Owen Michaels disappears leaving a note to his wife of one year that reads: “Protect her.” Hannah Hall knows well that it is all about Bailey, Michaels’ sixteen-year-old daughter, a girl who does not want Hannah as a stepmother. Hannah doesn’t have much time to figure out what Owen meant by “Protect her.” And from what? But when Owen’s boss gets arrested by the FBI and a US marshal and FBI agents show up at her door, Hannah understands that Owen might not be the person she has believed him to be. The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel by Laura Dave follows Hannah and Bailey as they set out on a journey to unravel the mystery surrounding Owen’s disappearance, a treacherous path that gives them some answers, leaves them with more puzzles, and sets them on a path towards a connection that they never anticipated.

With its twisty plotlines, evocative writing, and emotionally rich characters, this narrative explores the family drama in a manner that is superb, taking readers through an emotional roller coaster that leaves them breathless as they follow the surprising turns of the story. Laura Dave’s prose is crisp and enticing and she is one of those storytellers with a fine sense of phraseology; she wastes no words, and readers will enjoy the way she explores human emotion. The opening features a premise that is spellbinding: Owen has disappeared, sending a disturbing note through a twelve-year-old girl in uniform. From this moment on, life changes dramatically and drastically for Hannah and Bailey. It is the defining moment in the story and the author wastes no time in bringing the hook to the reader. The drama is written with ingenuity and the realism that permeates the writing lifts its entertainment potential and makes it a hard-to-put-down story. The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel kept me awake through the night because I couldn’t just put it down.