Three friends reconnect for a weekend in the Hamptons. Everything is going well until a harmless prank lands them in the middle of a police investigation and the secrets they have kept start coming out.

This was a fun, quick read with twists and turns that made it hard to put down. I had never read any of Alafair Burke’s novels before, but I will definitely be adding more of her work to my TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley & Knopf for providing me with an advanced copy!

I REALLY wanted to like this one, but it just did not work for me. The characters are toxic, childish and just blah people. The story moves slowly, despite it being a short book. 3 childhood friends meet up in the Hampton's for a refresh - all 3 having recently been cancelled. When they leave a prank note on a car, they find themselves at the center of a police investigation. Along the way, they start to question if they can really trust each other. I loved the idea of this book, but the 3 women were just so terrible and parts of the book moved so slowly that it just did not work for me. It was a quick read and if terrible characters do not bother you, it may be worth giving it a try. It was just unfortunately not what I expected.

Pub Day: January 7, 2025

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

The Note by Alafair Burke offers a suspenseful look at friendship, secrets, and the consequences of a seemingly harmless prank gone terribly wrong. The story follows May Hanover, a rule-abiding woman who, despite her well-behaved exterior, finds herself at the center of a police investigation after a reckless stunt with her two lifelong friends, Lauren and Kelsey. As May questions her friends' loyalty and their hidden motives, Burke expertly builds tension, keeping readers on edge as secrets unravel. While I’m a big fan of this author, The Note didn’t quite hit the mark for me—it’s an engaging read with moments of intrigue, but I found the pacing a bit uneven and some of the twists predictable. Still, it’s a solid psychological thriller that will likely appeal to fans of suspenseful fiction.

I think my biggest issue with this book was that it makes me really wish I was also on a summer beach trip to the Hamptons. (Although with less murder.)
*
Quick synopsis: May and her two best friends are spending a long weekend in the Hamptons, and after a couple steals a parking spot they were waiting for, one decides to leave a note on the windshield that says he's cheating. Next thing they know, the guy is missing, and the three are suspects, and May starts to suspect her friends are keeping secrets from her. 
*
This required a bit of suspension of disbelief, but was overall a really fun thriller, and I did not see the ending coming at all! It keeps you guessing, and does a great job of making you suspicious. 
*
Beyond the mystery element, this touches on race and class, and also on cancel culture (the three friends refer to themselves as the Cancel Crew, since they each went viral for various reasons). The characters are not particularly likeable (and oh god May's fiance is the worst from page one), but they had redeeming qualities and the challenges of their friendship felt real. 
*
I enjoyed this and would recommend!

Fun, fast paced thriller. I enjoyed the friendship aspect and the complications that arise with female friendships while growing up. I also enjoyed the setting (NYC/Long Island).

30% in and I DNFed it. I could not make myself pick this up.

The story is of three friends getting together for a girls weekend. They have been friends since childhood and worked at a camp. While they were there another camper died. Each of the three friends have also found themselves on the wrong end of the cancel culture, including one who may or may not have killed her husband.

Nothing much had happened by the time I stopped reading it. And that was the problem. I didn't care about any of the characters and nothing was happening.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC. The book will be published on January 7, 2025.

Thank you NetGalley, for this uncorrected ebook ARC of 'The Note' by Alafair Burke, in exchange for an honest review - expected release date 01/07/2025

I usually enjoy this author's books but I had a hard time with this one. I didn't connect with any of the characters and the storyline was just bleh. I felt like it took too long to get anywhere.

Three old friends reconnect for a weekend in the Hamptons. All is well until a harmless prank lands them in the middle of a police investigation and the secrets they have been keeping start to unfold.

This was a fun, quick read with twists and turns that made it hard to put down. I had never read any of Alafair Burke’s novels before, but I will definitely be adding more of her work to my TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley & Knopf for providing me with an advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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It was meant to be a harmless prank.

Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.

But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.

When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends.

What had they gone and done?
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I have been deep in my thriller era in 2024, so I was excited to try out a new-to-me author in the thriller genre. I will definitely check out Alafair Burke's backlist after having read her newest! The Note had some of the elements that really make me appreciate a great novel...a setting that I can imagine myself in the midst of, characters that I really resonate with, enough intrigue and suspense to keep me reading, and twists that aren't so twisty that they feel forced. I enjoyed the friendship among the three FMCs, especially since I was also a summer camp girl in my past and know well the kind relationships that can be forged there. Once I got through the beginning chapters, I settled in and finished the entire book in one sitting. I do have to admit that I figured out who the "bad guy" was a little bit before the big reveal, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the journey to get there. All in all, this was a fun read and one I would definitely recommend to any thriller fan.

Three women, childhood friends, reunited after years apart on a vacation in the Hamptons. May, a lawyer turned law professor-Lauren a successful musician and Kelsey the wealthy corporate heiress. All three have considerable secrets and all have been victims of cancel culture. The story leans heavily into social media skewing reality and how public opinion can destroy a life. But that is really only part one because this story reveals itself in layers. There is a prank and then a crime and some misdirection before we find out the truth.
It was actually quite a fun read and definitely keeps your attention.
Thank you Netgalley and Knopf publishing for the advanced copy.

This book is about three lifelong friends, several murders, and a mystery to solve. The three main characters were neither relatable nor likable and were not developed enough for the reader to care about any of them. The ending was totally predictable and it was easy to guess the murderer's identity even though the author tried to lead the reader in a different direction. Having read and enjoyed most of Alafair Burke’s novels, I expected more from her latest book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishers for this ARC.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
I did enjoy the characters, but the plot itself got a bit stale for me. I felt it was a bit repetitive. However, it was an easy mystery/suspense and I didn’t predict the ending, that is definitely a positive.

I was excited when I saw The Note on Netgalley. I've become a big fan of Alafair Burke, one of my favorites actually - so much so I usually just buy when something is published, regardless of the plot. While it didn't thrill me the way The Wife and The Ex did - The Note was a ride! It was a fun and suspenseful read and while I didn't love ALL the characters, I did enjoy the unique premise of the book and kept me wanting more. Thank you to the author, Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read The Note in advance for my opinion.

The Note by Alafair Burke was one I had been eagerly anticipating. This author has a solid reputation for writing great thrillers, and I’d previously enjoyed another of her books. Unfortunately, this one was just average for me. I found it hard to connect with any of the characters, and I couldn’t really relate to or invest in their situations. The premise was intriguing, and the ending was unexpected, but I feel the execution could have been better. At times, the story felt disjointed and uneven, lacking the smooth flow I was hoping for. It made for an okay beach read, and I did finish it in one sitting, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to a friend looking for a standout book. The author has a good track record, and I’d definitely give her another book a try, but this one just didn’t work for me.

This was another pizza thriller for me. (As in, I love thrillers so I’m happy reading one even if it’s not actually that good.) But it kept me interested throughout, and I didn’t fully predict the ending (it was going to go one of two ways for me).

While not really a main focus of the book, it does bring up different race issues along with issues with trusting cops, which I liked. Reading so much true crime and nonfiction about the criminal justice system makes me so wary of anyone trusting the police at all, so much so that it’s hard reading fiction or watching TV shows where they do that, lol.

I liked the FMC May, but I thought her relationship with her friends was kind of weird- especially with Kelsey and how they were on and off again through the book. I also did not care for May’s fiance. But none of that kept me from enjoying the book. I also thought it was kind of weird that the title object of the book doesn’t really have THAT much to do with the actual story.

Overall, a decently fun thriller, but not that much to write home about. It looks like this author has a lot of books out, so I would probably try her again in the future.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I loved the strong female characters and they were well-written. I did think it took a little too long to get to the "good stuff." The story did wrap up really well. I really liked the relationship between May and Carter - I would definitely read some follow-up stories where they were both involved!

Although I must admit that I initially struggled to connect with the main characters, the plot was constantly surprising me with twists and turns, keeping me on the edge of my seat. The story moved so swiftly that I barely had time to catch my breath.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are
my own.

Themes: toxic female friendships, cancel culture

For a thriller, I thought the character depth here was really well done without being a super slow burn (which often happens in thrillers with character depth). While it was a bit slow to start, the pacing of the majority of the story made it engaging. This was my first book by this author, and it made me interested in checking out her others.

A decent thriller with plenty of twists. Fairly obvious turn at the end, but overall decent storytelling.

One thing I do not like are pranks. I realize that many people find them to be hilarious, but I’m not that person. And, unfortunately, our three main characters find themselves dealing with that very thing. May, Kelsey and Lauren have been friends for many years. As with most friendships, life got to lifin’ and friends come and go and drift apart. They weren’t any different to most people.

But the things these young ladies endured in their separate lives was enough to somehow force them to reunite. They decide to get together and catch up on old times and while they’re headed to the restaurant, a very rude and inconsiderate driver cuts them off and steals the parking spot they were about to enter. In today’s society, some people are just mean spirited and couldn’t care less who they hurt. Even though they were a bit miffed about the whole ordeal, they carried on with their plans and went to lunch and had a good time. As they were about to leave, Kelsey advised the ladies she’d catch up with them because she had something she had to do. May and Lauren didn’t give two thoughts about it and left.

The next thing they knew there’s news spreading about a man who went missing and when they saw the picture of the guy, immediately they recognized him as the guy that cut them off. Why was he missing and what on earth happened to him? As luck would have it, or the lack thereof, the police get information that May, Lauren and Kelsey may have been the last people to know of his whereabouts. Hmm? Why would they know anything about his whereabouts? He was a jerk, true, but they had nothing to do with his disappearance, right?

It’s at this time they discover there was a note. And Kelsey wrote it, but why? What did this note say and why was it important to the disappearance of this young man who stole their parking space? Well, Nerds, this is where you’ll have to finish the story to find out.

I must say there was a whole lot of who-shot-John going on within this story. The more I got to know the characters, the more my suspicions went up. If you can’t trust your friends, then who can you trust? Hmm? The plot thickens!

This was a pretty decent story. There was a lot of carrot dangling and I felt the story dragged on a bit, but once I began to truly understand the players and the game they were playing, I enjoyed the chase. Yes, this story had lots of roller coaster moments in a good way.