Lippman returns with a brilliant standalone novel that includes a nod to her series heroine, Tess Monahan, and is set in her hometown of Baltimore. She grabbed me on page one with a quote from the classic Herman Wouk book, Marjorie Morningstar, which sort of set the mood for me. (If you’re not familiar with the 1955 bestseller, Slate did a great piece on it for the 50th anniversary: Marjorie Morningstar: The conservative novel that liberal feminists love.)
Felix Brewer is a charmer with an eye for beautiful women, and Bambi Gottschalk is a stunner. Their chemistry is instanteous and explosive, and long-lasting – until Felix disappears after many years of marriage and three children.
Felix does very well, keeping the family in the lap of luxury. He owns a strip club among other businesses, mostly not legal, but when he’s arrested and facing ten years in prison, he takes off, hiding his assets and leaving the family penniless. Bambi, who was barely graduated from high school when they married, has never worked and has no job skills. She relies on her husband’s lawyer and his wife, her best friend, and they help as much as they can.
The only one who may know where the money has gone is Julie, Felix’s girlfriend, and she’s not talking. Surprisingly, no one ever looks for Felix and his disappearance is just accepted as fact by everyone except his wife and mistress. Bambi refuses to have him declared dead so never collects insurance, and in her heart believes that someday he will come home. Julie is convinced that Felix will send for her, which becomes her undoing.
Ten years after Felix disappears, Julie disappears too, and it is believed that she is finally with Felix. Except that many years after that, her body is found in a deserted area of a park, and her murder is at the heart of this mystery.
Sandy is a retired Baltimore homicide police who is working on cold cases as a consultant to the police department. He starts looking into Julie’s murder, and while it is central to the story, this is much more than a mystery. We also get a look at what happens to the five women left behind when Felix disappears – his wife, his three daughters, and his mistress. The story spans more than thirty years, moving back and forth from the early days of the marriage, the years when Felix disappeared, the three girls growing up, and the 2012 murder investigation.
This is a fast moving story with believable characters that you can’t help caring about and rooting for. In fact, the characters propel the story along as much, if not more, than the mystery.
Laura Lippman is one those authors that I drop everything to read; she is one of the best crime fiction writers working today. If you haven’t read her yet, do yourself a favor and pick up any of her books. I fell in love with her very first novel, Baltimore Blues, and haven’t looked back since.
This is a genre bending novel; mystery for sure, but women’s fiction readers will love it too, as will book groups. After I’m Gone is a truly wonderful read and I was very sorry to have to turn the last page.
2/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
AFTER I’M GONE by Laura Lippman. William Morrow (February 11, 2014). ISBN 978-0062083395. 352p.
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