Remember Me, Irene [Hardcover]

Jan Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

In this gripping addition to the Irene Kelly mystery series, a young reporter learns the hard way that a revered figure from her past is not the man she imagined he was.

In an unsettling encounter on the streets of Las Piernas, newspaper reporter Irene Kelly fails to recognize the homeless man who declares, "I'm not who I used to be". Only later does she realize that he had been her favorite instructor back in college -- Lucas Monroe. Once a gifted young academic with a promising future, Lucas needs her help, but he's gone missing. Now his name keeps coming up in association with charges of blackmail and possible homicide. Irene wants to know more but no one is willing to talk. And then she stumbles upon a dead body...

Jan Burke lives in Southern California with her husband and Cappy the devil dog.

"Electric suspense [with a] surprise climax". -- "Grand Rapids Press"

"A memorable who-done-it, a splendid addition to an excellent new series".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Newly married Southern California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly (seen before in Dear Irene, etc.) doesn't immediately recognize the bum on the bus stop bench who says he knows her. A few weeks later, meeting with some old friends, she learns that he was Lucas Monroe, her statistics teacher in college. That same night, she drives a friend home to find the woman's wealthy husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. The next day, the longtime Las Piernas city manager resigns, refusing to give a reason. While tracking that story, Irene hears that a closed circle of the city's rich and powerful men will convene in secret at a local restaurant. Dragging along her homicide detective husband, Irene crashes the rendezvous and is there when one of the men has a heart attack. She then discovers that each of the men at the meeting has been visited by Lucas and presented with a copy of a photograph. Tracing the connections among the city bigwigs, Lucas and the photograph, gutsy Irene gets to the bottom of a mystery that takes on the tangled history of a city's development. Burke is in top form here. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The inimitable Irene Kelly returns, this time as the wife of detective Frank Harriman. Irene receives an urgent summons from an old college teaching assistant but when she arrives, someone has killed him. As she seeks the truth, more dead bodies appear. A welcome and inviting read.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 602 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786207868
• ISBN-13: 978-0786207862
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,636,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of crime fiction novels and short stories. You can find out more about my writing on my Web site.

I'm also the founder of The Crime Lab Project, which works to increase awareness of the problems facing public forensic science labs in the U.S.

I live in Southern California with my husband, Tim, and our two dogs, Cappy (in the photo above) and Britches.

I want my epitaph to read, "Had a great time, thanks for inviting me." I hope not to be in need of that any time soon.

Oh yeah -- I'm a lifelong night owl. As another night owl once said, don't go to bed on the same day you've awakened.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go Get 'em Irene...., February 15, 2001

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remember Me, Irene (Mass Market Paperback)

Irene Kelly, reporter for the Las Piernas Express, is shocked to discover that a homeless drunk she met at a bus stop a few weeks before, was actually an acquaintance from her past, Lucas Monroe. She had found the encounter unnerving because he had recognized her and kept telling her "I'm not who I used to be." And he was certainly right about that. Twelve years ago, Lucas was her much admired college statistics instructor, a rising star and master's candidate in the sociology department, with a very bright future. Over the past weeks, since their chance meeting, he's cleaned up and stopped drinking and now wants Irene's help with an important personal matter. But before they can meet, Lucas is found dead in an abandoned hotel of an apparent heart attack. As Irene begins to investigate his fall from grace and death, she finds that twelve years ago he was involved with some of Las Piernas' most prominent civic leaders and she soon begins to uncover blackmail, corruption and possibly murder at the highest levels of city government..... Jan Burke is back with another great mystery and this series just keeps getting better and better. Remember Me Irene is a well written page turner, with a suspenseful, plausible plot, witty, irreverent dialogue, compelling scenes and an ending that will take you by surprise. If you are new to the series, do yourself a favor and start at the beginning with Goodnight Irene. For those who are already fans, this latest installment doesn't disappoint.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fourth book in one of my favorite series, January 18, 2004

By 

Sebastian Fernandez (Tampa, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Remember Me, Irene : An Irene Kelly Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

After her "secret" marriage to Detective Frank Harriman, Irene Kelly returns to work and we find her taking part in a society called SOS. Jan Burke gives the readers that have followed this series a further glimpse into Irene's past and it's relationship to SOS. Then, one day while she is writing an article on public transportation she meets a homeless man on a bus stop bench who says he knows her and that she is "good at math". After disregarding the encounter and writing the homeless guy off as someone who saw her picture in her column Irene finds out that he was actually a former college instructor of hers and when he is found dead, our heroine is again in the middle of a mystery involving betrayal, fraud and greed.

After a very interesting start, the book has a section of about 100 pages in which it failed to keep the interest this series has achieved in its previous books. That is the only reason I give four stars to it, since after that section, the story picks up again and it does not let you go!

It is great the way in which Jan Burke mixes funny and entertaining situations in the main story. This book will provide you with another view of pagers ;-)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, boring, boring, March 25, 2011

By 

ranat-ka (Renton, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remember Me, Irene : An Irene Kelly Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Well, after all the glowing reviews for this book, I was sure that I would love it. I found the beginning boring and tedious, but that has happened before in books that do get interesting after giving them 50 pages or so. So I kept reading, figuring it would get better, but after around 85 pages I found myself not even wanting to pick up the book. It was SO boring--uninteresting characters, boring repetitious conversations. Maybe if I gave it 200 pages it would get interesting, but there are far too many books out there that are interesting from the very beginning for me to waste any more time on this one!