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    After I'm Gone
    After I'm Gone
    After I'm Gone
    Audiobook10 hours

    After I'm Gone

    Written by Laura Lippman

    Narrated by Linda Emond

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Laura Lippman, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling 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 wife, mistress, and daughters he left behind.

    When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette “Bambi” Gottschalk at a Valentine’s 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, 1976, Bambi’s comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes.

    Though Bambi has no idea where her husband—or his money—might be, she suspects one woman does: his mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she’s left to join her old lover—until her remains are eventually found.

    Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, 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 stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women. And at the center is the missing man Felix Brewer.

    Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 11, 2014
    ISBN9780062265265
    After I'm Gone
    Author

    Laura Lippman

    Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

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    Reviews for After I'm Gone

    3.5/5

    386 ratings61 reviews

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    • 4/5
      After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman is the fourth stand-alone book I have read of Lippman’s many books, and a close tie to my favorite, Life Sentences. After I’m Gone will take the reader back through time to a case, which begins in 1976, Baltimore, and alternates through the decades between a retired detective Sandy Sanchez trying to puzzle out a cold case and the lives affected by the disappearance of Felix Brewer, and then ten years to the day, his paramour, Julie. While After I’m Gone is indeed a mystery, it is also an in depth look into human nature and an intense look into the lives of family members and the relationships spanning four decades. I truly enjoyed After I’m Gone and think it is an excellent choice for any fan of mysteries and would be an excellent book discussion pick.
    • 5/5
      Very entertaining read. Laura really gets the reader involved with her characters, love them or hate them. The last chapter is really sticking with me, very memorable ending. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyable. Tess Monnahan is tied into the story in the end.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from the goodreads first read giveaway. This was my first time reading a novel by Laura Lippman and I will definitely read another. Although I am not a fan of multiple flashbacks in books I found this novel to be interesting, enoyable and easy to follow.
    • 3/5
      Felix brewer disappears in the 1970's leaving behind a wife, three young daughters, and a mistress. His mistress disappears almost 10 years to the day later. Her body is found in the woods behind his wife's childhood home almost 15 years later. The case is reopened as a cold case. Great storyline but found it confusing moving between so many characters and time periods.
    • 4/5
      Compulsively readable.
    • 4/5
      Very good book. Great characters and wonderful twists and turns.
    • 3/5
      Book was OK to read but I do not believe anywhere near as good as many of the reviewers say it was.
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars. Lippman did an excellent job weaving everything together and keeps the reader guessing. Thought there would be more shock & awe at the end a la Picoult, for example.
    • 4/5
      A recommendation for a novel full of mystery and intrigue.
      Felix Brewer marries 17 year old "Bambi" Gottschalk after meeting her at a Valentine Dance with his two friends (future lawyer and Bail Bondsman). Felix runs the numbers game and eventually gets tried and sentenced to jail. He takes off and leaves Bambi, his 3 daughters and his Mistress holding the bag. The novel is told in flashbacks from the perspective of an investigator, his Mistress (Julie), his daughters, Bambi and family friends. Julie disappears 10 years after Felix and years later her body is found. Sandy, an investigator for the Baltimore Police, reopens the cold case and begins his investigation. We find out what happens to Felix's family after he disappears, what happens to his two best friends and their families and how it all ties together in the murder of Julie. A good read. Once I got into the book, I could not put it down.
    • 3/5
      I thought this was a Tess Monaghan book and although she was in it, (kind of obliquely) I didn't like it as much as previous ones.
    • 3/5
      This was just okay for me. Maybe I shouldn't have listened to it but It just didn't grab me and keep my attention like I wanted.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed reading this book although many of the characters were unlikeable. I will read more from Laura Lippman though.
    • 4/5
      This is a difficult book to review. At first I couldn't get into the storyline. It skips between so many characters and past and present times. I had trouble getting a hold on what was going on. After it caught me, it really caught me. I was so into the twisted tale of what really happened. There were so many questions that I wanted answered. The big question is who killed the mistress. I did not know who. I kept thinking one, then another. It was a great mystery. When I found out who was guilty, I didn't see it coming. But the end really got me thinking about who wanted what, who was happy. All the actions and consequences evolved and grew, and I had trouble sleeping that night. It bothered me for a full day, lingering like a sadness. I won't forget it anytime soon, and I do recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I think she did a good job of explaining and differentiating the characters and this was an enjoyable read. The ending was a little weak but I still limes The book.
    • 4/5
      When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bambi Gottschalk 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 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, 26 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 has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from the goodreads first read giveaway. This was my first time reading a novel by Laura Lippman and I will definitely read another. Although I am not a fan of multiple flashbacks in books I found this novel to be interesting, enoyable and easy to follow.
    • 3/5
      Very involved crime mystery that keeps you on your toes. One of the culprits is from Havre de Grace lol. My first LL book. Impressive.
    • 3/5
      A little slow to get into and the time shifts are sometimes a little confusing, but overall an okay read. Good character development and the ending caught me by surprise so this should really be a 3 1/2 star rating.
    • 4/5
      Working a twenty-six-year-old cold case involving the murder of a convicted felon's mistress, retired Baltimore detective Roberto Sanchez becomes tangled up in a web of bitterness, jealousy, and greed that spans thirty years and connects five women whose lives will never be the same once the truth is exposed. Summary BPLAFTER I’M GONE felt like Book 2 of a Detective Roberto Sanchez series. I’ve checked: it’s not. But the novel could definitely use a prequel. Sanchez’ narrative always left me feeling as though I had missed something. Maybe that was the author’s intention? If so, kudos to the author/publisher because I sure would like to read more about the blonde, blue-eyed Cuban!Handsome Detective Sanchez, 50ish and semi-retired, acts as a wonderful contrast to charismatic Felix Brewer, the hub around which the five women rotate. About to be arrested for his large scale gambling activity, Felix takes off, abandoning his wife, three daughters and his mistress, Julie Saxony. Yeah, that’s the type of guy he is. While riffling through cold cases, Sanchez comes across the 26 year old file of the murdered mistress. Lippmann alternates flashbacks of Felix Brewer’s marriage and gambling heyday with Sanchez moving slowly forward with the baffling case.The Brewer women are a fascinating lot--at one point I thought they ALL killed Julie Saxony! The daughters have interesting and well developed stories of their own which was a relief as I was unable to find a place in my heart for the womanizing Felix.His acquiescent wife, Bambi, was as victimized by her youth, looks and upbringing as by her husband. I think she was still a teenager when 20-something Felix set his sights on her. Too young to see him for what he was--at the very least, a liar--at worst, a felon. Much is made of Bambi’s spectacular looks. I haven’t figured out why. Did her beauty require her to move through life with a certain noblesse oblige? I am beautiful, therefore I am above all of this? Once the children started coming, Bambi was hopelessly cemented into place as the classy wife and protective mother. No way out but to keep being beautiful and carry on.By the time Detective Sanchez solves the case, the reader has been so drawn into the Brewer family’s lives that it doesn’t seem to matter whodunnit.7.5 out of 10 Great period details with the city of Baltimore. Recommended to readers of American crime mysteries and psychological fiction.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, but the jumping back and forth between different times (past and present) was confusing at times. I did not expect the ending, so it was a good thriller.
    • 4/5
      The guy who's Gone in this book is Felix Brewer, a philanderer and successful bookmaker who in 1976 abandons his wife and daughters rather than face a Federal prison sentence. His wife Bambi is left penniless and heartbroken with the suspicion that the bulk of Felix's money went to his mistress, Julie Saxony. Ten years after Felix's disappearance, Julie's body turns up in Leakin Park. Flash forward to today, and retired cop Sandy Sanchez, working as a consultant on cold cases, probes Julie's murder.This standalone is another of Laura Lippman's mixture of hardboiled mystery and domestic drama. As always, Lippman offers an engrossing story of family dynamics that is at least as important as the whodunit. The relationship between the three Brewer daughters is particularly well-drawn; Lippman is really, really good at portraying women's feelings and relationships. I figured out the murderer pretty early, but as the murder was almost a side plot it didn't detract from my enjoyment. I wasn't as drawn to the character of Sandy, which is a shame, because I have a feeling he's going to have a series.
    • 3/5
      Laura Lippman writes mainstream crime novels, a genre I usually avoid as predictable and usually featuring the protagonist putting themselves in needless peril so as to provide a good climax for the story. Lippman's stand-alone novels don't fall into those traps, although the writing can be workmanlike. The qualities that make her novels worth reading are an ability to create three dimensional characters and to make the reader care about them, even the not very likable ones, and that Baltimore is a character in the best of her books. Lippman clearly cares about this city and knows its history and geography with the kind of detail that only someone who loves it could. In 1976, Felix, facing a few years in prison on a federal racketeering conviction, disappears instead. He leaves behind his wife and three young daughters, his friends and a serious girlfriend, who is the one who helps him flee the country. Ten years later, the girlfriend's body is found in Leakin Park, that infamous dumping ground. Nearly three decades later, a retired police working cold cases chooses that murder to look into. Going back and forth in time, and alternating point-of-views between the various characters, After I'm Gone tells the story of what happened to the girlfriend, the wife and the daughters of the fugitive. This was a fun book to read, with the history of Baltimore's neighborhoods changing through the decades was interesting. While not serious literature, or even serious fiction, After I'm Gone was an entertaining way to spend a few snowy evenings.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this book. Good ending. I'll read more by this author.
    • 1/5
      I tried but couldn't finish it. I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic or interesting enough to discover what happens to them.
    • 4/5
      After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman reminds me of an old black and white 50’s movie with a mix of love, tragedy, gangster type, with glamour, flair, money, and betrayal, for an intriguing mystery suspense-- while curling up in a mountain rustic cabin on a chilly rainy night by a fire!

      A multi-generational saga of a family bound by one man, Felix Brewer, a gambler, strip club operator, a bookie, involved in all sorts of criminal activities. Faced with jail time, he disappears and leaves his beautiful wife, Bambi, and their three young daughters in 1976. He also leaves a young mistress, Julie (no shocker here).

      Tom loves women; however, he loves Bambi and would never leave her, even though Julia was a bit more serious than some of his other flings. Bambi knew about the affairs; however, during this era with no education or skill set and knowing her husband loved her and would not leave, she stayed. However, no one could understand why Felix would disappear and not leave money to take care of his family.

      Ten years later, to the day of Felix' disappearance, Julie disappears and her body is found in a park. The case was not solved and labeled a cold case.

      Flashing back and forth from the 1950s, when Felix and Bambi Met (maybe this is where I am getting the B/W movie vibe). Their love story and then advances to the time where Bambi is lonely and waits on her husband to return home to their family. We also meet the three daughters and their different personalities all the way through adulthood and the present.

      The cold case ends up on the desk of Sandy Sanchez, twenty some years later; a Cuban, private investigator, retired police offer, and consultant for the DA’s office. Flashing back and forth from 1976 when Felix disappears, to 1991 when Julie's body turns up thru 2012, when Sandy begins his investigation. He investigates everyone in the Brewer family along with their close group of friends.

      Why, has Bambi had to live poor? Why didn't Felix leave her money so she could live in the same lifestyle as before? She finds herself going to Felix's friend Bert, a wealthy lawyer, to tide her over the rough financial times. Sandy notices there are discrepancies from every angle, from every testimony, and he is intrigued and how all of this is connected.

      Lippman does a good job in taking you down different paths to keep you guessing the identity of the killer. She does such a good job, readers will be shocked with the motives and the explosive ending. While the novel is very engaging and holds your interest, it is not fast-paced. Possibly this is due in part to the voice on the audiobook. The narrator, Linda Emond had a soft soothing voice, and enjoyed the pace, as many times with other audiobooks, it moves so fast, you can miss an important part. The author is in control of her story and it works!

      If you like a good murder mystery with a powerful and intriguing story, you will enjoy. The novel was even more intriguing based on the fact Lippman based her tale from a real-life disappearance, a fraud scandal of the 1970s, and bases Sandy on a real homicide detective, and the rest is her creative fictional imagination.

      An emotionally charged and engrossing crime thriller mystery, which spans the decades of time for an explosive conclusion and satisfying read. My first by Lippman, and enjoyed her smooth style. She digs deep into each character, with details and background, and the time periods and flash backs are smooth and easy to follow.



    • 3/5
      Joy's review: A competent and interesting mystery. Lippman has a good plot set-up with an unusual detective, a retired police detective and wannabe restaurant owner. A bit too much back and forth in time; sometimes hard to keep track of who's who. A good beach read, but pretty forgettable.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable listen, even though I figured out whodunit way before the end of the book. As with so many works of crime fiction for me, it's not so much the destination as the journey. And this is definitely an absorbing journey.
    • 4/5
      Listened for Fun (Library Book)Overall Rating: 3.50Story Rating: 3.50Character Rating: 3.50Audio Rating: 4.00 (Not part of the overall rating)First Thought when Finished: After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman was a solid story of what happens to a family after a dad disappears.Story Thoughts: I was intrigued at the premise of After I'm Gone. I thought it would be fascinating to take a look at the family of the criminal after they skip out and leave the family to pick up the pieces. The book delivered on the aftermath with the present/past storylines and a good chunk devoted to how everyone's lives were. From the wife, to the children, and finally the friends- everyone's lives were changed when the father decided to leave town. I loved seeing the "right after" and comparing it to "the now". That part I really enjoyed! However, the case wasn't all that fascinating and felt a little flat. I guessed who did it pretty early and the only thing that stunned me was the motivation. That being said, this was still a good read that I listened to in just one day!Character Thoughts: There was quite a cast of characters in After I'm Gone. I liked how Laura flushed them out and let you see the layers. I liked how you could see the influence (good and bad) on how the kids reacted and what challenges they faced as adults. I felt a few characters weren't flushed out enough (the victim and her perp) but overall these were characters that I was invested in. I wanted their lives to be better and for past hurts to be healed.Audio Thoughts: Narrated By Linda Emond / Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins Linda did a great job! I was impressed with her pacing and emotion. This is a very large cast and she does a great job differentiating each character. I will put Linda on my list of narrators to listen to.Final Thoughts: Overall a very good read! It was different and intriguing.
    • 5/5
      After I'm Gone is one of those books that grabs you from the first chapter and doesn't let go. It is very reminiscent of What the Dead Know also by Lippman. The story flips between several different times in the past and the book's present. During the entire book I'm wondering if they're ever going to reveal what really happened to Felix and I had to live in suspense the whole time. I zoomed through reading this one and had to shake myself awake just so I can keep reading because I had to know what happens next and couldn't afford to sleep. The ending wasn't at all what I expected but it was very satisfying and now I can safely say I'm a Lippman fan. After reading What the Dead Know I was super excited to read Life Sentences but that one really fell flat for me. Now I'm safely back to being a Lippman fan and will definitely be reading more of her works. I absolutely loved this book and am sharing it with all my friends. This is a must read for suspense lovers.