Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.Reminiscent of the bestsellers of Laura Lippman and Harlan Coben—with a dose of Big Little Lies or Stranger Things—an absorbing, addictive tale of psychological suspense from the author of the highly acclaimed stand-alone novel What Remains of Me and the USA Today bestselling and Shamus Award-winning Brenna Spector series, in which a seemingly … and the USA Today bestselling and Shamus Award-winning Brenna Spector series, in which a seemingly open-and-shut police case with a clear-cut hero and villain turns out to be anything but simple.
Late one night in the quiet Hudson Valley town of Havenkill, a distraught woman stumbles into the police station—and lives are changed forever.
Aimee En, once a darling of the ’80s pop music scene, claims that a teenage boy stole her car, then ran over another young man who’d rushed to help.
As Liam Miller’s life hangs in the balance, the events of that fateful night begin to come into focus. But is everything as it seems?
The case quickly consumes social media, transforming Liam, a local high school football star, into a folk hero, and the suspect, a high school outcast named Wade Reed, into a depraved would-be killer. But is Wade really guilty? And if he isn’t, why won’t he talk?
Told from a kaleidoscope of viewpoints—Wade’s mother Jackie, his younger brother Connor, Aimee En and Pearl Maze, a young police officer with a tragic past, If I Die Tonight is a story of family ties and dark secrets—and the lengths we’ll go to protect ourselves.
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Alison Gaylin keeps astonishing me. The only thing I know for certain when I pick up one of her books is that I’ll love it. If I Die Tonight continues her winning streak with its timely, twisty and utterly human take on the way we live (and die) today. One of the best crime novelists, bar none.
This was a really twisted tale of a dysfunctional family that must learn to survive some really bizarre things. I enjoyed the book because it was so twisted and had so many characters that I really wanted to know what happened to them. The main character is Wade who is accused of a terrible crime and seems to be guilty. He draws his little brother Connor into his drama, and by default their mom Jackie is included. Because of social media, the drama is more intense. As the reader, I drew many wrong conclusions way too soon. I was fooled by the opinions of everyone, but I really wanted to be wrong about Wade. I liked that I didn’t find out the truth about Wade and Connor and Liam until almost the end of the book. My favorite character was the police detective Pearl. She was a flawed character but she was intelligent and would not be stopped from following the clues to the truth. Unlike most of the characters in the book, Pearl did not immediately assume Wade’s guilt. She wanted to prove it with evidence. Readers who enjoy twisted psychological thrillers set in small towns will really enjoy this tale of a families in crisis.
Disclaimer: I borrowed this book from the library and I have received no remuneration for my honest review.
This is mind-blowing suspense from an exceptional writer.
I loved this book! The characters are so well-drawn and wonderful–each with their own secrets that motivate why they act the way they do. I love how it all comes together in the end–no detail here is “extra” or random. It all counts. Super smart and haunting. I was sad when it ended.
Mom’s and Dad’s need to pay more attention to their children and listen to what they have to say! It’s so easy for a teenager to slip away when they don’t receive the attention they need from Mom or Dad or both. Good book! It really brought home the issues of TOO MUCH time spent on phones and games instead of spending time with each other.
Loved the ending. Tied up all the loose ends in a satisfying realistic way.
It was slow going…..
This was my first book by this author, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Told through a plethora of characters we follow a story of suspense and lies that make the pages fly. With a shocking ending that I wasn’t anticipating.
loved it!
The story kept me guessing. Interesting plot.
This book was hard to figure out. I thought the bad guy was everyone but I didn’t see the end coming. I kept reading just to see what twist would happen next.
Amazing. Very suspenseful and entertaining. Great story
Good mystery and what sets it above the usual book are the thought-provoking discussions about the influence of social media and book recommendations at the end of the story.
This novel is a good solid read in which the author does a great job portraying the dynamic of a small town. A town where what the people desire to be true, and what really is true, are vastly different things. The novel is not fast paced yet, is still a page turner as the mystery ebbs at you along with the desire to validate the person being blamed for, well…in a sense… Everything. Family is another powerful main theme. From the beginning the author gives each member their own voice in the narrative. It is highly entertaining to not only learn how each person is being affected but also, to read their own thoughts and feelings on the situations and tensions that begin to spiral out of control. In the intimate community, people become narrow minded in tragic situations, judgemental, cruel, naive, hateful, and just flat out deceitful. There are no shortage of secrets and lies. The plot twists and turns into an intricate realistic story, where no character is left unscathed. Unfortunately, in tight knit places such as fictional Havenkill, success can sometimes greatly depend on your popularity, and if you fit into a clique or even the town in general.In many ways, being different or an outsider is not tolerated. When you add social media into the mix, things can get a lot more volatile, especially when rumors and gossip already spread faster than wild fire. I can definitely say Alison Galylins’ novel portrays the thoughts, feelings,truths, secrets, lies, gossip, rumors, and the panic of, before, and after tragedy; in a community where everybody knows everybody, in a realistic light. All boiling down to the painful realization that one sad tragedy, where bad choices are used and nothing is what it seems, can become an explosion that threatens to destroy the lives of everyone in the town.Especially the struggling family at the epicenter of its grip.
Favorite Quotes:
Nobody’s perfect… What gets us in trouble is when we try and pretend we are.
The bartender at Club Halifax was wearing flannel Snoopy pajama pants and a skintight tank top with a cannabis-leaf pattern. Yet still she was overdressed for this dismal place, which smelled of mold and decades-old cigarette smoke – an asthma attack waiting to happen.
I dated a guy once who wanted to know how far drive it was from Miami to Florida… He also thought Rosetta Stone was a civil rights leader. Thank God he was cute.
Mason Marx was short and squat, with mean little pig eyes and the personality of bad cheese.
… Jackie could not stand that mustache. Her eyes were drawn to it whenever Wacksman spoke, so thick and luxuriant she couldn’t help but imagine him grooming it, using a tiny tortoiseshell comb and a rack of imported oils as though it were a pet.
I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me… Such a strange expression – as though the heart were a messy closet you dug around in, forgiveness stashed in some long forgotten shoe box.
My Review:
If I Die Tonight initially appeared to be a slowly developing tale of family drama with a divorced single mother raising two teenage boys, one of which appeared deeply troubled and even more so when a tragic fatality struck the small town and it seemed a foregone conclusion that the troubled youth was involved. The characters were not immediately likable or admirable so it wasn’t a tale I was instantly sucked into, yet it held my attention and continued to draw me in. Notice I said initially, it wasn’t until the plot exploded with a confluence of twist after twist that I appreciated the subtlety and care the author had taken in crafting and planting the various elements of several mysteries that compounded and converged. The buildup was incremental and deftly devised, like a spider weaving a web. It was ingenious. I was so wrong in my hypothesis and would never have suspected the end result, and I was more than thrilled with the satisfying conclusion and reading experience. The stealthy and clever wordsmith Alison Gaylin has a new fangirl.
Havenkill is a pretty quiet town–mostly focused on its football team. So when a washed up 80s rockstar named Aimee En stumbles into the police station in the middle of the night, claiming someone carjacked her Jaguar and then ran over a teenage boy who was trying to help, it receives a lot of police and media attention. The young teen’s name was Liam–a star on the football team–and he’s quickly portrayed as a hero for trying to save Aimee and her vehicle. Suspicion turns fairly soon to another local teen, Wade Reed, a social outcast, who is vilified by his peers and the local media. His younger brother, Connor, struggles as his own friends distance themselves in the wake of Wade’s alleged actions. And Pearl Maze, a member of the Havenkill police force, who was there when Aimee arrived, isn’t sure how real Aimee’s story actually is.
The novel’s story is told via short snippets of narrative from a varied cast of characters, including Pearl, Aimee, Connor, and Connor and Wade’s mom, Jackie. It’s effective–and effectively frustrating, as you find yourself wanting to know more about what happened the night Liam died. The book sucks you in immediately via this format and its excellent, well-drawn characters. These characters are complex, as are the relationships between everyone in the novel. Nothing is as it seems, and everyone is hiding more beneath their surface (and the past). I was shocked at how well-done these interconnected relationships were and how much I wanted to keep reading. I felt such allegiances to particular characters and such distaste for others. Pearl, Jackie, even Wade and Connor–they were magnificently written and the book was just so well-done. I was really impressed by this one.
Pearl, for instance, was such a complicated character, with such a nuanced backstory. She was an excellent cop, and I found myself immediately rooting for her. She was so smart. Gaylin did a wonderful job of portraying how small towns deal with tragedy and how social media can influence opinion–and how it can affect teens. It was really powerful. As the novel wears on, you’re not exactly sure who to trust–or exactly what happened the night Liam died–and I couldn’t stop myself from obsessively turning the pages, trying to figure out what happened. Even though the novel is very character-focused, it’s suspenseful too and focused on the Liam mystery.
Overall, this was great and such a pleasant surprise. I love requesting an ARC of an author I’ve never read before and discovering such a great story. This was a suspenseful read, with an excellent, well-written cast. I’m looking forward to reading more of Gaylin’s work. 4.5 stars.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an unbiased review; more at justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com/.