The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave review: A thriller that keeps you guessing
If you’re a fan of thrillers with a twist, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is more than worth checking out. Here’s our review of the novel.
I will admit that it took me some time to get into The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave at first. I listen a lot via Audible, and it was about an hour or two into the novel that I really felt invested in the characters. That’s not necessarily out of the ordinary for me. I need to get to know the characters in any novel before I even care about the journey they’re about to go on.
I thought I had it all figured out at first; that it was going to be some standard run-of-the-mill hidden identity thriller. I was pleasantly surprised as the twists started coming in the last quarter of the book.
What is The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave about?
We start off meeting Hannah Hall. She seems to live a perfectly normal life with her husband and stepdaughter. Then suddenly, he husband just disappears. He leaves behind a lot of money for Hannah and his daughter to live on, and that brings up a lot of questions rather quickly.
As the book goes on, we learn that Owen’s real name isn’t Owen at all. Neither is his daughter Bailey really called Bailey. But Hannah doesn’t know the details. When a U.S. Marshal turns up, she starts to wonder why someone would change their name. There aren’t many reasons to, and it looks like the Witness Protection Program can be quickly ruled out with the Marshal turning up suggesting that Hannah get a lawyer.
Hannah and Bailey head out on a journey of discovery. What was in Owen’s past, and what is he running from? What illegal activity has he ended up getting involved in? There are a lot of twists along the way as Hannah slowly learns her secrets.
The Last Thing He Told Me review
The twists certainly help to save the novel at the end. I do admit that I got to the halfway point and started to roll my eyes. It just seemed so obvious that Hannah had fallen for a guy who was involved in fraud. He ran away to protect himself. But then why would he leave a lot of money? That was the part that didn’t admit.
That is where the twists at the end come up. There are more details, and Hannah gets to learn them all.
However, there are some unrealistic moments. There’s a point when they’re at the college Owen went to so Hannah can speak to his professor. This professor is understandably initially unhelpful. I’d have expected Hannah to take some time to get him to open up or be willing to help. That doesn’t take long, and it just didn’t feel realistic. It was all rather convenient that he was willing to help so quickly.
There also didn’t seem that much of a risk to Hannah and Bailey. This was about Owen, and it didn’t feel like them delving into his past was going to be all that problematic for them. Hannah didn’t really sense much of the fear she probably should have done, especially when the full truth started to come out.
Had some of these elements felt a little more real, I would have given the novel 5 stars for being able to send me for a loop at the end. However, I have to deduct a star. I was invested, but there were moments of disappointment.
Star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Next. The Cousins by Karen M. McManus review. dark
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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is available to buy on Amazon.