The Last Thing He Told Me

Don't miss the #1 New York Times bestselling blockbuster and Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick that's sold more than 5 million copies —now an Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner!

The "genuinely moving" (New York Times) and "gripping thriller" (Entertainment Weekly) about a woman who thinks she's found the love of her life—until he disappears.

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles 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 federal 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. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realize they're also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated.

With its breakneck pacing, dizzying plot twists, and evocative family drama, The Last Thing He Told Me is a "page-turning, exhilarating, and unforgettable" (PopSugar) suspense novel.

Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and other novels. Her novels have been translated into forty languages and have sold millions of copies. The Last Thing He Told Me was the Goodreads Mystery & Thriller of the Year for 2021 and is now a series on Apple TV+, co-created by Laura. The First Time I Saw Him, the long-awaited sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me, is now available from Scribner.

You can follow her on Instagram @lauradaveauthor

#1 New York Times Bestseller

“What starts as an intimate meditation on found families deftly turns into a heart-pounding mystery reminiscent of the best true crime stories. But both work so beautifully in this gripping, perfectly-paced novel. I dare you to stop reading.”
—Susie Yang, New York Times bestselling author of White Ivy

“Laura Dave is a master story-teller. Gripping, big-hearted and twisty, The Last Thing He Told Me grabs readers from the very first page and never lets go.”
—Greer Hendricks,New York Times best-selling co-author of The Wife Between Us and You Are Not Alone

"With dizzying suspense and gorgeous prose, The Last Thing He Told Me tackles tough questions about trust, marriage and what it means to be a family. A page-turner of the highest order."
—Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Home Before Dark

“Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me is a thrilling roller coaster of a novel. This smart, intimate exploration of love and family is the foundation of a beautifully constructed mystery filled with twists and turns. A must-read.”
—Jean Kwok,New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee

“Dave pulls off something that feels both new and familiar: a novel of domestic suspense that unnerves, then reassures. This is the antithesis of the way novels like Gone Girl or My Lovely Wife are constructed; in The Last Thing He Told Me, the surface is ugly, the situation disturbing, but almost everyone involved is basically good underneath it all. Dave has given readers what many people crave right now—a thoroughly engrossing yet comforting distraction.”
—BookPage

“A page turner.”
—Associated Press

“The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is a fast-moving, heartfelt thriller about the sacrifices we make for the people we love most.”
—Real Simple

“Light and bright, despite its edgy plot.”
—Vogue

“Gripping.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Page-turning, exhilarating, and unforgettable.”
—PopSugar

"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

"You will not think that this is Laura’s first suspense novel as it's so sharp and well done."
—Book Reporter

“Mysteries unspool at a steady pace… riveting.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

"A stunner with a heart and an ending you'll never see coming."
—AARP Bulletin

“Fast-paced ...but heartfelt."
—The New York Times, "Inside the Best-Seller List"

“The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave is a suspenseful family mystery about a woman named Hannah Hall who is suddenly left behind when her husband, Owen Michaels, disappears. Before he vanishes, Owen slips her a short note that says only “Protect her,” referring to his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. That one message changes everything for Hannah, because it not only suggests that Owen is in danger, but also forces her to take care of a stepdaughter who does not trust her and does not want her help. What begins as a confusing disappearance soon turns into a search for the truth about who Owen really was and why he ran.

At the start of the novel, Hannah’s life seems relatively settled, though not perfect. She is newly married to Owen and trying to build a relationship with Bailey, who has never fully accepted her father’s second marriage. Bailey is sharp, guarded, and angry in a way that makes the household tense, and Hannah feels like an outsider in her own home. That discomfort becomes much more intense when Owen’s tech company is suddenly investigated, his boss is arrested, and federal agents begin asking questions. It quickly becomes clear that Owen has left behind more than a missing-person case. He has also left behind a trail of secrets.

Hannah first believes Owen may have simply gotten caught up in the investigation, but the evidence begins to suggest that he was hiding something much larger. A duffel bag full of cash is left for Bailey, which makes the situation even stranger. Instead of answering questions, the money raises new ones. Why would Owen leave his daughter that much money? Why would he send Hannah a message to protect Bailey and then disappear without explanation? As Hannah looks deeper, she starts to realize that the man she married may have been living under a false identity.

The heart of the novel is the relationship that develops between Hannah and Bailey as they are forced to work together. They begin the story distrustful and distant from one another, but Owen’s disappearance pushes them into the same search. Bailey has spent years feeling abandoned and angry, while Hannah is desperate to understand what is happening and whether Owen is still alive. As they follow clues, their partnership slowly becomes one of the most meaningful parts of the book. Their bond is built through shared confusion, fear, and determination, and the mystery helps transform them from uneasy stepmother and stepdaughter into people who can rely on each other.

As the investigation continues, the story shifts between the present and memories of Hannah’s life with Owen, gradually revealing that he had a carefully guarded past. The clues lead Hannah and Bailey to Texas, where Owen once lived under a different name and where parts of Bailey’s early childhood were hidden from her. There they learn that Owen was not simply a husband who made bad decisions. He had once been tied to a much more dangerous life involving crime, identity changes, and witness protection. The book slowly uncovers the truth that Owen had changed his name to escape a criminal network and to protect Bailey from the danger surrounding her family history.

This revelation changes everything Hannah thought she knew. Owen had not vanished because he stopped loving them. He disappeared because he was trying to keep Bailey safe from the consequences of a past he could not fully outrun. The more Hannah learns, the more she understands that Owen’s life had been built on fear, secrecy, and sacrifice. He had wanted a normal life with her, but the old danger had finally caught up to him. The novel makes that truth feel emotional rather than just surprising, because Hannah must come to terms with the fact that the man she loved was both real and hidden from her at the same time.

The ending brings the emotional and suspenseful threads together. Hannah is forced to make difficult choices about how to protect Bailey and what kind of future they can have after everything that has been exposed. The story resolves the mystery of Owen’s disappearance while also showing that Hannah and Bailey’s relationship has been permanently changed. They are no longer strangers tied together by marriage. They have become a family in a deeper and more honest sense, shaped by shared danger and trust.

Overall, “The Last Thing He Told Me” is a quiet but gripping thriller about marriage, memory, and the secrets people keep to protect the ones they love. It mixes mystery with emotional depth, showing how the search for a missing husband becomes the beginning of a new bond between a woman and her stepdaughter. The novel is less about simple answers and more about the cost of truth, the burden of hidden identities, and the difficult process of deciding whom to trust when everything familiar has fallen apart.