After You’ve Gone by Kay Kendall

Genre: Adult, Young Adult, Mystery, Suspense

Source: I purchased a copy.

This was a fun book to read. We start with a twenty-three-year-old character named Walter MacGregor, Wallie for short. Walter was named after her father who is a judge in Gunmetal, Texas.  Wallie, whose mother is deceased has been raised by her father with the help of her two aunts. Her favorite thing to do is read Sherlock Holmes books. That is as close as she figures she will ever get to an adventure. When her uncle Rory shows up she is very intrigued. He claims his life is in danger and he needs his brother’s help. There is definitely some contention between Rory and his older brother. It is obvious that Rory, a rum-runner is nothing like her father, the well-spoken judge. However, his lifestyle intrigues her, even if she doesn’t agree with it. There are family secrets, and a stranger watching the house. No one will talk to her about her uncle or why he left so suddenly twenty years before. When Rory is found dead, it is ruled an accident by the sheriff. Wallie doesn’t believe this was an accident. Her perceptive Aunt Ida, knowing her niece won’t let this go, proposes a trip so Wallie’s father can grieve, while secretly helping Wallie find the information she wants. But things are worse than Wallie could imagine. She and her aunt find themselves knee-deep in gangsters and women they would not usually associate with. Throw into this mix two young men who are after Wallie’s heart and you have a charming yet mysterious story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I loved this for several reasons. We start off with Wallie writing to her sixteen-year-old granddaughter about Rory. It seems that her granddaughter, Austin Starr is as curious as her grandmother was as a young lady. The time period was one I am not familiar with in books. There seems to have been a lot of research that went into this story to make it accurate. The roaring twenties was a time of prohibition and rum-runners, as well as gangsters. We get an idea through this book what life for a young woman would have been like during that time. Anytime Wallie tries to step out of the acceptable role for women she is treated like she has no brain. She holds out hope for women as they have just won the right to vote. I loved that Wallie assumes she will never marry since she doesn’t want to be reigned in by a man. The story is a remembrance of a time in Wallie’s life that provided the adventure she longed for.

The author does such a wonderful job of putting twists and turns in that I had to sit and read it from cover to cover. I could not go to bed until I had finished it. I truly had no idea who the murderer was or why until near the very end. Well done. I definitely want to read other books in this series as this was a prequel to the Austin Star Mystery series. This is a book for adults, but I would recommend it to young adults because it is a clean read with the occasional swear word.

Kay Kendall is an award-winning author of two historical mysteries. Her second book, RAINY DAY WOMEN (2015), won for best mystery and best book at Killer Nashville in August 2016. It is the second in her Austin Starr mystery series, published by Stairway Press. The first was DESOLATION ROW (2013).

In her previous career, Kay was an award-winning international PR executive, working in the US, Canada, Russia, and Europe. She has graduate degrees in Russian history and was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 

Kay and her Canadian husband lives in Houston, Texas. They’ve rescued abandoned pet bunnies for twenty years and currently have three rabbits and a bemused spaniel, Wills.