Alafair Burke
Encyclopedia
Alafair S. Burke is an American
author
, professor of law
, and legal commentator. She is the author of two series of crime novels, one featuring NYPD Detective
Ellie Hatcher, the other featuring Portland
prosecutor
Samantha Kincaid. Her books have been translated into 12 languages.
, but was raised primarily in Wichita, Kansas, where her mother was a school librarian and her father, fellow mystery novelist James Lee Burke
, was a professor of English. She traces her fascination with crime to BTK
, a serial killer who was active in Wichita during the 1970s.
Burke received her B.A.
in psychology
from Reed College
, completing the senior thesis "Emotion's effects on memory: spatial narrowing of attention". After graduating with distinction from Stanford Law School
, she served as a deputy district attorney
in Portland, Oregon
, where she prosecuted domestic violence offenses and served as an in-precinct advisor to the police department. She currently lives in New York City and is a Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School. She has served as a member of the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America
and as President of its New York chapter.
Burke's Samantha Kincaid series is set in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, where Burke worked in the 1990s.
In creating NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, Burke drew on her experience growing up in Kansas. Like Burke, Hatcher was raised in Wichita. Hatcher's father was a Wichita police detective who spent his career hunting a serial killer who evaded police for thirty years.
Burke's first novel, Judgment Calls, was loosely based on the case against Keith Hunter Jesperson
, a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer for the smiley faces he drew on his many letters to the media. Burke's novel, Angel's Tip, was loosely based on the murders of Imette St. Guillen
and Jennifer Moore.
In Burke's novel, Dead Connection, Ellie Hatcher tracks a serial killer who uses an online dating service to locate his victims. Burke has said that the plot was inspired by her worst nightmares while briefly enrolled on Match.com
. Burke subsequently dedicated the book to her husband, writing, "For Sean, I can't believe I found you on a computer."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, professor of law
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, and legal commentator. She is the author of two series of crime novels, one featuring NYPD Detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Ellie Hatcher, the other featuring Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
Samantha Kincaid. Her books have been translated into 12 languages.
Background
Burke was born in Fort Lauderdale, FloridaFort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, but was raised primarily in Wichita, Kansas, where her mother was a school librarian and her father, fellow mystery novelist James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is an American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues and Cimarron Rose . The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first by Alec Baldwin and then Tommy Lee Jones...
, was a professor of English. She traces her fascination with crime to BTK
BTK
BTK may refer to:*Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway*Dennis Rader, a serial killer known as the "BTK killer"**"Bind Torture Kill", a song by the band Suffocation on its album Suffocation....
, a serial killer who was active in Wichita during the 1970s.
Burke received her B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
from Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, completing the senior thesis "Emotion's effects on memory: spatial narrowing of attention". After graduating with distinction from Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
, she served as a deputy district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, where she prosecuted domestic violence offenses and served as an in-precinct advisor to the police department. She currently lives in New York City and is a Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School. She has served as a member of the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
and as President of its New York chapter.
Writing techniques
Burke's novels are known for their authenticity and often draw on real-world cases and the author's own personal and professional experiences.Burke's Samantha Kincaid series is set in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, where Burke worked in the 1990s.
In creating NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher, Burke drew on her experience growing up in Kansas. Like Burke, Hatcher was raised in Wichita. Hatcher's father was a Wichita police detective who spent his career hunting a serial killer who evaded police for thirty years.
Burke's first novel, Judgment Calls, was loosely based on the case against Keith Hunter Jesperson
Keith Hunter Jesperson
Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-born American serial killer known as the "Happy Face Killer" for the smiley face he drew on his many letters to the media and prosecutors. He had a violent and troubled childhood under a domineering, alcoholic father...
, a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer for the smiley faces he drew on his many letters to the media. Burke's novel, Angel's Tip, was loosely based on the murders of Imette St. Guillen
Imette St. Guillen
Imette Carmella St. Guillen was an American graduate student of Venezuelan and French Canadian descent who was brutally raped and murdered. She was studying criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City at the time of her death...
and Jennifer Moore.
In Burke's novel, Dead Connection, Ellie Hatcher tracks a serial killer who uses an online dating service to locate his victims. Burke has said that the plot was inspired by her worst nightmares while briefly enrolled on Match.com
Match.com
Match.com is an online dating company which reportedly has more than 20 million members, made up of a 49/51 male/female ratio, and Web sites serving 25 countries in more than 8 different languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas and the company also has offices in West Hollywood, Tokyo, Rio,...
. Burke subsequently dedicated the book to her husband, writing, "For Sean, I can't believe I found you on a computer."
Novels
- Judgment Calls (2003)
- Missing Justice (2004)
- Close Case (2005)
- Dead Connection (2007)
- Angel's Tip (2008) (Published in the UK as City of Fear)
- 212 (2010) (Published in the UK as City of Lies)
- Long Gone (2011)
Other works
- Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Prosecutions and the New Policing, in CRIMINAL LAW CONVERSATIONS (Robinson, Ferzan, and Garvey eds.) (Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Revisiting Prosecutorial Disclosure, 84 INDIANA LAW J. 481 (2009)
- Comment, Brady’s Brainteaser: The Accidental Prosecutor and Cognitive Bias, 57 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 575 (2007)
- Prosecutorial Passion, Cognitive Bias, and Plea Bargaining, 91 MARQUETTE L. REV. 183 (2007)
- Neutralizing Cognitive Bias: An Invitation to Prosecutors, 2 N.Y.U. LAW & LIBERTY 512 (2007)
- Domestic Violence as a Crime of Pattern and Intent: An Alternative Reconceptualization, 75 GEORGE WASHINGTON L. REV. 552 (2007)
- Lawless Neptune, in NEPTUNE NOIR (Rob Thomas, ed., 2007) (discussing the depiction of law in the popular television show Veronica Mars)
- Improving Prosecutorial Decision Making: Some Lessons of Cognitive Science, 47 WILLIAM & MARY L. REV. 1587 (2006)
- “Administrative Searches,” “Arrest Without Warrant,” and “Board of Education v. Earls,” in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES (2006)
- Review: Murder and the Reasonable Man: Passion and Fear in the Criminal Courtroom, 103 MICH. L. REV. 1043 (2005)
- Unpacking New Policing: Confessions of a Former Neighborhood District Attorney, 78 WASH. L. REV. 985 (2003)
- Rational Actors, Self-Defense, and Duress: Making Sense, Not Syndromes, Out of the Battered Woman, 81 N.C. L. REV. 211 (2002)
- A Few Straight Men: Homosexuals in the Military and Equal Protection, 6 STAN. LAW & POL. REV. 109 (1994)
- Note, Reconciling Professional Ethics and Prosecutorial Power: The No Contact Rule Debate, 46 STAN. L. REV. 1635 (1994)
- Remembering Emotional Events, 20 MEMORY & COGNITION 277 (1992) (with co-authors F. Heuer & D. Reisberg).