The Last Thing He Told Me

The Last Thing He Told Me is a New York Times #1 bestselling novel by American author Laura Dave, who also wrote The First Husband; Eight Hundred Grapes; and Hello, Sunshine. Eagerly anticipated by Dave’s large fan base, the novel was published by Simon & Schuster on May 4, 2021, was chosen as a Reese Witherspoon Book Club novel, and has already been optioned for Apple TV with actress Julia Roberts signed on to play protagonist Hannah Hall.

The Last Thing He Told Me is a mystery. Like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, The Last Thing investigates the impact of secrets and lies on intimate relationships. Unlike those books, the narrator of The Last Thing He Told Me is reliable and the story is told from a close first-person point of view, allowing the reader to access the events, characters, and memories in the novel only through the lens of the protagonist, Hannah Hill. There are regularly interspersed flashback scenes, which help establish the backstory of Hannah Hill and allow the reader to feel she is a trustworthy guide through the knotty puzzle of the novel. While the date of the novel’s story is not directly stated, it takes place in the technology-laden contemporary world and features a story about securities fraud perpetrated by a high-tech company, which echoes real-life events of the past decade.

The Last Thing He Told Me adheres to the traditional elements of a mystery novel: The stakes are high for Hannah and her stepdaughter Bailey, and continue to grow as the novel progresses, several hints and instances of foreshadowing are sprinkled throughout the text, and the pace of the novel is rapid from the first page to the last, with only brief moments of slowing in the flashback segments. Dave also employs several literary devices—such as a foil, cliffhangers, and a crucible—all of which heighten the novel’s tension and keep the reader engaged with the text.

All page references are to the Kindle version of The Last Thing He Told Me.

Plot Summary

Hannah Hill, a 40-year-old woodturner who makes furniture for upscale clients, narrates this novel. The reader is privy to Hannah’s interior life: her emotions, her memories, and her interpretations of events and estimations of other people. The events take place over four days and in two locations: Sausalito, California and Austin, Texas. The chapters toggle between the present and the past, allowing the reader to develop an understanding of both the relationship between Hannah and her husband, Owen, but also of Owen himself, despite the fact that he is physically absent throughout the novel.

Sausalito, California, is a sleepy, waterfront town where everyone knows everyone else. Hannah, Owen, and Bailey, 16, live on a houseboat in the San Francisco Bay. Hannah and Owen have been married just over a year when Hannah receives a note, delivered by a 12-year-old girl, which says, “Protect her.” Thinking Owen is playing a prank, Hannah tries to reach him to no avail. When she picks up her stepdaughter, Bailey, she hears a report on the car radio that the high-tech company where Owen is the chief coder has been raided by federal authorities. When Bailey gets in the car and dumps a duffle bag stuffed with cash and a note from Owen in her lap, Hannah knows for sure Owen is gone.

Hannah’s best friend Jules tells Hannah she learned about the FBI’s intention to raid Owen’s company from a coworker and tipped off Owen two hours prior to the raid. The next morning, Hannah receives a visit from a US Marshal, Grady Bradford. Bradford says he wants to help Hannah, but leaves with the ominous warning that Owen is not the man she thinks he is.

Hannah begins investigating Owen’s life. She searches his laptop where she finds a finds a file containing Owen’s updated will. Two FBI agents arrive to question Hannah and are surprised when Hannah tells them about Grady Bradford’s visit. When they leave, Hannah reaches out to her former fiancé, Jake Anderson, a New York lawyer, who says he will investigate Owen’s past. Hannah remembers that the US Marshal was from the Austin, Texas office, and recalls Owen acted strangely on occasions she suggested traveling to Austin. She asks Bailey about any possible connection to the city, and Bailey says she has a vague memory of having been in Austin as a small child for a wedding.

Hannah and Bailey travel to Austin. They find the church where they think Bailey was a flower girl and convince the parish administrator to help them, but the administrator tells them the church was closed for renovations in 2008, the only year that makes sense based on Bailey’s memory and age.

Disappointed, the duo pursues another clue about a college professor. Bailey recalls the professor’s name and they visit him. He provides class rosters and tells Hannah he remembers Owen, although he had a different name then, because he failed the midterm because he was in love with a woman in the class.

The parish administrator calls back to say she found a wedding from 2008. The two women discover Kate Smith and are stunned by how much she looks like Bailey.

Kate’s brother Charlie still lives in Austin and runs the family bar called The Never Dry. Hannah goes to speak with Charlie, who is suspicious of her interest in his family. When Bailey walks in to find Hannah, Charlie is shocked and calls Bailey “Kristin.” Charlie becomes enraged and Hannah and Bailey flee.

Hannah discovers Owen’s real name is Ethan Young, he was married to Kate Smith, and Bailey—whose real name is Kristin—is their daughter. Nicholas Bell—Kate’s father—was a defense attorney known as The Good Lawyer for his work on behalf of his clients. He got involved with drug traffickers who worked for a crime syndicate. For 30 years, Bell defended the criminals, but he lost a big case, and a week later, Kate was killed in a hit and run accident in broad daylight. Ethan blamed Bell and his employers; because Ethan had insider information about the crime syndicate, he turned state’s witness against Bell and the crime syndicate. Bell went to prison along with 18 members of the crime syndicate; Ethan took off with Kristin, changing their names and creating new identities.

Hannah remains convinced Owen would never leave unless it was the only way to protect Bailey. Hannah meets Bell and discovers both he and the crime syndicate still have vendettas against Owen. She learns from Bradford that Owen and Bailey were supposed to enter Witness Protection after Owen testified against the crime syndicate, but their new identities were compromised, so Owen took off and created their new identities himself.

Hannah wants Bailey to keep the life she has now. A clue relating to Bailey’s piggy bank results in Hannah’s asking Jules to investigate it. Jules opens it and tells Hannah that inside the piggy bank’s internal safe is a copy of Owen’s will, with Hannah listed as Bailey’s guardian. After meeting with Bell and learning of his intentions toward Owen, Hannah makes the difficult decision to forgo Witness Protection and return to Sausalito with Bailey even though she knows this means Owen cannot be part of their lives.

As the story ends, several years have passed. Hannah is at a design showcase for the furniture she makes when she receives a visit from a mysterious man still wearing the unique wedding ring she made him: It’s Owen. As Owen departs, Bailey arrives to meet Hannah for dinner and calls her “Mom.”