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A review by edzee_lcnm
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
3.0
First off, thank you to Simon & Schuster for the Advanced Reader's Copy of this book -- tho not sure can really call it "advanced" since I won it here on Goodreads after its publication date. It was my 3rd Goodreads Giveaway win (currently at a 2.2% "win" rate). So far, I've won one book for each of these past three years, so hoping the trend ends in 2021 and squeak out another book win. :-)
Onto the book! I've made an effort this year to give get out of my usual "literary fiction" lane and read more light and entertaining fiction (especially during the summer - 'beach reads' per se, even tho I am not even remotely close to a beach or water for that matter). In my younger years, I read a steady diet of these type of mystery/thriller-type books ... and they are certainly easy to devour, and that was certainly the case here with Laura Dave's "The Last Thing He Told Me." I am not sure I've read a book faster than this one this year. And it's probably good to have read it fast, as I am sure it really wouldn't hold up to much plot or "reality" scrutiny. I just felt some (most!) of the "detective" work that main character does here and ultimately uncovers was not something the average person could do, particularly in the situation here (husband mysteriously disappearing and leaving you with your onery stepchild.
I know, I know... you have to suspend some disbelief, but given my small sample size of dipping back into this genre this year I just hoped for a little more realism. Maybe my advanced age is making me more cranky about wanting just a little more out of these books. But then there's the not totally satisfactory ending which leaves the reader with more "what about this? what about that?" questions. And oh, don't be fooled by the Sausalito-centric cover, most of the action doesn't even take place there!
3 stars, for liking it enough and for it being what I think it was exactly supposed to be -- a fairly generic mystery/thriller book that has already been optioned to be turned into a perfectly mindless mystery/thriller movie with a likeable leading lady (back in the day, seems like it would have been almost custom-made for Sandra Bullock... speaking of which, where has she gone?) and probably make a lot of money for all involved.
Onto the book! I've made an effort this year to give get out of my usual "literary fiction" lane and read more light and entertaining fiction (especially during the summer - 'beach reads' per se, even tho I am not even remotely close to a beach or water for that matter). In my younger years, I read a steady diet of these type of mystery/thriller-type books ... and they are certainly easy to devour, and that was certainly the case here with Laura Dave's "The Last Thing He Told Me." I am not sure I've read a book faster than this one this year. And it's probably good to have read it fast, as I am sure it really wouldn't hold up to much plot or "reality" scrutiny. I just felt some (most!) of the "detective" work that main character does here and ultimately uncovers was not something the average person could do, particularly in the situation here (husband mysteriously disappearing and leaving you with your onery stepchild.
I know, I know... you have to suspend some disbelief, but given my small sample size of dipping back into this genre this year I just hoped for a little more realism. Maybe my advanced age is making me more cranky about wanting just a little more out of these books. But then there's the not totally satisfactory ending which leaves the reader with more "what about this? what about that?" questions. And oh, don't be fooled by the Sausalito-centric cover, most of the action doesn't even take place there!
3 stars, for liking it enough and for it being what I think it was exactly supposed to be -- a fairly generic mystery/thriller book that has already been optioned to be turned into a perfectly mindless mystery/thriller movie with a likeable leading lady (back in the day, seems like it would have been almost custom-made for Sandra Bullock... speaking of which, where has she gone?) and probably make a lot of money for all involved.