After I'm Gone

This book is classified as a mystery/crime novel but in reality it is fascinating character study of the five women in Felix Brewer’s life – his wife, three daughters and mistress. I was most intrigued by Bambi’s story. It really made me think how hard it would be to be wealthy one minute and have it all suddenly taken away. She goes from a mentor to some of the newer mobster wives to being pitied by them. All of the characters are wonderfully layered and developed like Bambi. Because this IS a crime novel and written by Ms. Lippman, it has surprising twists and turns as well. I enjoyed this book on many levels. I love this author and her style and I am thrilled with her latest release.

Full disclosure: I met Laura Lippman at this year's Key West Literary Seminar, where I serve on the board. She was really nice, along with being really smart and articulate on stage. So I'm not about to give her new book a bad review -- but if I didn't like this book I wouldn't have reviewed it at all.
Reader, I liked it. I really, really liked it. Hell, I loved it.
After I'm Gone is the story of the people bookie and strip club owner Felix Brewer left behind when he disappeared rather than face a federal prison term in 1976 -- his wife, three daughters and the girlfriend who thought he might actually leave his wife and family for her (he had no such intention). The girlfriend herself disappeared 10 years after Felix -- and then her body show more is discovered 15 years later, in 2001. Retired detective Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez works cold cases as a consultant to the police and takes up the case in 2012.
Lippman jumps around in time and point of view in each chapter but it works -- mostly because each character is so interesting that you're eager to learn what he or she has to contribute to the tale. Sandy's investigation is the recurring thread that ties it all together. The story is rich and complex in the social gradations of Jewish Baltimore, in the changing social mores through the '60s through current times, and in the interior lives of each character. And on the most basic terms, it works as a plain old whodunit -- I was surprised by the solution but it made perfect sense.
It's also got a lot of really funny lines -- funny in that they hit home, not as in Carl Hiaasen funny. I especially liked Sandy's observations, like this one after he's talking to someone who tries out some police jargon: "Lord, how Sandy wished people would stop watching cop shows. Only cops should watch cop shows." show less

I always like Lippman, and this did not disappoint. Though these are classic detective novels, they have a richness, a complexity that few modern writers in the genre bother with. The story centers on a crime, a cold case, and the crime is solved, but that is just the framework for a character driven book. These characters are interesting, and surprising. Perhaps the most important narrative (much more important than the whodunit) is about money effects people, not just the obvious, but how it changes the way less rich people relate to the rich, how it dictates the power dynamic in relationships of many types, how the love of it takes away options even as it confers others. Good stuff.

3.5 stars

Started as a 3, because it had some parts that I didn't care about. But ended as a 4, tying everything together well, with just the right measure of bittersweet topping it off.

Not surprisingly, I didn't like Julie, the mistress. But I also think Lippman didn't work very hard at making her likable or complicated. In the days of moral relativism & ambiguity, it's not clear if this was a choice of Lippman's (to be more sympathetic to Felix's family), or a shortcoming on her part.

I did like that she clearly showed the damage Felix had done, both by his lifestyle & then by his absence, to these women, without being heavy-handed about it.

I'm a long time Laura Lippman fan. My favourites are the Tess Monaghan novels, but Lippman's last few books have been stand alones. The latest is After I'm Gone.

Sandy is a retired Baltimore cop, currently on contract with the BPD as a consultant, handling cold cases. When searching his files for the next case to handle, a picture of dancer Juliet Romeo falls out. and the next case is chosen.

Juliet was the girlfriend of Felix Brewer in 1976. She was found dead ten years later and her murder was never solved. Felix also had a wife named Bambi and three daughters. When the feds decided Felix was going to prison for fraud, he decided he couldn't do the time - and disappeared. He left behind the two women and three girls, all who never show more knew where he went or what happened to him. Twenty six years later Sandy re-opens the case.

Lippman's story flips from past to present and from the viewpoint of each of the women throughout the years. We're there at the beginning, meet the girls as they have grown, the women as they have aged and are with Sandy every step of the way as he explores the present, trying to find answers in the past. Although no one is very forthcoming.

Lippman has created a rich story. The characters are very real, their emotions and actions tangible. Although I wondered 'whodunit', I was just as intrigued by the lives of these women and how Felix, even when absent, affected each of their paths. The secrets, lies, loves and hopes of each character was very well portrayed and explored. But the character I enjoyed the most by far was Sandy. He too has a rich back story that fleshed out his character. He's not a super sleuth solving everything with clever (and impossible) deductions, but is instead a very human, fallible man determined to find answers. I liked his voice and his way of thinking.

I was pretty sure where the story was headed (and was quite happy about the journey there) when Lippman threw in one last twist, just to keep readers on their toes. Lippman herself lives in the Baltimore area which adds greatly to her settings and descriptions.

When I finished the last pages of the book, I stopped and wondered about someone 'disappearing'. Is it possible? Are they ever successful at staying gone? And then I read the author's notes and discovered that the novel uses the true case of Julius Salsbury as inspiration.

Devoted Laura Lippman fans will enjoy Crow's cameo (and Tess's too). By the final pages, I was thinking to myself that Sandy is a character I'd like to see more of. I may just get my wish - Lippman's next book, Hush, is due out in February 2015. show less

Facing a prison sentence in 1976, Felix Brewer flees the country and leaves behind his wife Bambi, their three daughters (Linda, Rachel and Michelle), and his mistress, Julie Saxony. Ten years later Julie goes missing and then fifteen years later, her remains are found. In 2012, Sandy Sanchez, a retired policeman now consulting on cold cases, sets out to find out who killed Julie.

The novel is a murder mystery, but it is much more than that. It is really about the effects of Felix Brewer’s cowardly decision to abandon the five most important women in his life. We learn how
Bambi and Julie managed subsequent to his departure and how his daughters were affected by having a totally absent father.

What I loved about the book is the show more characterization of the women. Each one is sharply distinct. The daughters in particular emerge as individuals with individual struggles and successes. After the initial personality development, the reader can accurately guess how each daughter will behave in a given situation. Bambi and Julie are antagonists, but Lippman succeeds in making the reader feel empathy for both of them. All the women are strong in some respects, but all are also flawed.

Appropriately for a mystery, there is considerable suspense. Narration is non-linear; the point of view of different characters is given and not necessarily in chronological order, so secrets are divulged gradually. It turns out that several people have motives. Just as the reader thinks he/she has solved the case, a new twist is introduced. In the last few chapters, the reader will several times have reached a conclusion only to discover he/she was mistaken. The final answer is satisfying.

This is an entertaining mystery with the added element of strong characterization; the mystery is made complex because of the complexity of the characters. show less

When I first read the synopsis for this novel, I mistakenly thought it would focus on Frank and his absence. As in where he went and what he was doing. I should have known better. For the most part, Lippman’s stories revolve around women and how their lives are affected by their pasts and some of those pasts have problems or incidents that stem from the men in their lives. But those incidents are just causes for how the women have to live their lives around them. They’re not the focus.

That’s what we have here. Bambi (oy that name drove me bananas) and her daughters are going forward through life as best they can without knowing much about Frank’s disappearance. The money Frank was to have left them never got to them and they show more think that his mistress took it. How else could she have afforded to become a respected business owner if not for stealing what was theirs, something she had a talent for? When she’s found dead, they still have no answers. Or money. Then Sandy Sanchez, retired police detective, decides to take on the mystery of mistresses’ death; a very cold case. He finds inconsistencies and facts that were previously overlooked. Soon the family is in uproar again.

Sandy’s narrative basically drives the novel and keeps a common thread, but the story belongs to the women. Their relationships are complex and brushed with a veneer of distrust. At least that’s what I felt from them. That they don’t quite believe any of them is telling her whole story. And that’s what helps keep us distracted until the end when the solution is revealed. Nice misdirection, Ms. Lippman. show less