Book Review: The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
We all have stories we never tell.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle 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 FBI 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, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.
★★★★★
This book is one of those books that grabs you from the very first page, no need to ease in or wait for a few chapters, it hooks you right from the start.
The Last Thing He Told Me is a mystery with Hannah at the forefront of the story, except it’s not a story about Hannah at all. It’s about her husband, Owen, and his daughter Bailey. Owen goes missing, and Hannah needs to figure out why and find him.
Since it’s a mystery, I’m intentionally going to be vague with my review.
Hannah was a strong protagonist, a woman who knows exactly who she is and what she stands for. Owen, while missing, was in enough flashbacks that I know he’s a good father and husband. They are meant to be. And Bailey is your head-strong teenager who keeps it all interesting. I loved the bond between this family, however, strained.
The plot is twisty yet unravelling in all the right ways. It keeps you guessing and wondering. There are themes of family, identity, grief and loss, abandonment, and love.
And if you’ve never read Eight Hundred Grapes by the same author, I encourage you to do that too. Laura Dave tops my charts as an author I love to read.