Diana Page Jordan | Book Reviews and Inspiration

I was out dancing Saturday night with a date. I don’t drink, which means I can have an unjaundiced frame of mind. It can get pretty drunk on the dance floor, especially among the women, dressed in short tight dresses, showing cleavage, showing off for each other. We danced until close to one in the morning, then got a bite to eat downstairs, next to an open door, next to a stream of men and women lined up, hoping to make it in.
But this is nothing like NY. Nothing like the Meat Packing District, where Alafair Burke’s beautiful underage blonde from Indiana flirts her way inside an exclusive bar. And then gets killed.
As we settle into her friend’s mansion in SW Portland this afternoon, up in the fully furnished loft, with a pool table and a huge TV, she divulges that she’s read my book blog from the previous day. My hand is tipped, but I will ask about her famous dad when it feels appropriate in the arc of the interview.
But first, Alafair tells me that she’s been on both sides of those partying nights when everyone is too loaded to know what’s good for her — and she wants to stay or she wants her friends to leave with her. I remember those days, too, but because I can’t remember what happened next — and other people would remind me the next day — or ten years later — that’s why I quit drinking fifteen years ago.
Alafair cites cases like Natalie Holloway who partied in Aruba on a school trip, and vanished. And there have been other beautiful young women. Too many. That concept sparked this novel, centered around the beautiful, savagely murdered Chelsea Hart. That was the hardest part to write, Alafair says, how Chelsea was cut and slashed up, her tresses chopped off at crazy angles.
Alafair’s newest books have been starring Ellie Hatcher, in NYPD, who’s climbed her way up to homicide detective too fast, in some peoples’ opinion. A clue. Maybe. Alafair hopes readers fall in love with Detective Ellie enough to make her an ongoing character. I do. I read Ellie as cool, funny, smart, very real. Actually, a lot like Alafair.
How did her dad — bestselling author James Lee Burke — influence her? She says she saw him absorbed in his craft — and few know this — but her mom was a school librarian. Books were all around the four siblings — now all successful. Alafair says her dad was always very encouraging. “He must be proud of you, ” I say.
She laughs, “He’d be proud of me if I wrote the phone book.”
And then she adds, “He says I was younger than he was when I made it.”
Salud to Ellie and to Alafair!
Here’s the Angel’s Tip recipe, credit to Alafair:
Shake two ounces of Vanilla Vodka with an ounce of Creme de Cacao and a tablespoon of Bailey’s with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass, garnish with maraschino cherry.
A Diet Coke — no ice — over here, please.