The Last Thing He Told Me
by Laura Dave (2021)
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Female Centered, 2021-read
Rating: 3.5/5 👼👼
I finish off this book with a sense of warmth and gratitude in my heart. I started this book yesterday and couldn't put it down - even after the plot veers off into an area I thought could get disappointing. But ofcourse, it didn't. :) I thoroughly enjoyed both the explicable and the inexplicable aspects to the narrator's personality and her sometimes irrational actions. She put pure love and selflessness as her shield to get her and her ward (her step daughter put into her care) through a very difficult - if not impossible - situation. I hesitated to give this a 5-pointer because of some plot holes I felt are too glaring to ignore and of which I will mention shortly.
A little background into the story. The narrator of the story Hannah is nearing 40 years and is a wood turner(means a "carpenter" - she designs and makes furniture from different kinds of wood like oak,maple etc). One day a very attractive man, Owen , walks into her work shop as help to a potential buyer/client and they instantly hit it off. After a few dates, they get married. He tells her he is a widower and has a daughter Bailey who is 16 years old. Hannah tries to get on to the "good side" of Bailey but the girl makes it no secret that she hates/doesn't want her "new" step mother's company. Forward this to a couple of years and Owen goes into hiding leaving a note to her wife, daughter and some ridiculous amount of cash. The software company he is working for and his boss are going down for defrauding the stakeholders and blowing up their financial statements with a "non-working" software tool (rings bells of Theranos, right??) So Hannah and Bailey are clueless as to what his role is in all this and why he should be on the run. Hannah contacts her lawyer friend as police and the FBI show up at their residence. She soon discovers that he had been using a "fake" identity and everything he had ever told her or her daughter about his past was a fabrication. Shattered but not fully willing to give up, Hannah starts pusuing some "leads" - taking the step daughter to Austin, Texas and going after who Owen really was. The note he leaves behind for her asked her to protect Bailey and what she did - after learning all that she has to learn about her husband - is in firm and rigid adherence to this request. Owen had a haunting past that he desperately wants to escape and any publicity(through the on-going scandal of his software company) would jeopardise all that he had built for himself and his family. So what was that past? What role does Hannah play in bringing about his wish true? Was she able to resolve the grave danger her husband finds himself in? What sacrifice did this call for - from her side, from his and Bailey's? Why does Hannah want to take up the burden with so little an aquaintance with her husband that only lied to her? It's worth exploring the book to find out.
I thought that an obvious loop hole is Owen's running from the cops wouldn't have prevented publicity if he is suspected/implicated, right? They could as well have gone ahead and published his pictures and very much exposed the whereabouts/whatabouts of his family/daughter whom he tries to protect at all costs. How could Owen leave that cash with them and not know if they are raided, it would only become a proof to his obvious "guilt"? And so much has been sacrificed for Bailey - but she comes off as rude, self-centered and could have atleast showed some basic decency towards her step mother - without waiting for everything to fall apart at the end.
But overall, it is a inspiring story - of selfless love and where it could take even the most vulnerable/craven people. 💓💓
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