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 by several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The novel cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

Book Type:

Thriller

Review: If Something Happens To Me

A man’s traumatic past comes back to life in a twisted and terrifying turn of events.

Ryan Richardson is tormented by the most harrowing night of his life—his girlfriend, Ali, vanishing with a scream as a car door is violently wrenched open, followed by a blow to his head that renders him unconscious. For five years, suspicion of his involvement has lingered in true-crime circles. Now living under a new name and far from small-town Kansas, Ryan is stunned when Ali’s car is found submerged in a local lake, containing two dead men and a cryptic note from Ali:

“If something happens to me…”

Ryan is shocked when he comes face-to-face with the man he saw that fateful night, an encounter that sends him spiraling down unexpected paths to uncover the truth. From the picturesque landscapes of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the bustling streets of to Paris, Ryan embarks on a desperate search for answers. Meanwhile, back in Kansas, a tenacious sheriff’s deputy is piecing together clues of her own.

Finlay masterfully unravels the story through multiple perspectives, revealing how a mobster’s thirst for vengeance triggers a cascade of tragic events, leaving a wake of destruction and despair. Each twist and turn heightens the suspense and keeps the reader riveted throughout. This layered cat-and-mouse thriller delves into themes of loss, trauma, and redemption, and is sure to captivate new and avid readers of Finlay’s work.

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