I felt like it was a little predictable however then the book started to pull me in. I liked the characters and the way the story was developing. I never read anything by this author so I was a bit hesitant in the beginning but found out after I finished the book that I need to read more of his work.

After Paula's husband Thomas passes away from a heart attack, people come crawling out of the woodwork to try to access money that he has hidden away. One of the people believes that Thomas was responsible for her brother's death. Luckily, Paula has the support of Thomas' two brothers and her sister-in-law to get through. It turns out though that they complicate things. This book kept me guessing until the end and I definitely ended up blindsided. However, this book drug on and just seemed to crawl. I almost stopped reading several times as it just felt really repetitive and overall really boring in parts. This was definitely not a favorite, but not terrible. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Twists and turns.

This books took me on some twists and some turns - some maybe slightly unbelievable but I enjoyed the ride. I have not read anything by this author yet but I will be checking out some more of this works.

Thank Net Galley and Trafalgar Square Publishing for the ARC and introducing me to a new author.

This story took me by surprise. I read some, then put it down for awhile. I tried again, once you get through a few dull/flat parts it's really great.

Paula’s husband, Thomas, has just unexpectedly passed away and at his funeral a young woman tells her that he is not the man she thought he was. As Paula is navigating through her grief, she is unwinding a mystery that goes back to the death of her son, seven years earlier.

This had all the elements of a great mystery but it fell a little flat for me. There was a twist at the end but it was a bit predictable.

This was an interesting read, there was a point in the book that I nearly gave up on it. I was encouraged by the fact that I know the author to be a great author, and in the end it paid off.

Paula Gadd's husband dies just days from the anniversary of their son's death. At the funeral a young woman slips a note into her pocket- one that suggests her husband hadn't been all she thought he was. This begins a twisty, dark, disturbing, and sometimes slow thriller.

I think it could have used a bit more action, but overall.....

3.5/4 stars.

When I first started this I reached a certain point where it felt predictable so I put it away. Then I caught a review on Goodreads that had me going back to it.

I’m reading it as prerelease so I try to overlook typos and small flaws as well as a very hard to read format when reading on my kindle app. My goodness it was like reading a very long poem. Everything was centered in a verse style and italic. None of the setting could compensate but I stuck with it.

The story does have a few downs one is the big reveal. So many twists and turns in one scene that I couldn’t really keep it straight. It could have been spaced out a bit more.

The wife is grieving but even still she seems overly naive and gullible. There isn’t much back story on her but I got the impression that before her husband’s death she might have been formidable but now she is in denial and doesn’t seem to have any natural instincts. Nonetheless you can’t help but hope she’s not involved.

I was delighted with the ending. Also delighted with another dialect of English. I mostly read UK novels so British English is quite easy for me to follow but the English here was a challenge and I enjoyed it. There were many names of places and streets that I hadn’t a clue how to pronounce but overall it was fun.

This book is worth the time spent reading it. If you set it down, you might consider picking it back up. You won’t see it coming when it hits you.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for allowing me the privilege of reading.

You need to know who your husband really was... When Paula Gadd’s husband of almost 30 years dies, just days away from the seventh anniversary of their son Christopher’s death, her world falls apart. Grieving and bereft, she is stunned when a young woman approaches her at the funeral service, and slips something into her pocket. A note suggesting that Paula’s husband was not all that he seemed. When the two women eventually meet, a series of revelations challenges everything Paula thought she knew, and it becomes immediately clear that both women’s lives are in very real danger.


This was a good thriller. Very fast paced and addictive. After losing her son a few years prior and now her husband Paula is barely holding herself together. Paula then finds out that her husband is not who she really thought he was and tries to investigate and learn. This book kept my attention and was very intriguing.

A bit hard to read the dialog but got the hang of it after a while (after I realized it took place in Scotland it made more sense lol), didn't care too much for characters but overall a good book with some great twists!

After He Died opens at the funeral of Paula Gadd's husband of nearly thirty years, Thomas. Paula is almost completely overcome with grief, not only for her seemingly fit husband's death by heart attack, but for the loss of her only child, Christopher, nearly seven years before by hit-and-run. Paula's life has been built entirely around both son and husband, and she has no idea what she will do. The service is packed with mourners, mostly business associates of Thomas, but few who have any real connection to Paula. Thomas' older brother, Bill, and his wife, Daphne are there, but that relationship is distant, at best. Paula's only real support is that of Thomas' other brother, a Catholic priest, Father Joe. What little composure she has is cracked when a young woman approaches and whispers in her ear, "You need to know who your husband really was.", slips a note in Paula's pocket and moves away quickly. It takes several boozy days and an odd visit from Thomas' business partner, Kevin Farrell, who is carrying a palpable air of desperation to prompt her to call the number on the young woman's note. She is Cara Connelly, who comes from the slums of Glasgow and has raised herself to the position of a social worker in those same slums. She accuses Thomas of being an organized crime lord, and of a horrific crime. Paula dismisses this out of hand, but events conspire to make her and Cara uneasy partners to find the truth. Paula begins to see that she and Thomas had drifted apart since Christopher's death, especially in the last two years. Always a hard worker and very successful, Thomas was a full-blown workaholic at the end. Could Thomas have actually hidden a secret life from her?

I admit that when I requested a galley of After He Died, I had the mistaken impression that it was from North Carolina author, Michael Malone, whose books I have also enjoyed. That was a fortunate mistake for me. After He Died is a real page-turner, with fleshed out characters to both like and hate. Paula is someone I understand and empathize with, despite a tendency to ignore coincidences that would be red flags to anyone thinking straight. Paula, however, is so sunk in grief and denial that it takes a while for her to see facts for what they are. Cara, on the other hand, is so confident of what she knows, and so resentful of the "moneyed classes" she becomes blind in her own way. Both are complicated and ultimately likable women caught up in events, not of their making.

I highly recommend After He Died for fans of psychological suspense. Thanks to NetGalley and Trafalgar Square for a digital copy. The opinions are my own

Paula Gadd is attending her husband's funeral when a young woman walks up, hugs her, and hands her a note. Then she leaves. The note suggests that her husband was not the man she thought he was.

Losing her husband of almost 30 years was bad enough, but she had also lost her son just a few years ago and practically on the same date. And now someone has placed doubts in her mind about her husband.

When Paula meets the young woman, she expected to be told that her husband had had an affair. But what she's told is something worse ... much worse. And they are both in danger.

This is a well written psychological thriller. It's an action packed page turner with finely drawn characters. There are twists and turns that appear out of nowhere. Some characters have dark terrible secrets in their pasts that they don't want anyone to know. Sometimes they kill someone close to them ....

Many thanks to the author / Trafalgar Square Publishing - Orenda Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Trafalgar Square Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This is a page-turning, entertaining novel. It kept my attention and was a quick read. However, there were a couple of things that kept me from rating this higher.

First, as much as I wanted to keep reading to resolve the plot, I felt like the characters become caricatures by the end. It was hard for me to take the action seriously or to care much about the characters. The second thing that was a bit of a bother was the too-heavy, overt emphasis on the class divide that Scotland (and all of the UK as well as the US) is facing. I totally agree with the author's POV here and like the way he used the narrative to remind us that this is a real problem. However, the naturalistic approach Malone utilized combined with the plot itself worked well. It became literally and figuratively clear that this novel was highlighting a world that gives little opportunity to the perpetual underclass while the "haves" can get away with murder (literally). What was not effective were the continuous references in the narrative to how much the protagonist has and how little so many others have. In this case, less means more and using the characters to consistently point out class discrepancies became a bit tedious and served to make me not really like any of the characters.

Having said all of that, I do recommend the novel. It was less literary than thriller. But if that's what you're looking for, you might find this enjoyable.

After He Died by Michael J. Malone is the first book I've read by this author and it did not disappoint! I love a great thriller and this fulfilled my desire for one! I couldn’t put the book down and had to find out what the heck happened! There were plenty of twists and turns and just when I thought I knew what was going on I was thrown for a loop! Bravo Mr. Malone! Can’t wait to read more of your stories! Thank you NetGalley and Trafalgar Square Publishing for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed it immensely. Great little thriller. Kept me engaged. Loved, loved the ending. I highly recommend this author if you are new to him. He has several books, all brilliant.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book, it was fantastic. Very engrossing, and thought provoking. Makes you really question what you think you know (about your significant other)... I would gladly read more by this author. Very well done!

Thank you Netgalley, the author, and publisher for a copy of this book.

After He Died is a mystery / psychological thriller written by Michael J Malone, and happens to be my first male author in this genre so I was excited to see how it compared to the female method of storytelling in this particular field.
This book follows two women who come into contact at Paula's husbands funeral. Paula soon realizes nothing is what it seems as her and Cara navigate her newly-widowed life and try to uncover the truth behind her family and the lives her family touched over the years.
Overall I enjoyed this one. It was easy to get lost in and have time get away from you, especially after the 25-30% point. It has all the elements you'd expect from the mystery / thriller genre, with a little twist that I haven't seen yet.

This book was fast paced and very exciting! It was beautifully written and full of drama! This was a great reading experience.

I received a free e-copy of After He died by Michael J. Malone from NetGalley for my honest review.

Paula Gadd has just lost her husband. This on top of loosing her son a few years before. She is questioning life itself. Then she meets Cara. Cara has also lost a loved one; she has lost her brother. Paula and Cara end up developing a close bond. But soon Paula discovers that the events that have taken place are connected.

Strange people keep turning up in her life and then secrets start to unfold. She learns secrets that her husband wasn't who she thought he was.

This was a good book but was a bit of a slow burn. I stuck with it wanting to know the truth and am glad I did but I feel like the book could have used a bit more action.

Paula is rocked by the sudden death of her husband Thomas. They had been together since she was 16 and he was 19 and were weeks from their thirtieth wedding anniversary. A note slipped into Paula's pocket at the funeral and a whispered allegation shakes her foundation. After strange behaviour from her husband's business partner, a series of calls with only breathing on the other end of the line, and witnessing the hacking of her computer remotely, Paula begins to take the note seriously and calls the number. She doesn't believe what Cara tells her, but they both quickly realize they are in more danger than they ever realized.

This was an intense book that I hated to put down. Paula is reeling from the losses of both her husband and her son a few years previously. Now she has to reconcile the life she's always known with the information she is getting from others. Then the people she trusts are acting strangely and she can't figure out why. Each scrap of answer she finds seems to lead to more questions and mysteries. And while I suspected some of what was involved, I never guessed the whole answer of "whodunit?" 

This is an engrossing read that keeps the reader engaged and guessing the entire time.

DNF - 26% - will not be included in my 2019 reading challenge.

This story just took a turn that I don't care for so I'm throwing in the towel. Michael J. Malone is a terrific writer so please don't let this review sway you. This one just wasn't for me.