Review – What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

Posted June 30, 2021 by Carole in Reviews / 5 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review – What Remains of Me by Alison GaylinWhat Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin
Narrator: Ann Marie Lee
Published by HarperAudio, William Morrow on February 3, 2016
Genres: Crime, Fiction, Psychological, Suspense, Thrillers
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes
Format: ARC, Audiobook, eBook
Source: Library, Publisher
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four-stars

Nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s got a drawer somewhere with something hidden in it.

On June 28, 1980, Kelly Michelle Lund shoots and kills Oscar-nominated director John McFadden at a party in his home. For years, speculation swirls over the enigmatic seventeen-year-old’s motives. Convicted of the murder, she loses her youth and her freedom—but keeps her secrets to herself.

Thirty years later—and five years after her release from prison—the past has come back to haunt Kelly. Her father-in-law, movie legend Sterling Marshall, is found in a pool of blood in his home in the Hollywood Hills—dead from a shot to the head, just like his old friend John McFadden.

Once again, Kelly is suspected of the high-profile murder. But this time, she’s got some unexpected allies who believe she’s innocent of both killings. But is she?

I thought that this book was really well done. I have had this book for years but somehow never got around to reading it until now. I thought that story was really interesting and I couldn’t wait to see how things would work out. I am so glad that I finally decided to make this book a priority.

There are really two main mysteries in this book. As a teenager, Kelly Lund shot and killed a famous Hollywood director. She went to jail for twenty five years and has been free for the past five years when her father-in-law is found dead. Kelly is immediately a suspect in the new murder but there are questions about what really happened when she was a teen. It was really interesting to go back and see what happened in the past and its impact on everyone connected to the events.

I think that the two timelines worked really well to tell this story. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing throughout the book. I wanted to know all of the secrets that this group of characters were keeping from each other and I couldn’t wait to find out what really happened to both of the men that were murdered. There were a lot of layers to the story and smaller questions to be answered that kept things really interesting.

I believe that this was the first time that I have listened to Ann Marie Lee’s narration work. It did take me just a bit to adjust to her reading but I ended up really enjoying her narration. I thought that she brought a lot to the story and handled the voices for the different characters very well. I feel like her narration added to my overall enjoyment of this story and wouldn’t hesitate to listen to her work again in the future.

I would recommend this book to others. I found this to be a rather complex mystery that captured my attention early on and never let go. I definitely plan to read more of Alison Gaylin’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from William Morrow via Edelweiss and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.

5 responses to “Review – What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

  1. That sounds interesting. Mysteries like this intrigue me. I kinda hope she did the first murder because sitting in prison for 25 years for something she didn’t do would be awful.