Below is the complete list of Alafair Burke books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Samantha Kincaid Books
Publication Order of Ellie Hatcher Books
Publication Order of Under Suspicion Books
with Mary Higgins Clark
Publication Order of Where Are The Children Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
About Alafair Burke
Alafair Burke is an American crime novelist, legal scholar, and former prosecutor whose fiction draws heavily on her knowledge of criminal law, policing, and the pressures surrounding high-profile investigations. She is best known for the Samantha Kincaid and Ellie Hatcher series, a growing body of stand-alone psychological suspense novels, and her work continuing Mary Higgins Clark’s Under Suspicion series. Her novels frequently explore the uncertain territory between legal guilt and factual truth, particularly when secrets, memory, reputation, family loyalty, and institutional power complicate an apparently straightforward crime.
Burke grew up in a literary household as the daughter of acclaimed crime novelist James Lee Burke and librarian Pearl Pai Chu. Despite that background, she did not initially plan to become a novelist. She studied psychology at Reed College, graduating in 1991, before earning her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1994. At Stanford, she graduated with distinction and worked on several legal journals.
After law school, Burke clerked for Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She subsequently became a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, where she prosecuted criminal cases, many involving domestic violence, and participated in neighborhood-based approaches to prosecution. That experience became especially important to her later fiction, giving her firsthand familiarity with prosecutors, police investigations, victims, defendants, evidentiary problems, and the discretionary decisions made throughout the criminal justice process.
Burke joined the faculty of Hofstra University’s law school in 2001 and became a professor of law specializing in criminal law and criminal procedure. Her academic work has examined subjects including prosecutorial decision-making, policing, wrongful convictions, domestic violence, and professional ethics. Rather than keeping her legal and fictional careers separate, Burke has often used crime fiction to investigate similar questions from a different perspective.
Her first novel, Judgment Calls, was published in 2003 and introduced Samantha Kincaid, a prosecutor in Portland. The character’s profession and setting reflected Burke’s own prosecutorial background, but Samantha developed into an independent fictional protagonist. She returned in Missing Justice and Close Case, creating Burke’s first series.
Burke later introduced NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher in Dead Connection. Ellie subsequently appeared in Angel’s Tip, 212, Never Tell, and All Day and a Night. Moving from a prosecutor to a homicide detective allowed Burke to approach criminal cases from another institutional perspective while shifting much of her fiction from Portland to New York.
Her stand-alone novels increasingly established her reputation for psychological and domestic suspense. Books including Long Gone, If You Were Here, The Ex, The Wife, The Better Sister, Find Me, and The Note revolve around characters whose understanding of a crime changes as hidden relationships and competing versions of the past emerge. The Ex received an Edgar Award nomination for Best Novel, while several of her later books became prominent bestsellers.
Another major part of Burke’s career developed through her collaboration with Mary Higgins Clark. Beginning with The Cinderella Murder, Burke co-wrote novels in Clark’s Under Suspicion series, featuring television producer Laurie Moran and investigations into unresolved crimes. Their collaboration continued with books including All Dressed in White, The Sleeping Beauty Killer, Every Breath You Take, You Don’t Own Me, and Piece of My Heart. Following Clark’s death in 2020, Burke continued the series, preserving its established characters while extending their stories.
Burke has also held a leadership role within the crime-writing community, including serving as president of the Mystery Writers of America. Her unusual combination of novelist, former prosecutor, and law professor gives her fiction a perspective grounded in how criminal cases actually develop rather than merely how mysteries are solved.
Across her work, Burke repeatedly questions the reliability of apparently convincing narratives. Evidence can be incomplete, witnesses can misremember, investigators can develop biases, and respectable people can have powerful reasons to conceal the truth. That tension between what can be proved and what actually happened has become one of the defining qualities of her crime fiction.