THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

 

SYNOPSIS

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they’re also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated.

Title: The last thing he told me

Author: Laura Dave

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication date: May 4, 2021

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

When I saw The Last Thing He Told Me had won the Goodreads Choice Award for best thriller I thought I had to read it (well, listen to it), before the end of the year to check if it was worth the hype and how it compared to my vote in that category (Rock, paper, scissors), and I’m sad to say I don’t understand how it won with that margin, especially considering some of the other nominees.

I wouldn’t categorize this as a thriller at all, it was more a domestic drama with just a little bit of suspense.

The story took its time to take off. I could not understand Hannah’s lackadaisical attitude once she learns her husband is missing. At times it felt like she was thinking “well, c’est la vie…onto other things!”. In my opinion, the most interesting part was her relationship with her stepdaughter..

I felt the mystery part was a little bit forced. All the investigating she does was based on little nuggets of information that require quite a bit suspension of disbelief. Some things seemed they came out of nowhere just so the story could move on. Although not completely believable, it still kept me interested enough to keep on listening to it.

I gotta say I did not like the resolution at all! It was drawn along quite a bit and I thought it was completely unrealistic. I didn’t buy Hanna’s sudden “savior complex” at all!

The writing was good and it had some nice character development, but the delivery fell flat for me and some plot points were too far fetched. Good and readable but nothing memorable.