Written by the daughter of James Lee Burke, Alafair Burke, Dead Connection is about Detective Ellie Hatcher who ends up knee-deep in a murder case. Ellie plays the game and I like that. She knows how to be a team player but also works well alone. She doesn’t usually react to something right away, she thinks it through and she isn’t too hardened by what she sees on the job. I appreciate that we are also watching her grow into her job, she is an unfinished character.

In this particular installment, several women have been murdered and it seems like a dating website is the conduit for these crimes. I will say that I thought it was a pretty simple crime and I thought I had the answers but then it turned out I didn’t. The culprit isn’t too out of the realm of possibilities, I was just feeling lazy and didn’t want to think and this is a great book to do that with.

Despite this book being about murder, it was a rather pleasant read. There were pop culture references (Dwight Schrute, lol) and I actually quite enjoyed Flann’s rhetorical questions. I will say that I was a little sad about an event that takes place and still can’t quite believe it. I suppose the good thing about that is the fact that the secondary characters weren’t as two-dimensional as our main character. I tend to like it when the supporting characters are just as lovable and that wasn’t really the case in this book.

The book actually starts to pick up towards the end.[Insert sad event here]. It becomes a little thrilling and the capture of the murderer is satisfying. I will be reading the rest of the series so I hope that the characters become more complex and interesting. Also, don’t like the love interest so I will be crossing my fingers in the hope that she finds someone else.