REVIEW OF LONG GONE by ALAFAIR BURKE

Long Gone started off as what I thought would be a great suspense novel by an author whose work I truly enjoy reading.
Half-way through, I was so drawn in, my head was spinning. By the very end, I was speechless.
The major plot of this novel, which is the first "stand alone" novel by author Alafair Burke, revolves around Alice Humphrey, who having been out of work for a while, lands a dream job managing an art gallery in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.
Alice knows nothing about the gallery owner,but Drew Campbell, the man who offers Alice the job, assures her that the owner prefers to remain anonymous and will let Alice handle running the gallery as if it were her own. It sounds too good to be true, but Alice is excited for the opportunity to not have to look for any financial support from her famous Hollywood director father.
All is working out well with the gallery until the morning after the gallery's opening night,when Alice arrives to find Drew dead and everything missing from the gallery. Police are questioning Alice and she cannot give them any answers. She has never met or even seen a photo of the artist who's work was displayed, she has no idea who the owner is and it turns out the man she knew as Drew Campbell was using fake identity.
Meanwhile, across the Hudson in New Jersey, a young girl is missing and it is looking like there may be links between her and the gallery. Alice begins to see signs that someone is setting her up and as she digs deeper for answers, more and more secrets are revealed, including ones involving Alice's own family.
I have enjoyed Alafair Burke's past novels, and when I found out she was releasing her first stand-alone, I was eager to read it because I consider her to be one of the finest the suspense authors whose books I have read.
This novel not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded them way beyond what any suspense novel has in recent time. Intertwining murder, a missing girl, and lots of secrets, the twists and turns kept on coming from all directions. It kept me guessing and just when I thought I had it all figured out-another another twist hit me. I was literally gasping out loud!
This may be Alafair Burke's first stand-alone, but I sure hope it's not her last.
Note: this book was received by me from the Amazon Vine review program. You can find out more about it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/vine/help