After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman
★ ★ ★ ★ 

One day Felix Brewer started his morning like many men do. He kissed his wife and daughters goodbye, headed out the front door, and mysteriously disappeared. As time goes by, Felix’s daughters grow and his wife, Bambi struggles to give her daughters all the designers and events she thinks they deserve. Felix’s mistress, Julie, takes the coffee shop he left her and turns it into a successful inn and an attempt at a restaurant as well. That is, until Julie disappears. Everyone assumes she left to join Felix. Then her body is found with a bag containing her passport, barren and completely void of stamps. Now Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez is trying to find out what exactly happened to Julie. And as he discovers all the secrets and twists that have been a part of all the lives of the women left behind…maybe he can find the killer and where Felix went too.

This book was a random add for me. I just saw it on a list somewhere and thought it was worth giving it a try. I’m so glad I did. This book had a lot of elements that I really enjoyed. I love books that switch between multiple points of view and this book manages many transitions amongst a very diverse cast of character without ever becoming confusing or causing a “now who was this again” headscratch. This diverse cast makes it very easy to connect with different characters and creates many different opportunities to view the same conflicts from different angles. Laura Lippman also managed to create a story that shows development in all of her characters, despite the large amount of them. Even better, the majority of her characters were strong and wonderfully flawed women.
I’m not usually a huge fan of mysteries, but this book was refreshing in that there were other goals in the story besides just figuring out who killed the stripper. This is a really good book for those of you who are looking for a good book but don’t really have an idea of what to read. You can trust this book not to waste your time.