If you're looking for a twisty page turner, look no further. Finlay's If Something Happens to Me checks all the boxes: short chapters that keep you going late into the night, cliffhangers galore, multiple locations, characters you care about.

I devoured this one. Couldn't put it down.

There is a Lovers Lane, a Mike Ehrmantraut like character, an old mystery / cold case, a twelve year old true crime podcaster, encryption, and one epic car chase escape scene. On the downside, there 's a pretty horrific depiction of bullying that was tough to read.

When you're wondering how all the pieces fit, they all come together. Go into this one cold, the payoff is worth it.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books for the ARC. I'll be adding Alex Finlay to the list when looking for my next twisty thriller.

I just finished If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay and here is my review.

Ryan Richardson has spent 5 years going over what happened that night. The night when his girlfriend Ali was abducted from his car. The feel of the hands pulling him from the car and the pain that filled his head. Ali is presumed dead even without her body and the suspicion is all on Ryan, the last person to have seen her.

Even after he changes his last night and goes to law school, he cannot move past what happened that night. It all comes to a head when Ryan takes a trip to Italy with his class. Not only has Ali’s car been found in the lake with 2 dead bodies in it, neither of them hers and a note in her purse in a cypher Ali used…. If something happens to me… is the chilling clue.

Still reeling from that bombshell Ryan then sees a man everyone told him didn’t exist… The monster… The man that haunts his dreams… The man who took Ali. Not wanting him to get away Ryan follows him to the UK where things go from bad to worse.

You know when you pick up a Finlay book, you are in for a wild ride and this book did not disappoint. The book is loaded with twists!

The book is written in the present day and the past where we get the story of a mob boss who loses his son when kids bully him at his new school and he commits suicide and the aftermath of it.

Present day includes Ryan and a new deputy to the police force trying to figure out what happened to Ali that night and everyone has their secrets and you never quite know what you can trust. It’s brilliant. I loved every single moment.

It makes perfect sense when you get to the end of the book because you never really understand why these stories are connected until that ah-HA moment!

The plot was great and the characters were well rounded. I found myself holding on to the edge of my seat.

Highly recommend this thriller! 4.5 stars

Thank you to @minotaurbooks and @netgalley for my gifted copy

#ifsomethinghappenstome #alexfinlay #thriller #thrillerreader #thrillerreads #newrelease #minotaurbooks #netgalley #kindlereader #readingonthego #bookreview #readerreview

Thank you to St Martin's Press/ Minotaur Books for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A teenage couple are attacked one night, the young girl is dragged from the car never to be seen again. Ryan's life changes forever and the only thing that saves him from a prison term is the lack of evidence of his involvement, as well as a competent lawyer. He may have been cleared but he lives with the backlash of people who believed he got away with murder. Ali haunts his life everyday and he can't let go of what really happened to her.
After changing his name to regain some anonymity and attending law school, his life is upended again with the discovery of Ali's car in a lake.
The past jumps right back into Ryan's present, sending him on a mission to find out what really happened that night and who is responsible.

Great thriller with so many levels of deception that the twists will leave you dizzy with questions, needing to find the answers.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press Minotaur books, and Alex Finlay for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

@alexfinlayauthor
@netgalley
@stmartinspress

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s been five years since that horrible night when Ryan’s girlfriend Ali was taken. He remembers the car door yanking open, a crushing blow to the head which makes him unconscious, and Ali’s piercing screams. When he wakes up Ali and her car is gone which leaves a cloud of suspicion over Ryan. He is never charged due to no proof. He enters law school and changes his last name in hopes of leaving the past behind. Ryan goes on a trip to Italy with his law-school classmates and gets a call from his father that Ali’s car has been found. It was 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...

I have read other books by Alex Finlay and this one was great! I really enjoyed the multiple points of view, short chapters, intricate plot, and the characters. I love his writing style and the way the story all came together!

#stmartinspress #alexfinlay #netgalley #netgalleyreads #ifsomethinghappenstome #read #bookishlove #bookstagram #bookworms #booklover #readmore #tbr #thrillerbooks

Wow!! What a great, fast paced thriller! The chapters are short and jump from different POV"s which just make it 'unputdownable'. I couldn't figure out the connection between the different characters and them BAM...the twist! I highly recommend this one and all of Alex Finlay's previous books.

This book had me hooked from the first page and didn’t let go until the end! I’ve read almost all of Alex Finlay’s books and this one is seriously his best yet!

If you are a big fan of multiple pov books, you need to check this one out. He created 3 seamless stories with 3 awesome characters. Poppy was my favorite and I hope we get more stories with her. Every time one characters story would end, he left it on the most perfect cliffhanger where I was dying to get to their next chapter.

I did guess how they all intertwined and who was who, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the story. He was still able to throw in a couple curve balls I didn’t see coming! I also really loved how it covered most of Europe. I felt like I was on a trip with these characters (minus the hitman aspect).

Also, do you know why all of Finlay’s books have some sort of lawyer in them? Because that’s his day job! I absolutely love seeing how that pops up in his books. They do say to write what you know!

All in all, I really enjoyed this one and it was a great way to wrap up my reading for May. I give it 5/5 stars!

Alex Finlay is becoming an auto buy author for me, I loved this book! I really enjoyed the multiple POVs from the deputy Sheriff, a mobster and the mobsters accountant and Ryan's POV in Italy. This story is fast paced and cinematic with a twist I did not see coming!

Thank you to @Minotaurbooks for the #gifted copy of the book.

I love Alex Finlay's books and this one was no different. It was another fast paced thriller. Ryan's high school girlfriend Ali is abducted while they are together. Everyone thinks he did it. He tries to move on with his life, but he never is fully able to put the past behind him. It isn't until Poppy McGee returns to town and becomes a deputy sheriff that Ali's dad's car is found at the bottom of the lake. She is determined to find out what happened to Ali. The truth is too close to home. Can Poppy protect the ones she loves? Can Ryan handle the truth?

Thank you so much @macmillan.audio for the complimentary audiobook and @netgalley and @minotaur_books for the #gifted DRC!

Totally bingeable! This is my third Alex Finlay novel and he hasn’t let me down yet! If Something Happens to Me is the first of his that I listened to on audio, and the narrators Helen Laser, John Pirhalla, and Paul Dateh were excellent. The multiple narrators also helped me to always know whose POV I was listening to at any point which can sometimes be a struggle for me on audio. Short chapters kept the pace moving at breakneck speed, and I felt the tension from start to finish. I so enjoyed trying to connect the dots and figuring out how the story would wrap up. Are parts of this a little OTT? Yes, and I loved it! I can imagine this as a movie. I am looking forward to whatever Finlay comes up with next.

I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller/mystery! I personally love multiple POVs, dual time-lines, and a keep-you-intrigued-and-guessing -and this book had it all! Alex Finlay's new releases will definitely have a place in my TBR queue.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book and was excited to have the chance to do so. This is my third book from Alex Finlay, so I'm familiar with his writing style and know what to expect from his work.

Our story starts with Ali's abduction, and Ryan's life after, as he faces life with a new name, and tries to move past the accusations that he was involved in her disappearance. He's started law school and is traveling abroad for his law journal. But then Ali's car is discovered in a lake near their hometown in Kansas and his life is thrown into a tailspin all over again.

As the new deputy in town, Poppy McGee is assigned to oversee tips in the newly reopened cold case. As she digs deeper, she starts questioning old friends and starts realizing that she has to look within her own department and family.

I did enjoy this book overall, but I did have some issues with it. The first was that Poppy McGee's past is alluded to, but we don't really get the deep dive, which made me wonder why it was even mentioned. I assume this was building up her reputation as a character who would take the time to dig in and make sound judgments, but it fell a bit flat for me.

If you've read What Have We Done by Alex Finlay you've already met Shane O'Leary and his men. Seeing them in this book gives the reader a very clear idea of where the story is going.

The biggest "twist" comes around the 50-60% mark of the story. I love it when an author does this because it's unexpected and can really shock the reader; I personally like that. However, in this case, the twist revealed too much and because I had already met some characters in another story, it made the last part of the book somewhat hard for me to be invested in. It felt more like loose ends were being tied up versus getting more of the story.

There are some other twists later in the story, but nothing that feels vital to the story.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. I think if there had been a few characters eliminated, and some more character development on others, this story would have felt more satisfying overall.

I've read other Finlay books that I have loved. I liked this one but didn't love it.

The premise was great. It just dragged on a little too long for me. There was more of a crime family aspect to the story than I had thought there would be. That isn't really my thing. I was very interested in what happened to Ali that fateful night and was somewhat surprised when it was revealed. I found myself confused often as there are so many characters and different timelines. Short chapters and the need to find out what happens kept me reading.

I just don't think this was the book for me with so much mobster type drama.

Thanks to netgalley and Minotaur Books for the arc.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book. That’s now two Finlay books in a row that didn’t do it for me. I’m thrilled that so many people love his work, but I may need to take some time apart.

I read this less than a month ago and already I forgot almost everything except my major gripes. There’s one trope used here that always grinds my gears.

Credit where credit is due: there was a really well-executed twist, and it’s VERY bingeable!

At the end of the day, it was largely unmemorable and just not my cup of tea.

definitely not for me - i think it's high time i give up on trying to make alex finlay books work for me. they just do not have a writing style that appeals to me.

I thought I was a love it or hate it person when it comes to Finlay, but this one fell in the middle for me! I found the multiple perspectives to slow down the pacing at first, but ultimately it came together for me.

This is my first Alex Finlay book thanks to an advanced copy from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This mystery starts when a popular high school student, Allison, gets abducted. Five years later, Allison's high school boyfriend Ryan, is in Italy with a group from his Georgetown Law school. Ryan has changed his name not wanting anyone to know about the past that's been haunting him as he was a chief suspect in Allison's disappearance. Poppy McGee returns to her hometown as a deputy sheriff when Allison's car is found in a local lake with two unknown dead men strapped to the front seat. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, we follow the ruthless head of a crime family and his story. Taking us from Kansas and Philly to the UK, Italy, and the south of France, Finlay leads us through a propulsive plot that weaves all these characters and stories together beautifully. Just released last week, this one is hard to put down, and a great read that I highly recommend. Vive le Francophile

Alex Finlay does it again. I have loved every single book from him and this is no exception. I love the multiple POVs, the short chapters that keep you engaged and the way he writes. This is definitely thrilling and kept me on the edge of my seat. The way the story comes together is amazing!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC.

Devoured this book in one sitting ... fast paced ... lots of sneaky twists ... good character development ... Story line was believable ... could it happen? Probably not, but boy it was fun reading it.

Definitely recommend and plan to read more by Alex Finlay.

This book definitely starts out as a series of seemingly unconnected events and people that finally weave together for about half of the book. It wasn’t a bad story it was just like um what? Once you even get how all the pieces fit it’s still like what? I suppose the moral of the story is be nice to people because things you do even at 14 years old can come back to bite you and some people will invest way too much time and effort into revenge that it will ultimately end in their demise. And sometimes innocent people get dragged down into a sea of nonsense for absolutely no reason. Basically that’s what happened... oh right and never underestimate an accountant.

I have to admit to being confused throughout a lot of this book. There were timelines that I thought were happening now but weren't and there were so many characters involved. It did end very nicely and came together perfectly.