⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author (Platform): Laura Dave (Kindle)
Publisher (Release): Viper (2021)
Length: 319 pages
Genres: Adult; Suspense; Thriller; Drama
❗️Disclaimers❗️:
this review contains low-level spoilers
recommendation: vibe check before reading
👍 Pros 👍
Intriguing initial mystery
Dynamic development between core characters
Powerful themes that avoid traditional tropes
👎 Cons 👎
Core plot suffers from relying too much and for too long on the initial events of the story
A noticeable imbalance between tension and release
Partially polarising ending that, like a lot of the novel, isn’t quite typical of a thriller
👀 Synopsis 👀
IT WAS THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME: PROTECT HER
Before Own 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 teenage daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As her 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 true 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…
🛎️ Introduction 🛎️
The Last Thing He Told Me is a surprising little mystery that bucks the thriller trend of blood and conspiracy to focus on an emotional tale of identity and family. Who are we when the details of our lives aren’t what we know them to be? What do we do when the foundations built on a non-existent past are yoinked from beneath our feet?
And, when the world we’re so familiar with turns foreign, who do we trust?
🧩 Plots 🧩
Blood doesn’t mean loyalty, and The Last Thing He Told Me sees Laura Dave craft that message in all its heartwarming, heartbreaking glory as we join woodturner, wife, and stepmother Hannah Hall when her husband disappears and she’s left with her stepdaughter, Bailey, to deal with the aftermath. Coupled with a real dive into Hannah’s mind in first person and a snappy flow of present tense, Dave does an excellent job of keeping the reader white-knuckled at the edge of their seats.
Who do you turn to when the only person you trust disappears?
The initial mystery valiantly piques interest while building the story’s wider world through a solid balancing act of past events and present investigation, but The Last Thing He Told Me largely relies too much on its initial mystery to do the majority of the heavy lifting. It wasn’t until the 60-70% mark that I felt something truly happened to get my blood pumping. It’s this imbalance of tension and release that weighs down the latter parts of the plot, giving it a lot of responsibility to pull the threads into a cohesive finale.
For me, Told Me’s conclusion comes in two parts: physical and emotional. Physically, the events that take place don’t scream finale. I’m used to bombastic revelations and heart-pounding buildups that bring things in to land with an exclamation mark, but, in comparison, Told Me opts to be honest if more than a little plain. Emotionally, however, Dave brings Hannah and Bailey’s journeys together with an undeniable and inspiring satisfaction that just about covers the core plot’s frayed threads.
‘…honest if more than a little plain.’
🎭 Characters 🎭
Hannah Hall (Michaels after her marriage to Owen) provides our eyes and ears into Told Me’s world. Compelling and likeable, Dave uses her protagonist’s vocation as a woodturner and isolated childhood to build a relatable and insightful character that doesn’t feel out of place or completely incapable in a mystery novel. Hannah’s get-up-and-go attitude provides most of the propellant for the story, opting, despite the chaos and being out of her element, to answer the questions the disappearance of her husband ask.
Love always hides lies…
Joining her is her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, Bailey Michaels, and this taut relationship forms the book’s most important and investable backbone. I love the bucking of stepmothers being traditionally evil with Hannah’s kindness and grace while not shying away from the very honest portrayal of a teenager who views that kindness as an infiltration aiming to take her father away from her.
Their burgeoning relationship is an absolute delight to experience as the two have no choice but to band together into an investigative duo to peel back the layers of Bailey’s past. Their dynamics are icy one moment and full of fire the next, both fighting the other for understanding and respect in a way that sings to the reader’s heart.
Supporting characters vary in intensity and utility but largely shrink under the shadow of our protagonists. I did enjoy Dave’s avoidance of painting Owen Michaels as the bad man leaving a mess for the women in his life to clean through incompetence to paint a more complex and impossible situation that isn’t so clear cut. Understanding doesn’t equal complete forgiveness but a couple bad choices don’t define someone either, a distinction I really appreciated the author portraying.
‘…icy one moment and full of fire the next…’
🧠 Final Thoughts 🧠
The Last Thing He Told Me is a deceptive little mystery that relies a tad too much on its tension and inciting incident that it falls to the protagonist and her stepdaughter to capture the reader and entice them onwards. Entice, however, they do, with a stunning and dynamic relationship that sees two insightful women dive into the dangerous past of the man they both love and what caused his sudden disappearance. It’s honest and gritty, bucking the genre’s traditional trends to deliver a powerful message of family that’ll stay with you after the book closes.
The Phoenix Project 