Author: Laura Dave
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Adult, Suspense
Year of Release: 2021
Release Date 4th May 2021
Rating🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
IT WAS THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME: PROTECT HER
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect her. Hannah knows exactly who Owen needs her to protect – his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As her increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, his boss is arrested for fraud and the police start questioning her, Hannah realises that her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey might hold the key to discovering Owen’s identity, and why he disappeared. Together they set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realise that their lives will never be the same again…
Review
Owen and Hannah Michaels have only been married for a year the pair live on their houseboat in Sausalito, Northern California, the only person not happy with this current situation is Owens sixteen-year-old daughter Bailey she’d be much happier if it was just her and her father like in the old days before Hannah arrived.
Hannah like Bailey lost her mother, Hannah’s mother deciding it was better for Hannah if she stayed with her grandfather full time when she was young; So, Hannah understands more about not having a mother then Bailey currently knows, if only Bailey would let her walls towards Hannah down a little, they might find they have something in common. Hannah is certain Bailey will warm towards her sometime soon, but these things take time.
Upon learning that Owen’s boss has been arrested for fraud Hannah knows she needs answers but, Hannah hasn’t seen Owen since he left for work and with none of the usual phone calls from Owen throughout the day her mind has no choice but to wonder and goes into over-drive. When the police show up, they start questioning her, but Hannah doesn’t have the answers they’re after, but she knows her husband, she trusts him he’ll be able to clear up all these questions she has racing around in her hand, he just has to come home not knowing when that’ll be Hannah begins to look a little closer at home; Bailey might hold the key to Owens current location? She cannot be one hundred percent certain the only thing Hannah knows for sure is that she must do anything she can to protect Bailey.
Hannah and Bailey must each decide is having all the answers worth it?
This book might have been a part of Reese Witherspoon’s book club in 2021 but what hooked me was the promise someone wasn’t who they said they were and with that detail promised I had to find out if this was going to be delivered and oh boy did The Last Thing, He Told Me deliver.
Things that worked I believe the characters were believable in this story for the most part. The fast-paced plot was the reason why this book was so hard to put down. In this reviewer’s opinion the space between the conflict and resolution was acceptable, defiantly a book that can be read in one sitting because the reader must know how it’ll end immediately.
“This is the thing about good and evil. They aren’t so far apart – and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.”
― Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me
I personally struggled to feel like these two women were able to uncover as much as they did without much help, everything they found felt somewhat guessed but this in no way dampened my time within these pages, sometimes a reader has no choice but to get sucked into the story rather than the logistics of reality and the joy of a good Fiction book.
I think Hannah and Bailey were certainly interesting and make for great protagonists but if I’m honest I found I was able to connect more to Hannah than Bailey throughout this book. Hannah has so much more of a back story that I was drawn to before she met Owen and Bailey, if this book had a prequel this could potentially be an interesting place to start in this reviewer’s opinion.
“Most people don’t want to hear the thing that will make it work better… They want to hear what will make it easier.”
― Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me
Having now finished this book I find myself still struggling with some details not covered in the closing chapters, the FBI were so keen to catch up with Owen throughout this book and then suddenly, we reach the resolution chapters they are nowhere to be found because one US Marshall Grady Bradford might have said something to someone maybe, but I have serious doubts.
In one of the earlier chapters Grady mentioned to Hannah even he can’t hold off the FBI for long and suddenly can hold off America’s leading law enforcement agency forever. Not likely especially since he’s not in witness protection, if they want you found you’d be found right? I mean he’s a smart guy and has become good at being someone else, but this feels like way much of a stretch for me.
I also don’t buy into the idea of his innocence in all this, how can his actions in the past allow for a free pass in present-day? Even if he was in a rock and a hard place, this is the reason this book went from a Five-star read to a four-star read when writing this review.
The use of the flashback technique to tell this story was interesting and works well for the pace of the book but I must admit it didn’t allow this reader to appreciate the relationship between Owen and Hannah more so if anything, I found it easier to detach from their relationship altogether.
“Maybe we are all fools, one way or another, when it comes to seeing the totality of the people who love us—the people we try to love.”
― Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me
Before I forget whatever happened to the bag of money?
Don’t get me wrong one of the many things I appreciate about this novel was the fact I wasn’t able guess how this would end, this really kept the feeling of suspense front and centre, rather then just the feeling every so often.
The Last Thing He Told Me is a slow burn mystery, overall, I am happy to say I read this book before it comes to Apple TV as a series later this year, which I have to say my hopes are high for. I recommend The Last Thing He Told Me to a mature audience. Fans of the Mystery Suspense genre or if you enjoy books to TV adaptions or if you’ve followedHello Sunshine Book Club for some time be sure to check it out.