Long Gone: A Novel of Suspense

“I love when a writer is so intelligent and so good at her craft that she plots a story with intricate twists and turns, and deliberately scatters clues, like bits of bread seemingly meant to help lost children find their way out of the woods. . . . Long Gone . . . has everything that a great crime novel, thriller, mystery should have. Be warned, though that you should not pick it up if you have any commitments that will interfere with reading this book from first page to last, in one sitting.”

I love crime, suspense, mysteries, police procedural novels—whatever words you use to describe this thrilling thriller genre. I love when a writer is so intelligent and so good at her craft that she plots a story with intricate twists and turns, and deliberately scatters clues, like bits of bread seemingly meant to help lost children find their way out of the woods.

I love when I start reading such a novel by such a writer, determined to be just as intelligent as she is and figure out the twists and turns by picking up each clue, only to reach a point when I am as lost as those hapless children, alone, facing the gloaming—with darkness fast closing in.

In short, I love Long Gone, Alafair Burke’s seventh—and first standalone—novel. It has everything that a great crime novel, thriller, mystery should have. Be warned, though that you should not pick it up if you have any commitments that will interfere with reading this book from first page to last, in one sitting. You may become annoyed if you have to close the book with pages unread; you may mutter through your obligations, becoming cranky until you can secret yourself away again and resume reading.

Long Gone is that good, which will not surprise anyone who has read any of Burke’s other novels, including Angel’s Tip and Dead Connection (featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher), and Judgment Calls and Close Case (with Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid).

The plot of Long Gone is disturbing because it is so plausible. A woman named Alice Humphrey gets a great job after a stretch of unemployment. The job—managing a new art gallery in Manhattan—is seemingly perfect, and she can’t believe her luck.

Then she arrives at work for her first day only to find that her luck has run out. The gallery no longer exists, and the man who hired her is dead on the floor. After that, things spiral downward at a breathtaking pace, and Alice is not only unemployed again, she is the focus of a police investigation.

The book’s pacing is perfectly fast moving, confirming how quickly life can get out of control when things start going wrong. Some of the plot twists may leave you shaking your head and muttering, “I didn’t see that coming,” and should you foresee the ending, you are simply a smarter person than I.

Long Gone is the kind of book that makes reviewers reach for their thesauri to find appropriate adjectives to describe it. A selection of possible and surely preferred ones might include: addictive, compulsively readable, clever, intense, and riveting. You could find a dozen more, but don’t waste time thumbing through a thesaurus. Instead, use that time to keep turning the pages of this novel. You won’t be disappointed.