Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC of Famous Last Words in exchange for an honest review.

From the very moment I picked this book up, I was hooked. Gillian’s writing is equal parts captivating and suspenseful and it kept me coming back over and over again in anticipation of what was to come next.

Camilla, a literary agent, wakes up on the last morning of her maternity leave to find that her husband, Luke, has disappeared, leaving only a cryptic note in his place. Rather quickly, Cam’s entire world is flipped on end as she learns that her loving husband has for some reason taken three hostages and is barricaded in a warehouse surrounded by police. Cam has absolutely no idea what is happening or why, and she spends the next seven years uncovering the secrets her husband has left behind.

Told in a split perspective narrative between Cam and hostage negotiator, Niall, readers get to see both sides of the story oscillating between Cam’s crumbling world as a single mother, and the perspective of law enforcement who may not be operating with the full story. Famous Last Words twists its readers down a path of mystery and intrigue so seamlessly, but if you pay close attention, you may be able to crack the case well before Cam or Niall.

Honestly, this book was such a fun read that was well thought out to take readers through the motions exactly as the author intended. At first, I found myself judging Cam and how she responded to her husband’s act of violence, but before I even knew it, I was looking at all situations as if through the eyes of Cam and how she justified her actions going forward. In no time, it became hard to separate my thoughts from Cam’s emotions.

If you are a lover of anything mystery/crime/thriller, then I highly recommended Famous Last Words for the perfect late night binge read. This was a great read to pull me back into something outside of the romance genre!

Cam is shocked when the police come to tell her of a hostage situation, and that her husband, Luke, is the hostage taker. After a woman is released, two men are killed, and Luke goes on the run. Cam, a literary agent, can't imagine her husband as this killer. The hostage negotiator, Niall, is tormented by the situation. Then, 7 years later, there may be a break in the case.
Another tense thriller from McAllister, but there were many clues that I understood before they were revealed.

4.5 stars. I really liked this book. On the day that Cam is returning to work after maternity leave, her husband, Luke, is strangely not at home. Instead, he has left a note for Cam that she finds a little odd. While she is at work, a hostage situation is going down in another part of London. When the police show up at her office, she is horrified to learn that her husband is the one holding the hostages. Niall, a hostage negotiator, is called upon to diffuse the situation. The rest of the book tells the story of the days, weeks, and years that follow. I loved the slow burn of this story. Everything the characters thought they knew slowly unravels, thread by thread. The characters move on with their lives in some ways but keep getting drawn back to this day, wondering what they might have missed or how their assumptions might have been wrong. I was so invested in the answers to those questions that I didn't get as much enjoyment from the parts in the middle of the book where that wasn't the main focus. Luckily, that wasn't much of the story, but this is what made it a little less than 5 stars for me. Several of the twists and turns were unexpected. I saw a couple of things coming, but, even so, I couldn't see how the puzzle pieces would all fit together in the end. The author's ability to pull every minute detail back into the story in some way without leaving anything dangling is masterful. This is the second book of hers that really landed well for me, and I'll definitely keep picking up her books in the future. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an early digital copy.

Gillian McAllister is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine.

In Famous Last Words, a mother returns to work after maternity leave. She wonders why her husband wasn't present to drop their daughter off for her first day of daycare. Later, the police come to her office to tell her of a hostage situation. Turns out her husband is the hostage taker. How can this be real? Her husband is not the type of man who would do something like this.

I loved the premise of this one and was not disappointed in how it all played out. I could feel the tension jumping off the page, especially in the first part of the book. The years in the aftermath are slower but still riveting.

Do yourself a favor and read this one.

Thanks to netgalley and William Morrow for the arc.

I related so much with Camilla. She is a literary agent (I’m so jealous!) back from maternity leave when she gets a notice that her husband is holding people hostage. She does not understand and only has a cryptic note he left her to try to explain. The book skips 7 years ahead after the event when Camilla is raising her 7-8 year old daughter and still struggling with what her husband did. She is such a likable person and I felt for her the entire book. The author throws in plenty of twists and an unknown narrator to keep the reader on their toes.

"Famous Last Words" is the story of a perfectly ordinary man doing something heinous and the fall out his family must deal with. Then, a glimmer of hope, not that he did not do the thing but that perhaps he is still alive. This thread leads to the unwinding of the real story. It is intriguing and exciting. The characters are lovable and you want them to find a way out of the mess and back to living real complete lives.

Fans of the genre and author will love this book. It is tightly plotted and well written. I love it though not quite as much as Gillian McAllister's "Wrong Place Wrong Time," which is one of my favorite novels of this genre.

⭐⁣ OVERALL RATING:⭐⁣

⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Love it & Recommend - Great book, lots to love, well written, tight plotting, and characters have depth. Even if I have small problems with it I will recommend and want to share with others.

❤️ ROMANCE RATING ❤️

❤️❤️❤️❤️ | I love them together, they clearly love each other and are meant to be.

🔥 STEAM | CONTENT RATING 🔥

🔥 | Discrete and Innocent - Sexual attraction will be written discretely. Such as, admiring how clothes fit a body, chaste kisses. No sex on or off the page. You would likely be comfortable letting a teenager read the book.

TRIGGERS and CONTENT WARNINGS ahead! Do not read on if you concerned about spoilers. Fair warning, there may be some I've forgotten since reading, but we're all just doing our best here on this blue marble: Mental health topics such as panic attacks, PTSD, depression, Miscarriage, infertility, Violence (not graphic).

Thank you @Netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for early access to this ARC in return for an unbiased and voluntary review

I love this book! It is so mysterious and weird. It also tragic and interesting. I really felt for Cam. Normally I am not into thse types of books but I loved this one.

Camila's life is changed when she finds out about a hostage situation. As it turns out, her husband is the hostage taker. Camila can hardly imagine that her husband could really have done such a horrible thing. We follow her as she is questioned by the police and tries to come to terms with what her husband has done.

I read Wrong place wrong time for the first time a few years ago and I liked it very much. Because I liked the book I immediately read her Nights release, unfortunately it was a little less successful. For this reason I was a bit hesitant to pick up this new release. Unfortunately this book didn't excite me either.
One of the main reasons for this was that I wasn't really interested in what was happening to the characters. Like I enjoyed camila Al's character but unfortunately nothing more. The point of view of the negotiator was really the killer for my enjoyment. He was unlikable from the start and didn't get any better.
So sadly not a successful read for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was my 3rd Gillian McAllister thriller and I was not disappointed! Cam and Luke are happily married with a 9 month old daughter. Until June 21st when Cam is finally headed back to work, she sees a cryptic note that her husband left for her. Later on in the day, she sees something going on in London, a hostage situation, and her husband is at the helm of it all.

Broken into three parts, it did take a bit of a while for me to get interested. I felt that the first part of the book drug on a bit, trying to find out what Luke's motives were to take hostages and his connection to the crime. In the second and third parts of the book, when we find out more details about what's going on is when the book really takes off. I enjoyed reading from Niall's point of view and seeing his internal struggles. It's nice when authors write from a man's perspective and give them a little bit of conflict as well. The novel that Cam was sent plays a crucial role in the story line and I absolutely love that literature was so essential to the plot of the novel. I greatly enjoyed reading books that have characters that are readers and are employed in the literary world.

I went with 5 stars coming right out of the book but after ruminating for a few days, I'm going with a solid 4. I enjoyed the story but it isn't my favorite McAllister thriller (the beginning didn't quite hook me with this one). I still loved it and am looking forward to her next release!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

A fun, fast-paced mystery by the author of "Wrong Place Wrong Time." It really had me gripped from the first page to the last! I read it in about two sittings because I just could not wait to figure it all out. I do think a lot of the big twists were predictable, but I like it when a mystery lays out the clues for you to piece together yourself.

The story is told in mostly two POVs: Camilla, the wife of a man accused of taking hostages and murdering them, and Niall, the hostage negotiator who failed to get said husband to not murder his hostages. There is a mystery POV thrown in there as well, but I won't spoil who that ends up being. I really enjoyed seeing the different perspectives and piecing together the mystery from the clues that they both had access to. They were great characters that had me rooting for them the whole way.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing a digital ARC of this book.

Intense first 1/3, pace drops in the middle, predicted the twists and ending but was so well written & such a good storyline! Very rare for me not to predict the ending but she wrote it so well I didn't find myself saying "but I would have done this" or "this would have been a better idea". Look forward to reading more from her in the future!

This was a very good thriller. I have enjoyed Ms McAllister's books and this one did not disappoint. It was well written and had a nice twist at the end, It kept my interest and I was keen to find out if the accused man was guilty or not.

This book was high on my list for 2025. I chose it for my BOTM pick and then was super excited to buddy read it. Joining a buddy read with that group is always a joy! Then I got approved on NetGalley! It was destiny! Gillian McAllister has a knack of pulling you right into a book. I was hooked from the start, the middle was a little slow but the end pulled you right back in. I enjoyed the writing and the characters.

Imagine your life is almost perfect, until it is not. Camilla wakes up on June 21st to an empty bed. She finds a weird note from him and tries to contact him with no luck. She goes about her day, returning to work after maternity leave, all while trying to get in touch with her husband. She soon finds out her husband is in a hostage situation and he is the gunman. Her once perfect life is thrown into utter chaos as she tries to figure out who she can trust and who her husband is.

This book kept me guessing from beginning to the end. I flipped through as fast as I could because I really wanted to know what was going on. It is told in dual timelines, through three POV’s: Camilla, Niall (the hostage negotiator) and an unknown person. The unknown person added more appeal to figuring out who they were! As always, the buddy read was entertaining! Thank you for letting me join in on the fun!

I received an advance reader copy of Famous Last Words through NetGalley, and I’m so glad I did! This book was a gripping mix of mystery, emotion, and character-driven storytelling that kept me hooked from the very first page.

The premise was unique and immediately intriguing, with a clever blend of suspense and heartfelt moments. The writing was sharp, and the pacing kept things moving without ever feeling rushed. I especially appreciated how the author balanced dark themes with moments of levity and humanity.

The characters were well-developed and complex—flawed, real, and compelling. I found myself invested in their arcs and genuinely curious about how everything would unfold. While a few plot points were a little predictable, the emotional depth and satisfying resolution more than made up for it.

Overall, Famous Last Words is a solid, engaging read that fans of literary mysteries and psychological thrillers will definitely appreciate. I’ll be looking out for more from this author!

What would you do if you woke up one morning to find your partner missing… and then turned on the news to discover he's taken hostages in the middle of London? No warning. No clue. Just a cryptic note and a national crisis. That's the hook behind "Famous Last Words" by Gillian McAllister—and oh, what a hook it is.

From page one, this book did not let go. If it weren't for the constant interruptions of life (you know, jobs, families, eating, sleeping), I would've devoured it in a single sitting. It's a high-stakes, emotionally twisted thriller that keeps your mind racing.

We meet Camilla—new mom, literary agent, and unsuspecting wife—on the morning her world flips upside down. Her husband, Luke, is gone, her daughter is about to go to daycare for the first time, and the news is reporting a hostage situation downtown. And guess who's the gunman? Her husband. The same man who coos at their baby, makes dinner, and never raises his voice. That guy.

What follows is an unraveling of secrets, truths, and emotional wreckage. Cam, who you can't help but root for, tries to piece together what really happened that day—and oddly enough, a mysterious manuscript might hold the answers. That's all I'll say. The less you know, the more fun you'll have.

This was my first Gillian McAllister book, and it absolutely won't be my last. The pacing is on point, the structure is tight, and the characters are relatable and mysterious. I especially loved the ambiguity McAllister builds into every twist—nothing is black and white.

If you love a twisty, character-driven thriller that makes you question how well you know the people you love, "Famous Last Words" should be on your list.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Oh how I love a good mystery thriller.

First of all, thank you to Gillian McAllister, NetGalley, William Morrow Books, and Harper Collins for the eARC of "Famous Last Words." What a delightful and suspense filled read!

Camilla is living the perfect life: her husband, Luke, and their nine-month-old, Polly, live in London. The pair's love story — a literary agent and a writer — belongs in the pages of a rom com and their journey as new parents is just beginning. But one day, Cam is left alone, and Luke appears to be the culprit of a siege that left two unidentified men dead. Then, he is nowhere to be found.

What follows is a 14 year saga in which Cam and the hostage negotiator from the siege try to move on, but continue finding themselves pulled back to that day, and the mystery left behind. Because as both the characters and the reader find out: not all is what it seems.

What I love most about any mystery is the small details left throughout the book and learning, often alongside the characters, how those small details fit into the larger mystery. Gillian McAllister is a master weaver of details. Each bread crumb is used, every clue examined, no stone left unturned. Also, having both Camilla and Niall, the hostage negotiator, following these clues, with the added "surveillance" chapters in between (which, the reveal on this? CRAZY. Absolutely did not see it coming AT ALL), made it that much more interesting. Each character figured out different aspects of the clues and the overarching mystery could only be solved by all of those parts working together.

I also really liked the subsections of the book, how they divided the book into before and after crucial moments. Very small detail but very pleasant all the same.

The only thing I wanted more of throughout the narrative was more on the crime families. I loved this angle and it truly added so much depth to the realization Cam has about her husband's goodness, and strengthens the seemingly innocuous connection between hostage negotiator Niall and Cam, but because I as the reader didn't learn a lot about the crime families, it felt a touch gimmicky. I wanted more. That would have added length to the book and perhaps too many characters, so I can see possibilities why it was left out.

Overall, this is a slow burn mystery thriller that would be great for fans of crime shows and podcasts, or someone who loves puzzles. Happy reading!

Gillian McAllister, a master of suspense, returns with Famous Last Words, a thriller that plunges you into a vortex of chilling secrets and impossible choices. This isn't just a whodunit; it's a heart-stopping race against time where the truth hides in the darkest corners of the human heart.

The premise is simple, yet utterly compelling: a shocking crime, a web of suspects, and a past that refuses to stay buried. McAllister unravels this intricate plot with her signature blend of psychological acuity and breakneck pacing, keeping you guessing until the very last, breathtaking page.

Famous Last Words is more than a thriller; it's an exploration of the lies we tell ourselves and the lengths we'll go to protect those we love. With its complex characters, stunning twists, and an atmosphere thick with dread, this novel will leave you breathless and haunted long after you've finished reading.

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister is a phycological thriller set in London. Camilla discovers her husband, Luke, missing on the day she returns to work from maternity leave. Luke is accused of taking 3 people hostage, killing 2 of them and then disappearing. In the ensuing years, Camilla raises their daughter with the help of her childless sister. Nine years later she is moving on with her life romantically and planning for a future without Luke. Strange things begin to happen leading Camilla to believe that Luke might still be alive. Joining forces with the hostage negotiator from that fateful day, Camilla sets out to find Luke and get answers. This book was hard to put down, with unexpected twists and turns throughout. Thank you #NetGalley and William Morrow Publishers for an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my complimentary copy!

I was really excited for this one - the synopsis sounded really good. Overall, I liked it. But not as much as I was expecting.

Thank you NetGalley! I love Gillian McAllister and was happy to read her newest book. This novel drew me in from the first page. It had a unique plot line and that I instantly enjoyed. It really made me feel for the main characters and how this one event affected their lives