The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Summary
A woman searching for the truth about her husband’s disappearance…at any cost.
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.
Book Setting: New York City
The Ritz Carlton - San Francisco
Sausalito, CA
Peekskill, NY
Issaquah Dock
Waldo Point Harbor
Ferry Building
West Texas U.S. Marshal Office
Austin, TX
University of Texas at Austin
Darrell K Royal Stadium
Magnolia Cafe
College of Natural Sciences
Perry Castañeda Library
Reviews
“I really enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me, and flew through the pages, needing to know what would happen to Hannah, Bailey and Owen! I always know I'm enjoying a book when I tell my husband about it, and when I think about it when I'm not reading, which was definitely the case here!”
– PreoccupiedByBooks (Goodreads Review)
"Dave’s neat trick is to unveil revelations at a brisk clip that does not overwhelm character development. The novel’s richness comes from the way Hannah and Bailey realize they need each other in the face of staggering loss; the mutual trust that grows between them is genuinely moving. As both daughter and stepmother come to realize, “That’s how you fill in the blanks — with stories and memories from the people who love you.”
— The New York Times Book Review