Bambi meet and fell in love with Felix. They got married and had children. Everything was good except for one small detail. Felix has a mistress. Felix disappears before he can face prison. Bambi thought that he left with his mistress. That is until ten years to the day that Felix disappeared that his mistress is found dead buried in a park. Now, it is up to Detective Sandy to figure out what happened to Felix and his mistress. It has been a little while since I have read a book by this author.

I've been a big fan of Laura Lippman ever since Stephen King recommended her works in his Entertainment Weekly column a few years ago. And so when I had the opportunity to grab Lippman's latest novel early thanks to Amazon's Vine program, I jumped at the chance and immediately re-ordered my entire to be read list. After being disappointed by her previous novel And When She Was Good, I had high hopes that After I'm Gone would see Lippman returning to form. The good news is that not only does Afte...

4+ stars...Simple review.... My first experience reading a Lippman and it was a good one! i highly recommend the audiobook version for mystery lovers. The story & secrets are revealed in bits and pieces venturing back and forth through time in the lives of the key characters.

This book is hard for me to rate. I didn't think that it was that good but it wasn't terrible either. Maybe a 2.75 tittering on a 3 rating. I really liked the synopsis of this book. It sounded interesting. I didn't really care for any of the characters. I didn't like them but I didn't dislike them either. I just felt kinda Meh about this book. It was good enough to keep reading but not good enough that I would recommend it.

This story centers around Felix Brewer, a man who chooses to disappear, and the effect that choice has on his family. The unfolding of their lives is told in bits and pieces with sections focusing on different characters and different time periods in order to tell the stories of those Felix left behind. This plot device, so effective in the earlier “I’d Know You Anywhere,” serves here to jumble the story and make it difficult for the reader to find continuity. Unfortunately, I found this book fa...

Felix Brewer is married to Bambi (I know right?) and has three daughters when he vanishes from his gambling business/debts and becomes a fugitive. 10 years to the day of his disappearance, his mistress's body is found-- oh yea, forgot to mention not only does he run a sketchy business, he also cheats on his wife with a dancer-- Julie. 20 years later, Detective Sandy opens this cold case and decides to solve it. The book moved along, shifting between past and present day narration until finally t...

I haven’t read any of the Tess Monaghan series by Lippman, but I am a fan of her stand-alones. Her latest is back to form: excellent, character-driven, and providing substantial scenes that build tension without excessive police work or cat-and-mouse scenes. This novel is more of a study of people and families. The police work reminds us that there is a cold case to be solved, but it doesn’t take over the story. There’s as much “why” (maybe more) as “who.”Widow and retired detective Roberto Sanc...

The only reason why I am giving this 4 stars is that the first part of the book didn't flow very well until we started working in Felix's daughters into the story along with the investigation. Also, I could have sworn the character of Sandy was introduced in the Tess Monaghan series a lot earlier than this book sets up. I am too tired/lazy (yeah really lazy) to look up to confirm that by the way. It just threw me a bit once I realized I was reading about a character from that series. And speakin...

Dead is dead. Missing is gone.Inspired by the Salsbury fraud scandal of the 1970s, After I'm Gone explores how the enigmatic Felix Brewer's sudden disappearance echoes through lives of his wife, daughters, and mistress—the five women he loved and left behind. Both a legal thriller and dazzling sashay through a span of decades, Lippman's newest novel is elaborate, emotionally charged, and deeply probing.In present-day Baltimore, as retired cop Sandy Sanchez reviews a cold case involving the murde...

Well, I think I have read them all and IMHO this is the best of all the Laura Lippman, including everything in her Tess series. And I'm a fan in general- so that is saying something.4.5 stars - losing just a tiny bit in the few small confusions of the form. Yes, the time shifting time periods worked here wonderfully, you got uniquely framed personality core at each character's exact age. It's unusual for any author to do that switching so often and continually without losing some of the plot ten...

Felix Brewer, facing prison charges, vanishes in 1976 , leaving behind his wife Bambi , daughters, and mistress Julie, one of the dancers at his strip joint , to wonder about his whereabouts. 10 years later Julie is missing. 10 years later, retired policeman Sandy Sanchez is working to solve this cold case. This was my bookclub's May choice and my first Lippman read. It is not my usual genre. That said, I thought the book skipped around so much it was very hard to follow. It also has lot's of ch...

I found the story line meandering and unfocused. I felt removed from all of the characters, and I kept losing track of what the original premise of the story was about. And 3/4 of the way through, I stopped reading. I did note all the excellent reviews, which puzzle me, but obviously people are enjoying this book. Not for me.

****4.5 Stars**** Excellent mystery! I love these sorts of suspense novels where layers are slowly peeled away to expose old family secrets. The mystery concerns a cold case file starting from 1976 when Felix Brewer, a bookmaker, jumps bail and vanishes rather than face possible prison time. He leaves behind his wife, three daughters and a mistress. The murder occurs 10 years later when the mistress turns up missing and eventually found dead. The story is told in flashbacks over three decades an...

4.5 Stars. Another good one by Laura Lippman. Thanks to Jeanette for the recommendation!

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman is a February 2014 William Morrow publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.Felix Brewer meets his future wife, Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Day dance that he and his friend crashed back in 1959. Felix had big plans and promised his wife they would be rich. Well, he did become financially comfortable for awhile, but he didn't make his money the old fashioned way by earning it.

When small time gangster Felix Brewer fled Baltimore in 1976 to escape jail time, he left his family and his mistress in the lurch. When his mistress went missing ten years later, everyone assumed she'd gone to live with him in hiding... until her body was discovered years later. Now Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a consulting detective, is on the cold case. Can he find what happened to Felix Brewer and who killed his mistress?I've read a couple of Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan mysteries and decided t...

Laura Lippman is one of my "go-to" authors--someone I read when I'm not in the mood to take a risk, but just want to settle in with a good book that I know I'll enjoy. Her standalone novels are always about how a crime can twist otherwise ordinary lives. So I knew when I started AFTER I'M GONE that it wouldn't be a whodunnit or a "snatched by a serial killer" breathless suspense book. Nevertheless, I was still disappointed by the pace of this novel. There is very little sense of urgency in the i...

This book was especially intriguing. There is much at play, initially the story unfolds about Felix, who is days away from entering the penal system to serve his jail sentence that is under 10 years for fraud and other misbehaviors. Felix is a bookie and runs a strip club and as well as owning legitimate coffee shop. He is also a known among the Jewish elite in the community for giving generously to Jewish causes. When his girlfriend (and former stripper in his club is discovered dead in a heavi...

This is an intricate story about the women Felix Brewer leaves behind when he disappears in the 1970's to escape a jail sentence. The lives of his wife and three daughters are all profoundly affected by his defection, not least because of the sudden and devastating change to their lavish lifestyle. What happened to all the money? That's a mystery, but everyone assumes his beautiful mistress knows the answer - and almost ten years to the day after Felix goes, she disappears as well, seeming to co...