The Last Thing He Told Me is a New York Times #1 bestselling mystery-thriller 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 was adapted into a 2023 Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner.

Like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, The Last Thing He Told Me uses a first-person narrator to investigate the impact of secrets and lies on intimate relationships. Unlike those books, the narrator and protagonist of The Last Thing He Told Me, Hannah Hill, is reliable in her account of the novel's events, which center on her husband’s disappearance in connection with a crime syndicate.

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 main narrative takes place over four days and in two locations: Sausalito, California, and Austin, Texas. However, interspersed flashback chapters provide more context about Hannah’s relationship with her husband, Owen.

In the narrative present, Sausalito, California, is a sleepy, waterfront town where everyone knows everyone else. Hannah, Owen, and Owen’s 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, 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, that 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 from a coworker that the FBI intended to raid Owen’s company and tipped him off 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 warns her that Owen is not the man she thinks he is. Hannah begins investigating Owen’s life, finding a file containing Owen’s updated will on his laptop.

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. Remembering that Bradford was from the Austin, Texas, office, Hannah recalls that Owen acted strangely on occasions when she suggested traveling to Austin. She asks Bailey about any possible connection to the city, and Bailey says she has a vague childhood memory of having been in Austin for a wedding.

Hannah and Bailey travel to Austin. They find the church where they think Bailey was a flower girl, but the parish 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 whose name Bailey recalls. He provides class rosters and tells Hannah that he remembers Owen, although he had a different name then. Owen 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 in 2008, and Hannah realizes that the bride, Kate Smith, looks remarkably 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, Charlie is shocked and calls Bailey “Kristin” before Hannah and Bailey flee.

Hannah discovers that Owen’s real name is Ethan Young, that he was married to Kate Smith, and that 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, defending them for 30 years before ultimately losing a big case; 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. Bell went to prison along with 18 members of the crime syndicate, and Ethan took off with Kristin, changing their names and creating new identities.

Convinced Owen would never leave except to protect Bailey, Hannah meets Bell and discovers that both he and the crime syndicate still have vendettas against Owen. She also 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 finds 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.”