Never Tell by Alafair Burke

When Ellie and her partner are called uptown to an apparent suicide, they're both ready to write off the call. The vic's father is big leaguer in the music industry, though, and forces the department to treat the case as a homicide. The vic's mother is insistent that her daughter would never have killed herself, despite all evidence otherwise. Even Ellie grudgingly begins to admit that there are some things that don't quite mesh with the suicide theory.

Mystery and thriller fans take note, if you're not reading Alafair Burke, you're missing out! Burke, daughter of James Lee Burke, is a master at plotting convincing mysteries with unexpected twists. I would be willing to bet that most readers (myself included) won't be able to figure out all of the threads of Never Tell before the end. I was guessing literally until the last page and loved every single second!

I love that while we get a bit more of Ellie's background and relationships with each new installment, you also get to learn so much about her just through her investigations and her interactions with other characters. It makes you feel like you really know her even if you might be meeting her for the very first time. She reminds me a lot of a friend of mine (and would therefore totally be someone I'd hang out with in real life!).

This is technically the fourth book to feature Ellie Hatcher. No worries, you can safely jump in with Never Tell though there are some references to past cases that could prove to be slight spoilers in earlier books. And with a heroine as fabulous as Ellie, you're definitely going to want to go back and read the whole series. Here's the list in order:

Dead Connection
Angel's Tip
212
Never Tell

For more on Alafair and all of her titles, visit her website here. You can also like her on facebook and follow her on twitter.

And as an added bonus, Alafair has just held her second annual Duffer Awards for Legendary Characters. The voting is over, but you can see the list of matchups and winners here.

Big, big thanks to TLC for letting me participate in the tour. To see all of the tour stops, visit the TLC site for Never Tell here.