Things have gone wrong for May lately: in addition to constant pressure from her Asian American mother to achieve, she got so stressed during the pandemic that she accused the wrong person of a racist remark – and her hysterical but mistaken reaction was captured on someone’s cell phone and went viral, resulting in her losing her high powered law firm job.
Her friends have also been “cancelled” – Lauren, for a relationship with a prominent married man, and Kelsey, somehow blamed for the tragic death of her husband, so they definitely need a relaxing weekend. Kelsey has rented a fancy house and they head to trendy Sag Harbor for drinks and dinner, tangling with a smug-looking couple who snag the parking place they were waiting for. Later, as a joke, they write rude messages to the couple on napkins, intended for the trash. One napkin winds up on the couple’s windshield:
I got this from the library after reading a Washington Post review headlined “It’s only January, but your perfect summer thriller is here already” but while I liked the concept, I was disappointed in the delivery. I didn’t guess every plot development but I anticipated several so I did not find it very suspenseful. More importantly, I disliked the main character, May, and didn’t feel much for her friends, so did not really care if they were murderers, likely to be murdered, or not! I did enjoy the Hamptons and NYC settings, however. This is just the second book I have read by Burke: I read Missing Justice, part of a series about a District Attorney, while I was in law school.
This is my sixth book of the year for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.
Title: The Note
Author: Alafair Burke
Publication: Knopf, hardcover, 2025
Genre: Suspense
Source: Library
Her friends have also been “cancelled” – Lauren, for a relationship with a prominent married man, and Kelsey, somehow blamed for the tragic death of her husband, so they definitely need a relaxing weekend. Kelsey has rented a fancy house and they head to trendy Sag Harbor for drinks and dinner, tangling with a smug-looking couple who snag the parking place they were waiting for. Later, as a joke, they write rude messages to the couple on napkins, intended for the trash. One napkin winds up on the couple’s windshield:
He’s cheating.Probably no one would think about it again, except that the man disappears and the three women become persons of interest. Having suffered from notoriety, none of them wants additional scrutiny from the police or social media but when a local police detective starts investigating the missing person, it turns out these three women have other secrets in their past that cannot be hidden.
He always does.
I got this from the library after reading a Washington Post review headlined “It’s only January, but your perfect summer thriller is here already” but while I liked the concept, I was disappointed in the delivery. I didn’t guess every plot development but I anticipated several so I did not find it very suspenseful. More importantly, I disliked the main character, May, and didn’t feel much for her friends, so did not really care if they were murderers, likely to be murdered, or not! I did enjoy the Hamptons and NYC settings, however. This is just the second book I have read by Burke: I read Missing Justice, part of a series about a District Attorney, while I was in law school.
Title: The Note
Author: Alafair Burke
Publication: Knopf, hardcover, 2025
Genre: Suspense
Source: Library
2 comments:
I don't think I have read any books by Alafair Burke. The setting of this book does appeal to me, but the plot, the practical joke, and the suspense does not.
I listened to her book The Ex on audio years ago. Not too big on these kinds of thrillers but I liked hearing her talk on the NYT podcast not long ago. Here's the link if you want to hear it: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/books/review/podcast-alafair-burke-interview.html?searchResultPosition=1
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