Why a Booktrail?
1959, 1980s: A missing man might hold the key to a murder and an enduring mystery
After I’m Gone
What you need to know before your trail
When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette ‘Bambi’ Gottschalk at a dance in 1959, he charms her. However her world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes.
Though Bambi has no idea where her husband – or his money – might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie herself disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she’s left to join her old lover – until her remains are found in a secluded wooded park.
Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, the police are looking for answers. And the man at the centre of the mystery? Felix Brewer.
Travel Guide
Travel BookTrail style around Baltimore
This novel is inspired by the very real figure of Julius Salsbury who was the head of a large gambling operation in Baltimore in the 1970s. He was convicted of mail fraud and under house arrest while he appealed his sentence, he disappeared never to be seen again. He left behind a wife, three daughters and a girlfriend.
The author states that it was not her idea to investigate what happened to Julius but it fascinated her what might have happened to the women he left behind. The Brewer story in the novel has nothing to do with the real Salsbury family.
The character of Roberto ‘Sandy’ Sanchez is inspired by Donald Worden who was one of the great geniuses of homicide detection. He did return to work for cold cases for the Baltimore police and he helped the author with research for the novel.
The social hierarchy at Forest Park School in the 1950s was also part of the author research.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: After I’m Gone
Destination:Baltimore Author/guide: Laura Lippman Departure Time: 2000s
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