The Book:
If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
Published May 28, 2024 by Minotaur Books
Date read: May 16, 2024
Find more May 2024 releases here.
If Something Happens to Me spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Ryan
Poppy
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
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.
In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told from several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The story cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.
If Something Happens to Me Spoilers
The Reveal:
Alison was still alive and her real name was Taylor. Her father was an accountant for the Irish mafia, working for a man named Shane O’Leary. Shane’s son Anthony was bullied so badly that he killed himself. Taylor didn’t directly bully Anthony, but she didn’t do anything to stop it. Michael and Taylor went into hiding from Shane O’Leary, changing her name to Alison.
Jane Fincher was the dirty agent who set Ali and her father up in Philly. She was supposed to put them in WitSec but double-crossed them to let O’Leary’s henchmen kill them.
The night that Alison disappeared from Kansas, they were on the run again, this time to Europe.
Jane Fincher was Poppy’s contact with the FBI. When Michael and Alison came back to the US, Fincher turned them over to the O’Learys again.
The Ending:
Michael sacrificed himself and ran Shane’s car off the road to kill him and Gina, presumably to protect his daughter. Chaz let Poppy, Ali, and Ryan go. Poppy got Jane arrested for impersonating an FBI agent.
Chaz got killed for his actions. Poppy ended up happy. Ryan got an internship at the public defender’s office and continued his relationship with Nora.
I hope these If Something Happens to Me spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
Apparently, I listened to 96% of this book and then just forgot to finish it until now.
Like Finlay’s previous novel Every Last Fear, the reader is taken on an international chase to get to the truth of this thriller. At the beginning there are entirely separate POVs with seemingly no overlap, but the stories start to converge in Part Two.
The short chapters hook the reader and keep the pages turning. This book is very fast-paced!
I enjoyed the story and how the reveal came together, but found Part Three to be extremely abrupt. While the loose ends are all tied up, I felt like I wanted a bit more from the climax. The epilogues effectively tell the reader where the characters all ended up, but the story jumps too quickly from action to resolution.
Follow me on Bloglovin’!
