After I'm Gone

A Novel

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Linda Emond

The acclaimed New York Times best-selling author of The Most Dangerous Thing, I'd Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Know returns with an addictive story that explores how one man's disappearance echoes through the lives of the five women he left behind - his wife, his daughters, and his mistress.

Dead is dead. Missing is gone. When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Day dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative - if not all legal - businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July in 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, facing prison, vanishes.

Though Bambi has no idea where her husband - or his money - might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day after Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover - until her remains are discovered in a secluded park. Now, twenty-six years later, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealousy, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over five decades. And at its center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer. Felix Brewer left five women behind. Now there are four. Does at least one of them know the truth?

©2014 Laura Lippman (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers

Critic reviews

"Despite the murder at its center, this is less a suspenseful whodunit than a masterly novel of character, with secrets skillfully and gradually revealed. Revel in the pace and pleasures of this book." ( Publishers Weekly)
"[S]mart and mesmerizing.... an involving and elegant novel of the psychological ravages of crime." ( Booklist)
"She’s one of the best novelists around, period." ( Washington Post)

Sisters are doing it for themselves...kinda

When I first read the synopsis for this novel, I mistakenly thought it would focus on Frank and his absence. As in where he went and what he was doing. I should have known better. For the most part, Lippman’s stories revolve around women and how their lives are affected by their pasts and some of those pasts have problems or incidents that stem from the men in their lives. But those incidents are just causes for how the women have to live their lives around them. They’re not the focus.

That’s what we have here. Bambi (oy that name drove me bananas) and her daughters are going forward through life as best they can without knowing much about Frank’s disappearance. The money Frank was to have left them never got to them and they think that his mistress took it. How else could she have afforded to become a respected business owner if not for stealing what was theirs, something she had a talent for? When she’s found dead, they still have no answers. Or money. Then Sandy Sanchez, retired police detective, decides to take on the mystery of mistresses’ death; a very cold case. He finds inconsistencies and facts that were previously overlooked. Soon the family is in uproar again.

Sandy’s narrative basically drives the novel and keeps a common thread, but the story belongs to the women. Their relationships are complex and brushed with a veneer of distrust. At least that’s what I felt from them. That they don’t quite believe any of them is telling her whole story. And that’s what helps keep us distracted until the end when the solution is revealed. Nice misdirection, Ms. Lippman.

LOVED IT!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, absolutely!

What other book might you compare After I'm Gone to and why?

The best of Laura Lippman's books.

Which character – as performed by Linda Emond – was your favorite?

I think probably Sandy, although Linda Emond's narration is perfect for all the characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, although I did have to spread it out over several days!

Any additional comments?

If you enjoy the Tess Monaghan series based in Baltimore and have been missing her style of PI work, then you need to read/listen to "After I'm Gone". It's excellent!

Great story. Narration could have been better.

I really quite enjoyed this book, great characters. The part that let me down was the narration. She was ok, but she would have been GREAT had she tried to differentiate her voice even just a bit between characters. You couldn’t even really tell gender, it was all just the same, which made some of the conversations hard to follow. Other than that, I highly recommend!

Saga of Baltimore Family

This story is the Thornbirds of Reisterstown Road. It traces several generations of a Baltimore Jewish Family from the 1950s to the present day. Laua Lippman fills the book with her pitch-perfect descriptions of life in Baltimore -- everything from the stained glass windows at Beth Tefilah to Berger cookies for dessert on Friday night. Our favorite Tess Monahan makes a cameo appearance at the end, but one wishes that she would come back for a full book.

The plot has a few good twists at the end, but one gets the impression that the author did not quite figure out the ending of the book until she was about 3 quarters through.

This is a good listen in its own right, but is a must for detective / police procedure novel fans who live or have ever lived in Baltimore. Mght also be a good idea to watch the movies Avalon and Diner as companion pieces to get another version of the Forst Park High School Crowd.

After I'm gone

This was a fun read with likable characters. It kept my interest until the end.

Stick with it...

It takes awhile to come together but it is a rich story with a bit of mystery...

Slow, but interesting

This story moved slowly. it is an interesting, story, but could have been told with less filler. There are a lot of connections between the characters that are slowly revealed that add depth and personality that is lacking early on. I considered giving up a few times, but am glad I stuck it out, as the ending was worth it, as it wrapped things up nicely and answered all my questions.

Wow. Great Mystery

I loved this story start to finish. I plan to listen to it again to catch some of the detail that I'm sure I've missed.

really struggled throughout

I am not sure why I struggled so much with this book. The premise was good enough and the characters diverse and interesting. everything just seems very disjointed and I felt like the plot was hard to follow. maybe none of the characters were developed enough. I can't put my finger on it

Excellent!

Couldn’t put it down , terrific mystery. Loved it! Well worth the credit and my favorite so far from the author