Unsafe Haven

October 1, 2021
In a major departure from her lighthearted Key West mysteries, Burdette invites readers into the world of a chilling thriller. New York City medical student Elizabeth Brown was jilted by her fiance a few days before their wedding, and she's taking the subway to visit a friend who'll commiserate when a frantic-looking girl hands her a bundle that turns out to be a newborn baby. After phoning the police, she makes the mistake of calling a number she finds in the coat wrapping the baby. This call immerses her in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with people she na�vely believes want to help. The baby's mother, 16-year-old Addison, is running for her life from a woman who took her in as a young runaway and turned her into a prostitute. Addy had been going to meet Rafe, a man she thinks loves her, when she went into labor, giving birth by herself in a bathroom at the Delancey Street station, thus ruining Rafe's plan of blackmailing the father. Unable to forget the baby after turning her over to the police, Elizabeth, herself adopted, gives an interview to a reporter that only exposes her to more danger. A murder sends her running back to her upscale hometown in Connecticut. Although Addy can't get in touch with Rafe, she's street-wise enough to survive, and a chance sighting allows her to follow Elizabeth home, where Rafe finds them both. Only quick thinking and grit will save their lives. A page-turner highlighting the problem of exploited runaways.

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October 18, 2021
Early in this uneven standalone from Burdette (the Key West Food Critic mysteries), New York City med student Elizabeth Brown is feeling sorry for herself after being dumped by her fiancé when a teenage girl approaches her outside a subway station and hands her a bundle containing a newborn. The girl enjoins Elizabeth to take care of the baby before fleeing. Elizabeth delivers the baby to the authorities, but moved by the abandoned child’s plight, she gets involved in a search for the mother. Meanwhile, the mother, 16-year-old Addy, tries to meet up with the baby’s father and evade the violent wrath of Georgia, the woman she fled who pimped Addy out and has plans of her own for the infant. Burdette raises a fascinating policy question—what are the parameters of safe haven laws written to protect unwanted newborns—but fails to explore whether Addy’s hand off to a stranger should be covered by such laws. Contrived plot developments and sloppiness with details, such as calling the NYPD “the Metro police,” don’t help. The author’s cozies show she’s capable of better. Agent: Paige Wheeler, Creative Media.