The Note by Alafair Burke
Publishing Date: 1/7

Premise: Three friends reunite in the Hamptons and leave a note as a prank on the driver’s car. 24 hours later, the driver is missing and the women find themselves connected to the crime. Is someone keeping a secret?

I have read other Alafair Burke thrillers and have enjoyed them, but I did not like this book. I did not find any of the characters likable (and some of the decision making was infuriating). The premise sounded interesting, but it took almost ⅔ of the way through for some action to occur. So much of the novel was the backstory of the three women and their history. That made the first half drag. Finally, in previous Burke books, I haven’t always figured out the twist or ending. I had this one pegged about halfway through, so by the end, nothing was a surprise. All in all, I felt this one was a letdown.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Three friends who went through their own public scandals take a break at the Hamptons. A harmless prank turns into a murder investigation.

I should have DNF’s this one halfway through but I kept at it expecting it to pick up. The plot was so intriguing but when I found out what the “harmless prank” was, it just seemed silly. I didn’t like any of the characters and this was other reason I was not invested. Try this one out, but it was not my favorite.

“Forever altered by the specific mechanism of public scrutiny and judgement. Lauren, because of the affair. Kelsey, because of her husband’s murder. And May, because of a confrontation on a subway platform.”

The Note comes out 1/7.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What would you do if you left a note on someone's car that was meant as a harmless prank and it resulted in murder? That is the premise of this book. 3 friends are in the Hamptons for a girls trip when a car steals their parking spot. They leave a note on the car and it results in a a police investigation.

The 3 main characters met at a summer camp and came from different backgrounds. As adults, each of the women had recently endured a traumatic event. That with the prank and a girls' weekend in the Hamptons should be a great set up for a story. However, I just could not get into this one. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. Their descriptions and backgrounds were provided in a disjointed fashion where a chapter for each would have been much more cohesive for the character building. Also, nothing really happened in the story. The pacing was too slow. I just lost interest in this one and struggled to finish.

3 stars.

I have always enjoyed novels by Alafair Burke, but this one just did not do it for me. The premise was an interesting one: Three childhood friends get together for a vacation in the Hamptons and then a prank note turns their plans for relaxing into a nightmare. However, the storyline was very heavy on the pandemic, way too heavy for me ,and so much so that it really lessened my reading enjoyment. I still look forward to Burke’s next novels.

I think this was my first Alafair Burke book. And sadly, I was unimpressed with it. I kept hoping it would get more interesting, have more thrills and faster paced writing but unfortunately, it did not. I did finish it but it was also a mediocre ending.

What had she gone and done?

What had they gone and done?

May Hanover really struggled when faced with xenophobia, especially as an adult. Her strict upbringing by her strict Chinese mother left very little room for mistakes. A very strong bond was forged between her and her two friends, Lauren Berry and Kelsey Ellis, when they were younger. However, with that bond came devastating secrets. With May being the goodie two-shoes of the trio, these secrets just might become their undoing one day.

May, Lauren, and Kelsey are a hive mind. They make decisions as a group, regardless of whether they’re good or bad, past or present. In fact, their heightened awareness of guilt plays a crucial role in their efforts to conceal their past. However, their recent reunion in the Hamptons has taken an unexpected turn. This trip, intended to be a fun getaway, has turned into anything but. It resulted in a prank with devastating results, colliding their past and present, while revealing new truths about them. This collision threatened to break their increasingly tentative friendship.

May just might be the one who is struggling the most as she is a true victim of cancel culture because of an event that cost her just about everything, including her law career. However, this is what ultimately led to her reconnecting with Lauren and Kelsey. They each have their own issues and, between the three of them, trouble is certain to follow.

Undoubtedly, The Note was a thrilling read, and kept me glued to my Kindle. In fact, I believed that May, Lauren and Kelsey all faced an impossible situation and it was quite interesting to see how things played out.

Many thanks to Knopf and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

3.5 ⭐ Rounded Up

The Note by Alafair Burke was compelling, but seemed like it was trying to be a lot of things at once. At the start of the book, connectedness through genuine friendship over internet personas seemed like it would be a central theme, but seemed to dissolve quickly. This book interacted with a lot of societal issues, most heavy handedly 'cancel culture', in an interesting way, but, being a thriller, some of these themes seemed weirdly placed and were not explored in a meaningful way. I was undoubtedly interested in the story to the end, but was left wanting more from the characters, pacing, and social commentary.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Alafair Burke, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions shared are my own.

This ended up being a DNF for me at about 40%. I guessed the murderer and wasn't vested. I did read the ending. I will not be reviewing on the blog since I did not finish. I had high hopes for this thriller.

This is my first book by this author, I found it scrolling through NetGalley and thought it had an interesting synopsis. I definitely enjoyed this book. It has a summer vibe so I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get into it now but I was wrong. My favorite part was the raw and real relationships in the book. It wasn’t your average girl friend group there was definitely some issues between them and I really enjoyed that. Not all friendships are roses and butterflies and I enjoyed how the author really conveyed that here. Everyone had their secrets and pasts. Josh’s character really annoyed me, he was a walking red flag and I think that is how the author purposely conveyed him but reading about him just irked me. Throughout the whole book I had an idea of who the killer was but again I was wrong, the twist at the end got me. Overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you to the publisher, author & NetGalley for this advanced released copy.

Three lifelong friends are getting together for a girls weekend to chat and reminisce after not being able to see each other besides zoom calls thanks to the pandemic. Now they are getting together to chat and remember their time as counselors at a summer camp. Each of them had found themselves at the mercy of cancel culture as adults, so they had that in common as well. While there they decide to pull what they think is an innocent prank after someone “wrongs” them only the prank turns into so much more when the victim of it turns up dead.
The ending was kinda anticlimactic but this was a fast read-I did it all in one sitting and it had some good twists.
Thanks to Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

A fast paced edge of your seat thriller. I enjoyed the pace of the book and the overall story. The story follows three friends that have dealt with cancel culture and have secrets that could ruin any friendship. May was easy to follow and relatable. Lauren and Kelsey I constantly mixed the two up and had a hard time telling the difference between at times. I gave the book 4 stars with the fast pace, mystery/thriller element and overall twists. I would recommend it but with the note that it starts off a little slow but once you get the mystery of who done it, it gets better. Thank you Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC.

A great thriller to start the year with. The tension remains high for most of the story. It will have people turning pages.

I will read anything written by Alafair Burke. This was a fast paced thriller and I could not put it down. I can't wait to recommend this book. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is my first book by Alafair Burke and I was obsessed with this plot when I read the synopsis. I did enjoy the quick pace, the amount of tension, and idea of secrets galore.
I enjoyed the murder mystery plot and definitely wanted to know what happened, although I didn't particularly love any of the characters. They felt a little too "forced" - like they were just a little too fake sounding to feel compelling or believable? I also had a hard time keeping each character separate and kept mixing them up, at least for Kelsey and Lauren.
Here we have May, Lauren, and Kelsey. They have a somewhat toxic and attenuated friendship but decide to spend a weekend in the Hamptons after years not seeing each other. They play a harmless prank on a couple who steals their parking spot. This note then becomes the entire plot. I was a little like "seriously, all this over a note?" I
This took me longer than most thrillers, not in a good way. I've heard great things about her other books, so maybe this was just a one off, I would read her work again!
Thank you to Knoph, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor, and NetCalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I was not disappointed. This book is a mystery with some suspense. This book is a page turner and caught my attention from the first chapter. This book is a “who done it” type of book. I really enjoyed reading it because I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next. I will definitely be reading more books by Alafair Burke.

Alafair Burke’s book, The Note, left me feelings so ambivalent. I loved the premise about an innocent prank gone awry…but was it truly innocent? I enjoyed the reconnection of the three women, May, Lauren and Kelsey after each had been “cancelled” by social media. Unfortunately I found all three women to be unlikeable. In my humble opinion, having one of the three women somewhat likeable would have had me rooting for them, thus making the book more relatable to the reader.
Each of the women has secrets which are slowly revealed. The biggest revelation about Kelsey was not a surprise to me. My mind went to that possibility immediately. May’s repeated efforts to put her relationship with Lauren and Kelsey before that of her fiancé was pivotal to the storyline while somehow not quite ringing true.
While this book kept me engaged, due to the power of Alafair Burke’s writing, something about it held me back from loving it.
Many many thanks to Alafair Burke, Knopf, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book, to be published on January 7th. Three star read.

Was so thrilled to get to read Alafair Burke’s latest novel! 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦 is a domestic mystery thriller, with themes of betrayal and childhood friendship. The characters aren’t all entirely likeable, and I found myself making assumptions that didn’t pan out, which is always a nice surprise. Would recommend if you want a steady read with flashbacks, multiple characters, and New England vibes.


𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗣𝗦𝗜𝗦: childhood friends May, Lauren, and Kelsey are far overdue for a girls’ weekend, especially after their recent upheavals in their personal lives. As far as the media is concerned, Kelsey has been branded a murderer, May a racist, and Lauren an adulteress, so a few days in an Air BnB in The Hamptons is just what the doctor ordered. But when they leave a nasty note on the windshield of an entitled parking space thief during a boozy lunch, who subsequently ends up dead in much the same way as Kelsey’s late husband, they realize that their problems are only beginning. With their careers on the line and long-buried childhood tragedies being dug up, it’s impossible to know who to trust… even amongst each other.


Huge thank you to @alafair.burke , @aaknopf , and @netgalley for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review! 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦 arrives next month on January 7th, and it’s totally worth grabbing a copy on pre-order!

This book was very well written with a clear plot and fleshed out characters. I found the story and characters believable and enjoyable. They could have been any of our friends. What I didn't like was that the story was fairly ordinary and easy to see the mystery, even if it was smooth and solved well without leaving the reader with questions. But it was predictable. The book was more of a slow enjoyable pace rather than the traditional shock and twist we long for. I also feel the audience will be a variety of age groups and some groups may struggle to understand the slang acronyms. I had to look up two of them; just something for publishers to consider.

This feels like a fun beach read, full of secretive female friendships and murder.

I don’t have much to say about it other than I liked it, it kept me interested, and I liked how the story ended up. Solid read.

Three friends, one weekend in the Hamptons; what could possibly go wrong? May, Lauren, and Kelsey need this time together to reconnect post lockdown. Each friend has found themselves on the wrong side of the “cancel” culture for different reasons and each entangled into a tragic childhood accident that has kept them bonded for years. After losing a parking spot and a drunken lunch, the girls toy with playing a prank on the rude driver and write a note to leave on his car. Days later the driver turns out to be a missing person and Kelsey confesses that she left the note after everyone thought it was thrown out. Did the prank go too far? Have they just put themselves in the middle of another scandal? What secrets have they been hiding from each other that this will bring to the forefront? It all starts to unravel after “The Note”.
Alafair Burke brings us along on the journey of revealing the past and facing the present in “The Note”. Burke’s characters are relatable and the relationships they share are deep and realistic. The complications that they experience fit well in scenarios that are “current”. The tensions that they have to overcome and the landscapes used are well thought out and developed fully taking place in three locations. Burke’s writing style is easy to follow. For such a short novel, I feel like she used her words well. The plot did fall short for me due to being predictable. There were a couple of twists that kept the plot interesting enough to follow through. Overall I enjoyed this read and would give it a 3.75/5 stars.