Book Review: If Something Happens to Me

• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
• Publication Date: May 28, 2024
• Author: Alex Finlay
• Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
• Page Count: 336

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Blurb

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.

---

My Thoughts & Opinions

Having enjoyed Finlay’s first two novels, I jumped at the chance to read his latest offering. But like Finlay’s third novel, I found If Something Happens to Me a bit disappointing.

Similar to Finlay’s third novel, What Have We Done, I found If Something Happens to Me too gimmicky. I mean an assassin in the last novel, and now an Irish Mob boss seeking deathly revenge for an accidental suicide. Really?

The novel started with a cliffhanger. But as the story unfolded, it became a tedious read with confusing timelines. And I didn’t quite catch on to the multiple aliases of a couple of the characters until close to the end. So unlike Finlay’s style where the multiple storylines converge at the end for a surprising conclusion, If Something Happens to Me didn’t have any surprises and the conclusion was lukewarm at best.

Hopefully, Finlay’s next novel will be as good as his first two novels. But his latest, If Something Happens to Me, just didn’t cut the mustard. Two okay stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

---