Rating: 3 stars

Alice Humphrey is no stranger to a life of privilege. Having an award-winning director for a father and a former actress as mother has its perks. However, at 37, Alice feels she’s old enough to stand on her own two feet and refuses further financial assistance from her family.

Unbeknownst to Alice, her job at the Met hinges on her father’s donations; and, as soon as the money dries up, so does the job.

After months of unemployment, the door to a new job seems firmly closed. Then, while attending an art reception at one of her favorite galleries, Alice meets Drew Campbell and another door opens.

Striking up a conversation, Alice finds that she and Drew have a mutual need: he needs someone to run a new art gallery for a rich recluse and his emerging boy-toy artist and she needs gainful employment. After much discussion and consideration, Alice accepts the offer.

After her first day on the job, Alice feels like her life is finally back on track—at least until the second day, when the artwork is deemed child pornography by a local religious zealot and the gallery is barraged by psalm-spouting protestors. When Alice arrives for work the next morning, she finds the space stripped bare and Drew’s body lying in a pool of blood.

As the police investigate, excessive amounts of incriminating evidence is uncovered, from the lease on the gallery to photographs on Facebook that lead right to the killer—Alice.

At standard novel length, the Burke’s attempt to set up three different story lines was too ambitious and bogged down the pace. Having Drew Campbell as a common denominator between Alice and a previous crime involving a now-obsessed FBI agent was perfect; however, the third plotline of the missing teen felt cluttered and disposable.

By the second half, the pace greatly increases. Resolving to prove her innocence, Alice does an impressive job of sorting things out—even if it means digging through the deep and painful closet of her family’s skeletons.

Overall, Alafair Burke does a great job of putting the mystery in motion and then neatly wrapping it up without anything feeling gratuitous or convenient.

Long Gone hits that nerve of the unimaginable becoming reality. Although it satisfactorily answers all the questions it raises, there is still one that remains: exactly where is the line between too-good-to-be-true and being in the right place, at the right time.
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Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Harper (June 21, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0061999185