If Something Happens to Me

By Alex Finlay

The 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.”

The Review –

Imagine going through the worst experience of your life, losing someone you care about in the blink of an eye. Having to live for half a century with the guilt of not being there to protect her, and then you finally get the motivation to start living your life again; once you get on a vacation you see the man who is involved in your kidnapping. It’s like a swift kick in the tail feeling. I felt the pain throughout this book of how Ryan has to deal with day to day stressors, but then has to confront the person who was involved in Alisen’s disappearance. The characters show a lot of bravery trying to find out what happened to her that night. They touched on a young male having a true crime podcast, I wish they would have incooperated more of that into the book. Maybe they can have a part 2 where they have the podcast and Poppy trying to figure out another case. Very quick ending to tie everything together, but it made sense of her going missing and people being followed/harassed.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5!