“This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again.”
Books similar to The Last Thing He Told Me are high-paced, suspenseful and heartfelt explorations of the sacrifices we make for the ones we love the most. Laura Dave’s 2021 mystery-thriller is a Goodreads Choice Award winner and follows the story of Hannah Hall, who receives a smuggled note from her husband, Owen, one year before his disappearance. The note simply reads: ‘Protect her’. Despite the apparent vagueness, she knows exactly who he is referring to: his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. But as her calls to Owen continue to go unanswered, his boss is arrested by the FBI and federal agents knock on her door, leading to her questioning everything she thought she knew about her husband and his real identity. If you loved Lauren Dave’s bestseller, join us at What We Reading for the best mystery books like The Last Thing He Told Me!
You Should Have Told Me – Leah Konen
Kicking off our list of the best The Last He Told Me read-alikes is Leah Konen’s 2023 thriller, You Should Have Told Me. When Janine’s boyfriend, Max, doesn’t come home one evening, she doesn’t know what to do. Surely he wouldn’t leave her and their baby daughter with no explanation?
But her life is only upended further when the police arrive at her door asking about the body of a woman discovered outside a local bar. They want to know where Max was last night and where he is now – but Janine hasn’t got a clue. She always loved Max, but suddenly Janine finds herself questioning whether she knew him at all. With countless twists and turns across this domestic noir, readers follow Janine as she grapples with whether her partner might just be capable of murder.
Local Woman Missing – Mary Kubica
Shelby Tebow was the first to go missing. Next was Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Deliah. With both disappearances occurring just blocks away from each other, an affluent, once-peaceful community suddenly finds itself gripped by fear in Mary Kubica’s Local Woman Missing.
Like The Last Thing He Told Me, Kubica’s tale was nominated for Best Mystery & Thriller in the Goodreads Choice Awards. Eleven years after the initial case went cold, Deliah suddenly returned. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but few in the community are prepared for what they’re about to find out. Similar to Dave’s book, this is a gripping thriller that shows just how far some people are prepared to go to stop the truth from getting out.
The Woman Inside – M.T. Edvardsson
Recent widow Bill Olsson is desperate to provide for his daughter, Sally. Struggling to pay the rent, he welcomes a law student and aspiring judge, Karla, into his home as a lodger. Karla works as a housekeeper for the Rytters, an incredibly wealthy couple who live behind closed doors. The husband is controlling and obsessive, the wife is ill and hasn’t left the house for months.
As Bill’s situation becomes more desperate, Kara is forced to make a difficult decision. But when the Rytters are murdered, she is brought in for questioning and made to revisit parts of her past she would rather keep hidden. Similar to The Last Thing He Told Me, M.T. Edvardsson’s The Woman Inside is an intimate thriller where all the characters have something to hide, but the real mystery is over which of them could be driven to kill.
Don’t Let Go – Harlan Coben
Suburban detective Napoleon ‘Nap’ Dumas hasn’t been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother, Leo, and Leo’s girlfriend, Diana, were found dead by the side of the railroad and his girlfriend, Maura, disappeared without an explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching for the truth behind Maura’s vanishing and his brother’s death.
When Maura’s fingerprints suddenly turn up in the car of a suspected murderer, Nap is suddenly thrown back into the mysteries of the past and a quest for answers. What follows across Harlan Coben’s Don’t Let Go is Nap’s investigation into the woman he thought he loved, the abandoned military base where he grew up and Leo and Diana, whose deaths are revealed to be far more sinister than even he could have imagined. Like The Last Thing He Told Me, Don’t Let Go is full of political intrigue, disappearances and the secrets being held by our loved ones.
Check Out Our Don’t Let Go Book Review
Her Last Goodbye – Rick Mofina
As the doting mother and wife, Jennifer Griffin was loved by everyone in her suburban neighbourhood. Especially by those in her book club. But, following one meeting one evening, Greg Griffin is shocked to wake up and find that his wife isn’t by his side. Her book club friends tell him Jenn left for home hours ago, but she’s missing. Greg tells detectives about their marriage being a happy one, but his alibi is razor-thin and the scrapes on his hand point to there being more than what’s on the surface.
Investigators soon dig up many of Jenn’s murky secrets, but she is far from the only one with something to hide. As their picture-perfect marriage begins to disintegrate, Greg is forced to reckon with the lies that have held their relationship together and a dark past that is about to resurface.
The Vanishing Hour – Seraphina Nova Glass
For another one of the most chilling books like The Last Thing He Told Me about the lengths people will go to protect their secrets, Seraphina Nova Glass’ The Vanishing Hour is a must-read!
Since escaping death at the hands of the man who abducted her, Grace Holloway keeps to herself. She runs a small inn in Rock Harbor, a quaint and sleepy town in Maine. But, someone has begun taking girls across this isolated retreat. Girls who look a lot like Grace did when she was kidnapped. When the disappearances bring investigators to her inn, she finds herself caught in the middle of it all, desperately attempting to keep her distance. But, Grace knows something that could change everything and be the missing secret behind bringing justice for the missing.
The Perfect Marriage – Jeneva Rose
Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defence attorney working in Washington D.C. Thirty-three years old, she is made partner and her whole appears to be mapped out in front of her. However, the same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. A struggling writer with little success in his career, he begins a passionate affair with a woman called Kelly Summers in their secluded second home in the woods.
But, when Kelly’s stabbed body is discovered by the police in their cabin, Adam is arrested. Sarah soon finds herself acting as the defender of her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress. The question is: is Adam guilty or innocent? Like The Last Thing He Told Me, Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Marriage is a domestic thriller filled with twists and turns that explores just how far we’re prepared to go to look out for the ones we love.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Wife Between Us
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
