The Last Thing He Told Me

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is an outstanding missing person story that has an ending I did not expect but which I love. Because the suspense element is not enough, it is a bittersweet story about family, love, and sacrifice. Hannah’s attempts to befriend Bailey are perfect, as are Bailey’s snubs. Ms. Dave must have a sixteen-year-old at home because I found Bailey way too similar to my own daughter at times. Their tentative bond is poignant, as is Hannah’s protection of Bailey at all costs. I was already a huge fan of Ms. Dave, but The Last Thing He Told Me convinced me I need to go back and read everything of hers I missed.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is a 2021 Simon & Schuster publication.

This book got lots of ‘buzz’ last year, was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, and an instant NYT bestseller. Naturally, I added it to my TBR list… but it took me over a year to finally get around to reading it, but boy was it worth the wait!!

The story grabbed my attention immediately, but I couldn’t have guessed how engrossing, smart and ell-plotted the book would be, or how emotional it would become…

Hannah and her teenage stepdaughter, Bailey, are having trouble adjusting to one another, though Bailey’s father, Owen, insists his daughter will eventually come around. So far, though, Hannah's hasn't been able to win her over...

But then Owen, show more only barely manages to get a brief, simple message to Hannah, sending her a note which read ‘protect her’- obviously referring to Bailey. With that, he proceeds to vanish- seemingly because his employer runs afoul of the law.

But his possible culpability is the least of their worries, and suddenly Hannah and Bailey must work together, whether Bailey likes it or not, if they hope to find Owen, battling unknown forces in their quest to uncover the truth…

The suspense is palpable, the mystery deep and compelling. The plotting is tight, the pacing so pitch perfect it was impossible to put this book down.

But the story reaches out further than the mystery/thriller elements to create a mother/daughter bond that beyond all else is the cornerstone of the story-

And is ultimately the most rewarding pay- off.

Overall, this book did indeed live up to the hype. As 2022, with one or two notable exceptions, has mainly served up stale, lukewarm offerings in the thriller category, thus far, I was relieved to discover I had an ace in the hole with this one. Highly recommend!!

5 stars show less

As Laura Dave’s taut thriller, The Last Thing He Told Me, begins, Hannah Hall is unable to contact Owen Michaels, her husband of one year. Owen has managed though to smuggle a note to Hannah that says only, “Protect Her.” The message, Hannah realizes, refers to Bailey, Owen's 16-year-old daughter from his first marriage, who has resisted accepting Hannah into her life and resents having to share her father with his new wife. But “protect her”? From what? As the story proceeds, Hannah’s initial confusion and distress are magnified when news reports suggest that there is some nefarious motivation behind Owen’s disappearance. Owen is a software developer for a successful tech firm called The Shop, and his boss has been show more arrested on suspicion of running a financial scam and cheating investors. Hannah trusts Owen with her life and is convinced he is innocent of any financial fraud. But if he is not complicit in whatever is going on at The Shop, why has he gone into hiding? And why did he conceal a duffel bag full of cash in Bailey’s school locker? Then Hannah learns that The Shop has been under investigation for months, and a U.S. marshal who accosts Hannah causes her further anxiety with hints that Owen has been lying to her all along and is not the man she thought he was. From this point, Dave’s cleverly constructed novel ramps up the tension when Hannah and Bailey head out to find Owen and look into his mysterious past. Laura Dave’s heroine, Hannah Hall, is a supremely attractive protagonist: resourceful, thoughtful, caring, independent. The layered mystery of Owen’s disappearance is only one thread of the story: the reader also becomes invested in the evolving relationship between Hannah and Bailey, thrust together under fraught circumstances and forced to work together toward a common goal. The narrative moves at breakneck speed, is filled with twists and turns that keep the reader guessing, and along the way introduces peripheral characters who serve a variety of plot functions but also generate interest as individuals. The bittersweet resolution is satisfying and resists the sentimentality to which it could easily have fallen prey. Laura Dave’s sixth novel is a solid entertainment, suspenseful and engaging from start to finish. Her writing is tight and polished. It may be obvious that The Last Thing He Told Me is a novel written with the big screen in mind, but fans of suspense fiction won’t be disappointed. show less

Yet another book that was popular that I thought would be overrated. It's not. I was immediately hooked and then pleasantly surprised when it wasn't this perfect wrapped up bundle at the end. It left me feeling sad but also happy (?) and then confused that both of those feelings are living in the same bubble.

I really enjoyed the style of writing - like storytelling but not so much background information that it became disjointed from the present moment. It was skillfully looped in and intriguing. There were obviously some things in here that were not believable or good, but for me personally, it didn't take away from the story. It gave me Jason Bourne vibes and I'm down for it.

I don't normally write down quotes from fiction books, but show more these stood out to me:

"This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn't with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again. And you see it with a stark quality: This is what is required of you now, just to get along."

"In one way or another, this is the deal we all sign when we love someone. For better or worse. It's the deal we have to sign again and again to keep that love. We don't turn away from the parts of someone we don't want to see. However quickly or long it takes to see them. We accept them if we are strong enough. Or we accept them enough to not let the bad parts become the entire story" show less

This was a hard-to-put-down suspense novel built on a foundation of family drama. Owen marries Hannah, and she moves in with him and his teenage daughter Bailey. They live in a floating home in Sausalito, just outside of San Francisco (about 10 minutes from where I actually live, so that was fun). They’ve been together happily for a year when Owen suddenly disappears without a trace. He leaves both Hannah and Bailey cryptic notes and a bagful of thousands of dollars. He doesn’t come home or answer his phone, and no one can locate him. The tech company Owen works for is accused of fraud and the FBI and a US marshal are both looking for him. Suddenly all Hannah and Bailey have are each other, and a painful sense of loss as they show more realize they have a lot of questions about Owen – not only where he is, but who he is.

This is a well-written, tensely plotted mystery that explores love, trust, and family. It’s the type of novel that will have you asking what you would do in a similar situation. I liked the way the plot began almost immediately and pulled me right into the story. Each character was believable, especially 16-year-old Bailey. Even with only small tidbits of clues, Hannah is smart enough to make connections. I appreciated the very real observations about grief and loss, good and evil, secrets and truth. I highly recommend this novel. show less

Wow, wow, wow! I had to take a moment to collect my thoughts on this one. I listened to this on audio and I was immediately hooked and I couldn’t stop listening. Typically in an audiobook I become distracted in the middle and have to rewind, well this book it held my attention the entire time! The twists and turns kept coming and I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.

Hannah, married to Owen, is a stepmom to 16 year old Bailey answers a knock on her door and finds a kid holding a duffle bag and a note saying she was told to bring this to her by her husband Owen. Hannah opens it and it’s 600k and the note tells Hannah to keep Bailey safe and the money is for Bailey. Apparently, Owens’s company is in the show more midst of a white collar scheme and the SEC is on to them, BUT that is just the beginning! Why does Owen run, when his boss doesn’t run nor his counterparts?

Can Hannah and Bailey figure out this mystery, because Owen isn’t who he says he is... show less

The Last Thing He Told Me was a quick, engaging novel that I highly recommend. In addition to figuring out why Owen disappeared from Hannah, his second wife, and Bailey, his daughter, interesting questions are posed about life as the characters try to discern who he really was.
How well do we really know people?
What secrets are acceptable between spouses?
Does experiencing a parent's abandonment predispose one to certain types of relationships?
What is typical behavior for a sixteen-year-old?
Can a stepmother truly express unconditional love for her husband’s child?
When should somebody break the rules, prescribed or unwritten?
How much should we trust government officials?
Do even hardened criminals have redeeming qualities?