The Note

By Alafair Burke
​** Publication Date 7 January 2025**
5 stars 

Everyone is a suspect. Every single person in this book seems to have secrets that could make them the murder suspect. It will leave you guessing until the very end. 


May is the good girl. As the first born child of a Chinese immigrant and an American father, she is expected to always succeed and do the right thing. When her father disappears, her mother raises her alone. An accomplished pianist and lawyer, May has always been somewhat judgmental and uptight.


Lauren and Kelsey are May’s best friends. Well, at one time they were. Kelsey and May had a falling out years ago. Lauren has mostly been the glue that kept the threesome together. So when Kelsey invites May and Lauren to spend a weekend with her at a private home in the Hamptons, it’s an opportunity for the women to renew their friendship. 


Until a man goes missing and the women realize they saw him the night before, stealing their parking space. A harmless prank turns the women into suspects and tests their friendship. 


I will say this one definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. While May is clearly the lead protagonist, Lauren and Kelsey are well thought out characters. It’s an odd threesome, but their friendship does make sense. Sometimes you’ll get a notion of who is the culprit, but this one really had me stumped. I couldn’t wait to finish it to find out who was the guilty one.