The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (2021)

 

Reese Witherspoon Book Club Selection.

Being develop as a series starring Julia Roberts on Apple TV+.

Hannah, a skilled wood turner and furniture designer and has been married to Owen, for a little over a year. Owen works for a software tech company and has a 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, who wants nothing to do with Hannah after having her father to herself for most of her life. The three live on a houseboat in Sausalito, CA.

The story begins with Owen’s disappearance. Before running, Owen manages to get a note to Hannah with only two words – “Protect Her”. Hannah knows without a doubt that the “her” Owen refers to is Bailey. As Hannah tries to figure out what happened to Owen, his boss is arrested by the FBI for fraud.

When a U.S. Marshall from Austin, TX appears offering to put Hannah and Bailey into Witness Protection, Hannah is even more confused. Hannah refuses to upset Bailey life like that and determines to figure out why Owen 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, together. Their budding relationship is the crux of the story.

The book is well-written and the characters are well developed. Hannah narrates events in present tense but there are lots of flashbacks of her relationship with Owen. The book is definitely more a mystery that a suspense thriller.

There have been lots of books written about a husband or wife who don’t really know who they married and struggle to find the truth. Dern takes the genre somewhere it hasn’t been before, at least to my knowledge. I never saw the ending coming and that alone is a good reason to read The Last Thing He Told Me.