Audiobook Review: A Thriller in Three Parts

If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay

Narrated by: Helen Laser, John Pirhalla and Paul Dateh

Publication Date: May 28, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

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.

ARC provided by MacMillan Audio via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I was instantly drawn in to all three of the storylines and was excited to see how they were all going to connect. The three narrators do an excellent job portraying their character’s stories.

I really like it when books with multiple points of view are narrated by different readers. This makes it so much easier to keep track of whose part of the story is being told. Helen Laser does and excellent job of portraying Poppy McGee, a young sheriff’s deputy with a military background. And both John Pirhalla and Paul Dateh do a great job with the male points of view. I tried to figure out who read what part, but was unable to. Whoever read for the part of the Irish mob boss does an excellent job with the accent, as well as the Philly ones. All of the readers did an excellent job with conveying the emotions of the characters and with the complex nature of the story.

This story is told in three parts, and at first there doesn’t appear to be any connection between some of them. One part is told by Poppy McGee in Kansas as she tries to unravel the story of what happened to Allison, the girl who went missing. The second part is told by Ryan, who is off in Italy trying to escape his past and move on with his life. The third story is the one that took longer to connect to the other two, it takes place in Philadelphia and switches points of view from Shane O’Leary, the irish mob boss, and some of the people who work for him. All of the stories eventually converge into a single story of grief, revenge, and finding your way back after a tragedy.

The writing is fast paced with many twists to this multi layered story. It takes a while to get into the story, mostly I think because the Philadelphia story doesn’t seem to connect to the other two stories early on. I don’t want to say much more about the plot, though as almost everything I could say would be a spoiler. The chapters are short, but pack a punch as the story unfolds. All of the characters are well rounded with solid backstories, although the story is more plot driven than character. There is growth among some of the characters, mainly Ryan, who learns to accept what happened in the past and move on with his life. I really enjoyed reading about Poppy McGee and really hope to see her in a future novel.

This is my first book by this author, but I don’t think it will be my last. I really enjoyed his writing style and found the story to be totally engaging. I really enjoyed how one event rippled out to affect so many people in this story. If you like well written thrillers with multiple layers and well written characters, then this is one you should give a chance to.