‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ – Laura Dave

I’m still waiting on NetGalley regarding this one, but I had heard such good things about this that I couldn’t resist buying it…and it is a bit of a treat.

Hannah is our main character. She is a woodturner by trade, and she has not long been married to Owen. They have a relatively quiet life and she is, slowly, making headway with Owen’s daughter, Bailey, who has been rather resistant to the appearance of a stepmother having spent so long on her own with her father. Hannah senses that Bailey remains resistant to her, but she keeps trying.

This could have been a relatively humdrum story focusing on the developing relationship between Hannah and Bailey. While their relationship is a focal point, it is set against an intriguing backdrop of events that you can’t help but get drawn into.

One night, Hannah receives a message on a torn piece of paper from a girl in Bailey’s school. She is told that Owen passed it on. The message says ‘protect her’. This means nothing to Hannah, until she hears on the news that Owen’s office is under investigation for fraud. Could he be hiding something?

The answer – obviously – is yes…but it isn’t exactly what you are thinking.

We follow Hannah and Bailey as they try to adjust to their new situation, deal with the fallout of events Owen is caught up in…and Hannah tries to make sense of the new details she learns about the man she thought she knew.

Pacing was, for me, a bit of an issue at times. I’m not wholly convinced that people would have reacted in the way they do here, but it was entertaining and definitely a good burst of escapism.