Published January 2nd, 2025 by Century
Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Domestic Fiction
Welcome to my review of the first SquadPod Book Club pick of 2025. Thank you to Century for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Thing He Told Me comes a riveting mystery wrapped in an epic love story . . .
‘An engrossing mystery and a story with emotional heft’ Shari Lapena
‘A master storyteller. You won’t want to miss this one’ Harlan Coben
‘The best mystery of the year‘ Jennifer Garner
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One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below.
A tragic accident? Or murder?
Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night.
But their relationship has never been easy, and it is about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father.
Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about, to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried…
Filled with passion, intrigue, lies, and dark, dark family secrets, The Night We Lost Him is a page turning mystery you won’t ever want to put down.
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MY REVIEW:
On a beautiful California evening a wealthy businessman falls to his death from the secluded cliff-top garden of his home. But was it an accident or murder?
Tense, twisty and immersive, our first SquadPod Book Club pick of 2025 was a page-turner. I was intrigued from the riveting prologue and lost myself in this story of love, lust, secrets and lies. Well-written and compelling, I enjoyed Laura Dave’s unique blend of thriller, family drama and love story. From its riveting prologue she had me intrigued, and lost myself in this story of love, lust, secrets and lies, inhaling it and in just a few hours.
The story is told in dual timelines, narrated by Nora in the present, as she and her half-brother, Sam, investigate what really happened the night their father died. The reluctance of those closest to him to talk to them only reinforces their suspicion that it wasn’t a tragic accident. But their rocky relationship is another obstacle they must overcome. Liam kept his different families separate so they have never been close and we see how this, as well as their different approaches to working, tests their relationship. But over time we see it bring them together as they get to know one another for the first time.
While in the present we know Liam only through the eyes of others, he recites the past narrative, revealing to the reader the most important relationship in his life: a five-decades long clandestine relationship with a mystery love known only by an old nickname. It seemed obvious that his lover’s identity would lead us to the truth about his death. But who was she? I had a few different suspicions over the course of the book and did guess right, but not until only a couple of chapters before the big reveal.
Dave expertly weaves the storylines together, filling them with red herrings and shocking twists that keep the reader on their toes. But something I particularly enjoyed was Dave’s honest but sensitive exploration of grief and the different ways it can affect us, which is explored mostly through Nora. There were a few times I found myself close to tears from the sheer depth of emotion on the pages. Highly recommended.
Rated: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and other novels.
Her books have been published in thirty-eight languages and have been chosen by Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club, Indie Next, Book of the Month Club, The Richard and Judy Book Club, Best of Amazon, and Best of Apple Books. The Last Thing He Told Me was chosen as the Goodreads Mystery & Thriller of the Year for 2021. The Last Thing He Told Me is now a series on Apple TV+, co-created by Laura.
She resides in Santa Monica, California.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Bookshop.org* | Waterstones* | Amazon*
*These are affiliate links
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxxx
Emma's Biblio Treasures 