. You will go from one story about the kid and cell phone then you will find yourself reading about the FBI, dead cops and terrorist. The story reminds me of an episode of Law and Order. One minute it’s a dead person and the next you are on an undercover sting for the Russian underground sex slave business. This book tries to bring all the Law and Order elements into your journey. You have the report for a magazine who use to be a Lawyer. There is the detective helping her out along the way, the FBI and the bad guys. Everyone is here.
I think I was a bit overwhelmed with the number of webs this story created and how we get from point A to point B. There Is just to much going on and I would have liked it to be a bit simpler. I know life is not simple but…the boyfriend too! How many people need to be involved? The overall story is good and I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Law and Order. There is a bit of violence here and there but nothing too gross and bloody.
If you had a friend who just vanished of the Earth, would you consider her dead after five years or just think she is in hiding? A mysterious woman chances a boy who just stole her cell phone though the crowds of a New York subway platform. The video of the chase goes viral when someone sees her lift the fallen kid off the tracks before the on coming train runs him over. Yes! She saves his life, gets her phone back and no one knows who this super woman is. Once the whole world has seen it one person thinks she knows the name of the mysterious super woman but that would mean she was not dead after all.
There are some books that love to create a web of several story lines only to bring you back full circle. Then there are the others that make a small situation into the end of the world complicated. This book is a bit of both. You will go from one story about the kid and cell phone then you will find yourself reading about the FBI, dead cops and terrorist. The story reminds me of an episode of Law and Order. One minute it’s a dead person and the next you are on an undercover sting for the Russian underground sex slave business. This book tries to bring all the Law and Order elements into your journey. You have the report for a magazine who use to be a Lawyer. There is the detective helping her out along the way, the FBI and the bad guys. Everyone is here.
I think I was a bit overwhelmed with the number of webs this story created and how we get from point A to point B. There Is just to much going on and I would have liked it to be a bit simpler. I know life is not simple but…the boyfriend too! How many people need to be involved? The overall story is good and I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Law and Order. There is a bit of violence here and there but nothing too gross and bloody.
June 24, 2015
review in bullet format, because what are paragraphs
what I liked:
- the plot was very intricate, to the point where I get a minor headache when trying to put it all together
- I cared about the characters by the end
what I didn't like:
- the writing was boring (I can't find another way to put it--very plain descriptions, no color)
- it could've used a nice haircut. it was about 80 pages too long (out of 360), and a trim would've made it more readable and tense
- the heavy legal jargon. I understand that it's a legal thriller, but everyone who doesn't have a law degree is going to get tripped up somewhere in here
what i like:
- I have another Alafair Burke book next to me that I'm excited to start
what I liked:
- the plot was very intricate, to the point where I get a minor headache when trying to put it all together
- I cared about the characters by the end
what I didn't like:
- the writing was boring (I can't find another way to put it--very plain descriptions, no color)
- it could've used a nice haircut. it was about 80 pages too long (out of 360), and a trim would've made it more readable and tense
- the heavy legal jargon. I understand that it's a legal thriller, but everyone who doesn't have a law degree is going to get tripped up somewhere in here
what i like:
- I have another Alafair Burke book next to me that I'm excited to start
June 30, 2018
Not my favorite Alafair Burke book, but still quite enjoyable. A few unique twists and “a-ha!” moments.
May 1, 2013
McKenna Wright is a heroine I can believe in. No super powers or jumping into a situation wiser women would get away from. She's smart, yes, but also blessed with common sense. She's married to a West Point grad and they were both friends with one of his classmates, Susan Hauptmann. They were aware that Susan had problems with her stern military father. Then Susan seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. She left behind everything in her life in New York City, and no clue where she had gone. No body was ever found.
It has been ten years now and McKenna, a former assistant D.A. and now a journalist, is fact finding for a story about a young man who fell onto the subway tracks but was saved by a woman who ran off without identifying herself. When McKenna sees a tape of it, she is shocked to recognize the woman who saved him as her long-lost friend.
McKenna is no longer a lawyer and that in itself is a strange story. Now she is trying to find Susan and gets into the middle of another strange tale.
The characters McKenna meets along the way are believable as well. Through each one she learns a little bit more but doesn't know who to trust, even her husband is acting suspicious. Was he involved with Susan? Does he know she is actually alive? A detective McKenna had offended years ago becomes an ally in the hunt.
I didn't figure out the whole story until it was spelled out to me in the final chapters, but then it made perfect sense. I requested the book because I had read Alafair Burke before, and I certainly wasn't disappointed this time either.
Highly recommended
Source: Amazon Vine
It has been ten years now and McKenna, a former assistant D.A. and now a journalist, is fact finding for a story about a young man who fell onto the subway tracks but was saved by a woman who ran off without identifying herself. When McKenna sees a tape of it, she is shocked to recognize the woman who saved him as her long-lost friend.
McKenna is no longer a lawyer and that in itself is a strange story. Now she is trying to find Susan and gets into the middle of another strange tale.
The characters McKenna meets along the way are believable as well. Through each one she learns a little bit more but doesn't know who to trust, even her husband is acting suspicious. Was he involved with Susan? Does he know she is actually alive? A detective McKenna had offended years ago becomes an ally in the hunt.
I didn't figure out the whole story until it was spelled out to me in the final chapters, but then it made perfect sense. I requested the book because I had read Alafair Burke before, and I certainly wasn't disappointed this time either.
Highly recommended
Source: Amazon Vine
January 25, 2022
If You Were Here is story with a gripping plot filled with love, friendship, secrets and betrayal.
This novel was clearly well researched, and the impressive main character - McKenna Jordan - shines throughout the novel as a strong, educated and determined woman.
Although this book did not fall into my typical reading style, I am very impressed by the level of story-telling expertise needed by an author to have a story in which every character seems to have a secret that flawlessly compliments the overall plot line.
I will definitely be exploring more novels by this author!
This novel was clearly well researched, and the impressive main character - McKenna Jordan - shines throughout the novel as a strong, educated and determined woman.
Although this book did not fall into my typical reading style, I am very impressed by the level of story-telling expertise needed by an author to have a story in which every character seems to have a secret that flawlessly compliments the overall plot line.
I will definitely be exploring more novels by this author!
April 25, 2013
While pursuing a lead about a young man pulled from the subway tracks by a mysterious woman, lawyer turned journalist McKenna Wright uncovers more than she bargained for. A video shot on a cell phone reveals the identity of the woman -- someone who looks a lot like McKenna's old friend Susan, who went missing five years before under mysterious circumstances. Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, McKenna begins to slowly peel back the layers of the current story and discover just how much of a connection is has to the disappearance of her friend all those years ago.
For the past couple of years, Alafair Burke has given readers some of the more entertaining, character driven legal thrillers that don't have the name John Grisham attached to them. But with her newest novel If You Were Here, Burke tries something different from the legal thriller (though there are links to McKenna's legal past and her time in the district attorney's office) and goes in for a full-blown suspense thriller. Using short chapters, Burke keeps the surprises coming at a good clip that you'll keep turning the pages and wondering just what the next dramatic revelation could or should be. It makes the novel a page turner, but not one that necessarily holds up well to scrutiny if you start to think too much either while taking a break from reading or once the entire picture is revealed.
It's interesting that this novel is headed for shelves in time for the summer season because as I read it, I kept thinking just how well it would work as a beach or poolside read.
And while Burke's previous works have taken a page from the legal thriller column and the works of Grisham, this one seems a bit more to take a page from the thrillers of Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series. (Eagle eyed readers will spot several homages to Reacher, though thankfully no one in this book is obsessed with coffee and that the fold-up toothbrush is the single greatest invention in the history of humankind).
This isn't necessarily my favorite offering from Burke, but it's a nice stand-alone novel that may open the door to readers discovering her other novels and enjoying those.
For the past couple of years, Alafair Burke has given readers some of the more entertaining, character driven legal thrillers that don't have the name John Grisham attached to them. But with her newest novel If You Were Here, Burke tries something different from the legal thriller (though there are links to McKenna's legal past and her time in the district attorney's office) and goes in for a full-blown suspense thriller. Using short chapters, Burke keeps the surprises coming at a good clip that you'll keep turning the pages and wondering just what the next dramatic revelation could or should be. It makes the novel a page turner, but not one that necessarily holds up well to scrutiny if you start to think too much either while taking a break from reading or once the entire picture is revealed.
It's interesting that this novel is headed for shelves in time for the summer season because as I read it, I kept thinking just how well it would work as a beach or poolside read.
And while Burke's previous works have taken a page from the legal thriller column and the works of Grisham, this one seems a bit more to take a page from the thrillers of Lee Child and his Jack Reacher series. (Eagle eyed readers will spot several homages to Reacher, though thankfully no one in this book is obsessed with coffee and that the fold-up toothbrush is the single greatest invention in the history of humankind).
This isn't necessarily my favorite offering from Burke, but it's a nice stand-alone novel that may open the door to readers discovering her other novels and enjoying those.
February 12, 2018
I have a confession to make. I only read Part I and Part V and skimmed the rest. In short, I got my closure on the mystery but, developed no feeling for the characters, well except for Patrick, Paul and Potter. Hmmm AB must like the letter P so much.
McKenna Jordan (I thought McKenna was her last name) saw her missing friend of 10 years saved a teenager's life. And it became her mission to find the truth. It was kind of weird. I did not get any best friend vibe from McKenna and Susan.
“What you’re doing right now isn’t about Susan,” he said to her at last. “I’m worried about her, too. So is her father. So is everyone who knows her. But you’re making this about you. Things suck for you at work, and you’re using this as an outlet.”
McKenna Jordan (I thought McKenna was her last name) saw her missing friend of 10 years saved a teenager's life. And it became her mission to find the truth. It was kind of weird. I did not get any best friend vibe from McKenna and Susan.
“What you’re doing right now isn’t about Susan,” he said to her at last. “I’m worried about her, too. So is her father. So is everyone who knows her. But you’re making this about you. Things suck for you at work, and you’re using this as an outlet.”
July 11, 2013
McKenna, a disgraced former Assistant District Attorney turned reporter for a gossip rag, is assigned a story about a mysterious woman who saved a boy from being crushed by a subway train. She is shocked to see that the grainy cellphone video of the event shows the face of her friend, Susan Hauptmann, who disappeared mysteriously 10 years earlier. So she starts asking questions. And strange things start happening : her email accounts get broken into, her predictable husband starts acting out of character, surveillance videos disappear. Eco-terrorists, West Point graduates, and cops with complicated domestic lives become involved. Most surprising of all, it appears that there is a link between the current events and the case that ended McKenna’s legal career a decade earlier.
The book is a page-turner and is well plotted but unevenly spaced. There is a slow buildup and then in the last 50 pages or so there is twist upon twist upon twist, often with very little explanation. The writing is competent but uninspired. None of the characters is memorable, and sometimes the psychology just doesn’t make sense. How did the long-time junkie turn her life around? Why is her apparently devoted husband moving out? There were several military types in the book whose position towards active duty seemed to vacillate from gung-ho to absolutely not to anything-for-a-buck. McKenna’s relationship with her husband Patrick suffers from the same pendulum-swinging.
The book is a page-turner and is well plotted but unevenly spaced. There is a slow buildup and then in the last 50 pages or so there is twist upon twist upon twist, often with very little explanation. The writing is competent but uninspired. None of the characters is memorable, and sometimes the psychology just doesn’t make sense. How did the long-time junkie turn her life around? Why is her apparently devoted husband moving out? There were several military types in the book whose position towards active duty seemed to vacillate from gung-ho to absolutely not to anything-for-a-buck. McKenna’s relationship with her husband Patrick suffers from the same pendulum-swinging.
August 7, 2018
Alafair Burke has this incredible knack for spinning topics within topics. Oh, she weaves a mighty web of deceit that rolls straight up into a giant snowball... thus everyone in the path is touched with a bit of tragedy. Sometimes the paths we choose are not always wise and our decisions on the path lead into much more trouble. Maybe... just maybe, had one person really left and chose a path to prosper... other dominoes wouldn't have fallen and yet karma did strike back on those with greedy, sticky fingers. I loved the blend of lawyer/reporter sleuthing techniques to uncover the stories that needed to be told. Brilliant prose with a dash of personal relationships... how important secrets kept hidden can damage even the best, sturdy friendships and or marriages.
March 2, 2018
Definitely did not see the ending coming. I thoroughly enjoy lawyer lingo and former lawyers who are now writers! (As is Alafair Burke) The story was a little far fetched at points...in my opinion...BUT the last 100 pages of the book brought it together. 3.5-4 stars (but I will round up) only because it did NOT keep me up at night reading all hours and was hard to follow at some points. Other than that I did enjoy it.
April 12, 2019
It took me two tries to make it through this book. I agree with several other reviewers that a good editor would much improve the book. There were parts that were exciting and several twists I didn’t see coming, but just too much detail to wade through. I will try another of Burke’s books with the hope it wil be better.
July 5, 2018
A mystery thriller that constantly entertains yet somehow never quite detonates.
Ten years ago McKenna Jordan was a bright young up-and-coming Assistant DA. Then two things happened in quick succession: she got involved in a controversial case where a white cop had killed a black man, and her best friend, Susan Hauptmann, disappeared. McKenna, now a journalist, has never really thought about the fact that there might be a connection between the two incidents.
But now an amateur phone video of a woman saving someone's life in the New York subway convinces McKenna that Susan is alive after all these years. As she tries to work out where Susan might be and what actually happened, she becomes aware that powerful, unseen forces are putting into gear a mighty cover-up, and they don't care if people have to be killed to keep the secret.
People like McKenna . . .
That's the setup in brief. But then there are the complications. Oh, lordy, are there complications. It's to Burke's credit that it's not hard to keep track of them all, but, that said, after a while I was beginning to wish we could get along with rather fewer dramatic revelations. I was reminded of why I tend not to watch those old fifteen- or twenty-part cinema serials: I get weary of all the cliffhangers. There was the same sort of effect here: by the time the real whapalooza of a revelation came along at the end, the humdinger that was supposed to blow my socks off, it seemed like just another link in a long chain.
On the plus side, Burke has a very lucid, accessible style -- I can see exactly why someone thought to pair her up with Mary Higgins Clark, who has that same easy readability. As a result, I was never at any point bored or even close to it; but, writing these notes a mere few days after finishing the book (I'm on an impossible deadline), I already find it a bit hard to bring the novel into focus. There's nothing wrong with entertainment of this sort, and sometimes I'm actually more in the mood for it than anything more stretching (Midsomer Murders does have its place in the scheme of things, after all), but this time I wasn't.
Ten years ago McKenna Jordan was a bright young up-and-coming Assistant DA. Then two things happened in quick succession: she got involved in a controversial case where a white cop had killed a black man, and her best friend, Susan Hauptmann, disappeared. McKenna, now a journalist, has never really thought about the fact that there might be a connection between the two incidents.
But now an amateur phone video of a woman saving someone's life in the New York subway convinces McKenna that Susan is alive after all these years. As she tries to work out where Susan might be and what actually happened, she becomes aware that powerful, unseen forces are putting into gear a mighty cover-up, and they don't care if people have to be killed to keep the secret.
People like McKenna . . .
That's the setup in brief. But then there are the complications. Oh, lordy, are there complications. It's to Burke's credit that it's not hard to keep track of them all, but, that said, after a while I was beginning to wish we could get along with rather fewer dramatic revelations. I was reminded of why I tend not to watch those old fifteen- or twenty-part cinema serials: I get weary of all the cliffhangers. There was the same sort of effect here: by the time the real whapalooza of a revelation came along at the end, the humdinger that was supposed to blow my socks off, it seemed like just another link in a long chain.
On the plus side, Burke has a very lucid, accessible style -- I can see exactly why someone thought to pair her up with Mary Higgins Clark, who has that same easy readability. As a result, I was never at any point bored or even close to it; but, writing these notes a mere few days after finishing the book (I'm on an impossible deadline), I already find it a bit hard to bring the novel into focus. There's nothing wrong with entertainment of this sort, and sometimes I'm actually more in the mood for it than anything more stretching (Midsomer Murders does have its place in the scheme of things, after all), but this time I wasn't.
August 18, 2018
This has been on my TBR for 2 years...pretty good read. Don't know why I waited so long!
May 31, 2013
If You Were Here is Alafair Burke’s 9th novel – but only my 1st. In fact, I had never heard of her before getting this ARC from HarperCollins. I have to say that I liked it quite a bit. It’s very humbling to learn that there are a ton of authors that I don’t know who have all written a bunch of books. I would have to read 700 books a year instead of 70 to begin to know who’s out there.
But enough about my literary inadequacy. If You Were Here has a very intricate plot. I’ll give you a brief synopsis. 10 years ago, McKenna Wright is a promising ADA (assistant district attorney), until she wrongly accuses a policeman, Officer Macklin, of murdering a street thug. Her actions create enormous racial tension in NYC and ruin Macklin’s career. This blow-up leads McKenna to leave the DA’s office, and she ultimately ends up as a journalist for NYC Magazine. Following so far?
10 years later, McKenna comes across video footage of an old friend, Susan Hauptmann, who saves a teenage boy from being crushed in the New York subway. Susan has been missing for most of those 10 years. In her pursuit of Susan, McKenna prints a story about a judge for the magazine that is discredited and, once again, lands her in hot water. She is fired from the magazine and sets out, on her own, to find out who is working so hard to make her look bad.
I’m actually doing a pretty lousy job of summing this book up. There is so much that happens that I simply can’t do justice to the synopsis – even though I earlier bragged that I would do just that. Besides McKenna, Susan, and Officer Macklin, there is a cast of tens, and they all have big parts. A few of them are:
Patrick Jordan, McKenna’s husband
Joe Scanlin, the detective who handled the shooting 10 years earlier
General and Gretchen Hauptmann, Susan’s sister and father
Will Getty, the district attorney who McKenna worked for at the time of the big fiasco
Carl Buckner, a very bright and conscientious hit man
Adam Bayne, a classmate of Patrick’s and Susan’s at West Point, who goes into business with General Hauptmann
Jamie Mercado, FBI agent
Bob Vance, McKenna’s boss at NYC Magazine
And a bunch more
With as many important and well-developed characters as are in the book, you might think that the story would be hard to follow. But it’s not. Each character is well-defined and fits in perfectly with the story and each other. I liked it a lot and give it a 3 out of 4. And, by the way, this is my 11th 3 out of 34 books in 2013, plus 5-3.5’s, 1-4.0, and 1-4.5. That is a percentage of 52.9% that are 3 or higher. That’s pretty darn good. I knew you would want to know.
But enough about my literary inadequacy. If You Were Here has a very intricate plot. I’ll give you a brief synopsis. 10 years ago, McKenna Wright is a promising ADA (assistant district attorney), until she wrongly accuses a policeman, Officer Macklin, of murdering a street thug. Her actions create enormous racial tension in NYC and ruin Macklin’s career. This blow-up leads McKenna to leave the DA’s office, and she ultimately ends up as a journalist for NYC Magazine. Following so far?
10 years later, McKenna comes across video footage of an old friend, Susan Hauptmann, who saves a teenage boy from being crushed in the New York subway. Susan has been missing for most of those 10 years. In her pursuit of Susan, McKenna prints a story about a judge for the magazine that is discredited and, once again, lands her in hot water. She is fired from the magazine and sets out, on her own, to find out who is working so hard to make her look bad.
I’m actually doing a pretty lousy job of summing this book up. There is so much that happens that I simply can’t do justice to the synopsis – even though I earlier bragged that I would do just that. Besides McKenna, Susan, and Officer Macklin, there is a cast of tens, and they all have big parts. A few of them are:
Patrick Jordan, McKenna’s husband
Joe Scanlin, the detective who handled the shooting 10 years earlier
General and Gretchen Hauptmann, Susan’s sister and father
Will Getty, the district attorney who McKenna worked for at the time of the big fiasco
Carl Buckner, a very bright and conscientious hit man
Adam Bayne, a classmate of Patrick’s and Susan’s at West Point, who goes into business with General Hauptmann
Jamie Mercado, FBI agent
Bob Vance, McKenna’s boss at NYC Magazine
And a bunch more
With as many important and well-developed characters as are in the book, you might think that the story would be hard to follow. But it’s not. Each character is well-defined and fits in perfectly with the story and each other. I liked it a lot and give it a 3 out of 4. And, by the way, this is my 11th 3 out of 34 books in 2013, plus 5-3.5’s, 1-4.0, and 1-4.5. That is a percentage of 52.9% that are 3 or higher. That’s pretty darn good. I knew you would want to know.
November 3, 2013
I loved this newest book of Ms. Burke's. There has been a lot said about the lead character, McKenna Wright "not being comfortable in her own skin" or "jumpy and not focused"; I agree with these sentiments! However, instead of finding fault with the writing or book based on these assertions, I actually felt it made the character more relatable. Who can keep their focus and not jump to conclusions when emotionally invested in the subject? Which of us does not have flaws we need to overcome as a person? For me, these made the character more real and her flaws drew me into her. I wanted to see her grow; I wanted to see her gain perspective. In fact, McKenna is described as a character who hates to NOT excel and will give up on something if she cannot be the best. Therefore, as we watch he story progress she and the reader can see how these choices have hurt her and that she needs to work hard to overcome them.
Additionally, there were a lot of storylines, and possibilities, I felt Ms. Burke, tied them together and handled them well. They were well described and tied together. I loved that she kept me guessing till the end. In fact, I was so into the characters, at one point when I felt the book was going in a specific direction I was upset and rushed to read to the end putting everything else aside in my life to finish it! In fact, even though she was not "there" I felt that Susan Hauptman was well developed and allowed for emotional insight and attachment in spite of her role in the book as a character that is really not seen.
I have to say for me the fact that McKenna screws up, jumps to conclusions, and goes with her gut makes me LOVE her. Ms. Burke portrays her lead characters emotional attachment to the subject. No one is objective when they are emotionally connected to a story or incident. I think McKenna nails it. I like a character that has flaws, who of us does not have flaws? The book allows us to see McKenna’s growth! I could not read it fast enough and cannot recommend it more!
Additionally, there were a lot of storylines, and possibilities, I felt Ms. Burke, tied them together and handled them well. They were well described and tied together. I loved that she kept me guessing till the end. In fact, I was so into the characters, at one point when I felt the book was going in a specific direction I was upset and rushed to read to the end putting everything else aside in my life to finish it! In fact, even though she was not "there" I felt that Susan Hauptman was well developed and allowed for emotional insight and attachment in spite of her role in the book as a character that is really not seen.
I have to say for me the fact that McKenna screws up, jumps to conclusions, and goes with her gut makes me LOVE her. Ms. Burke portrays her lead characters emotional attachment to the subject. No one is objective when they are emotionally connected to a story or incident. I think McKenna nails it. I like a character that has flaws, who of us does not have flaws? The book allows us to see McKenna’s growth! I could not read it fast enough and cannot recommend it more!
March 14, 2020
Absolutely enjoyed this so much. I was sent a signed copy for a birthday gift. It was realistic and well written, love her style. I read lots of her books many years ago and somehow forgot her. I love her father's books and continued to read them, but I am so pleased to receive her book and to get a chance to reacquaint myself with her. She has a very natural style and she is easy and fast to read. Her characters are believable. I really enjoyed this and I am so glad to have found her again.
April 6, 2013
Can we really know another person? That question is at the crux of this excellent Alafair Burke standalone suspense novel.
McKenna Wright Jordan thought she knew Susan Hauptmann, her friend who’d vanished a decade ago, and was devastated when the police and everyone else gave up hope Susan was still alive.
Then, suddenly, a scratchy video of a woman rescuing a youth from death in a subway accident, revives hope she’d been right all along.
But police, friends and even Patrick, her husband, who’d been a classmate of Susan at West Point, are reluctant to accept the shaky evidence to which she clings. And when the evidence also begins disappearing McKenna’s credibility and her new career as a journalist crumble in a frightening reminder of how a mistake ended her former life as a prosecutor in the wake of Susan’s disappearance.
McKenna faces a series of devastating blows which lead her to distrust even her beloved husband before her tenacity earns her the support of Scanlin, a cop who has had his own reasons for not liking or believing her in the past.
A cracking good suspense tale. Engaging characters, lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending.
McKenna Wright Jordan thought she knew Susan Hauptmann, her friend who’d vanished a decade ago, and was devastated when the police and everyone else gave up hope Susan was still alive.
Then, suddenly, a scratchy video of a woman rescuing a youth from death in a subway accident, revives hope she’d been right all along.
But police, friends and even Patrick, her husband, who’d been a classmate of Susan at West Point, are reluctant to accept the shaky evidence to which she clings. And when the evidence also begins disappearing McKenna’s credibility and her new career as a journalist crumble in a frightening reminder of how a mistake ended her former life as a prosecutor in the wake of Susan’s disappearance.
McKenna faces a series of devastating blows which lead her to distrust even her beloved husband before her tenacity earns her the support of Scanlin, a cop who has had his own reasons for not liking or believing her in the past.
A cracking good suspense tale. Engaging characters, lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending.
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