Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed Alex Finlay to the bookstore. They’ve talked for a virtual event, but this was Finlay’s first actual appearance at the bookstore. The conversation didn’t dwell on his new book, If Something Happens to Me because they didn’t want spoilers. There are signed copies of the book in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4b6siQN.
Here’s the description of If Something Happens to Me.
From “one of the genre’s most exciting voices” (E! News) comes one of the year’s most-anticipated thrillers.
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.
ALEX FINLAY is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including the 2021 breakout Every Last Fear and the 2022 Goodreads Choice Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller The Night Shift. His work regularly appears on best-of-the-year lists and has been translated into twenty-two languages, and all of his novels have been optioned for film or television. Every Last Fear is in development for a major limited series. Alex lives in Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
Enjoy the conversation with Alex Finlay.