Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow and author, Gillian McAllister for the arc!

You guys. Gillian McAllister never disappoints! This little thrill ride is no exception! The author describes the book as a love story set in a hostage situation … that alone should hook ya! 100%

Right out the gate … I was asking so many questions and anxiously flippin’ pages to get to the answers! I thought a couple of times I could see where this was going? Maybe? But the clever writing had me fooled.

The characters are very well written, the plot has perfectly timed twists, turns and reveals and the whole package put together makes for a solid suspense that will keep you invested until the very last page!

I love this author! This was a great suspenseful read that kept me turning pages the whole time. Can't wait to read more from this author.

This is everything we expect from Gillian McAllister. A twisty thriller that will keep you guessing all throughout.

This was a twisty read, a lot of unexpectedness. It did take me a while to get into the story but I realize now that the author was setting everything up and putting it all together. I did not expect the way it all played out but it was very clever what Luke did and all his planning. I recommend this book and recommend you give it time to piece it together.

I thought this was going to be a quick read for me. The premise sounded so interesting and I jumped right in. But I hit a wall about 100 pages in and actually read a whole other book before picking this back up (which I never do). I was interested but it was just dragging through the middle for me. I did really like the last 100 pages although I figured out one twist rather early. Overall, it tied everything up in an interesting way but I needed more action in the middle. I’ll still recommend this to anyone who enjoys a slow burn mystery. I also loved the bit of a love story weaved throughout this mystery.

Read if you like:
▫️slow burn mystery
▫️books about books
▫️dual POVs

Full of twists and surprises, every reader will be blindsided by at least one of them! Camilia is in love with life, her husband, and her baby until things are upended in the most dramatic of all fashions. But, she carries on and rebuilds her life. The story not only follows Camilia, but also the police officer at the center of the day that ruined her life. It was interesting to see how it hung over both of them in very different ways and how the mystery was finally, slowly, unwound. Of course, Camilia's love of reading and escaping in to books didn't hurt towards making her a sympathetic character. This was worked into the plot wonderfully! I loved all the little bits that combined for a great read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Gillian McAllister. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

It's June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla's life will never be the same. After her maternity leave, she's going to drop off Polly at nursery and return to work a a literary agent. But when she wakes up, her husband Luke is no where to be found. In his place, a cryptic note on the table. Then breaking news about a hostage situation erupts and the police tell her Luke is involved, but not as a hostage.

Wow - I read a lot of thrillers but this one really grabbed me from the very beginning. Cam's strong belief in her husband and her disbelief that he could do something like this felt palpable. The tension kept ratcheting up as we hear from multiple POVs over a stretch of time. Niall, the hostage negotiator, was a fabulous character as well, just trying to do the right thing no matter what. This line from the book resonated with me throughout - "Funny how things look different depending on what you know to be true." Enough said because I don't want to give anything away - but this is a must read if you love thrillers!

The day she's to return to work after maternity leave, Camilla wakes up to find that her husband is involved in a hostage situation - as the PERPETRATOR. Holy moly, what a ride! These pages simply flew by as I raced to find out what in the actual heck was going on here. This unique premise grabbed me from the start and the pace remained steady and quick throughout the book. I thought I had things figured out more than once, but I was wrong every single time.

This thriller is for fans of TJ Newman and McAllister's backlist Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Don't pick this one up if you've got somewhere to be tomorrow morning; you're going to need a nap after a long night.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this thriller prior to publication in exchange for my honest review.

This was a wild ride and kept me guessing from the get go. Very fast paced and gripping. I liked the characters and the different view points. Thank you to Net Galley and William Morrow Publishing for the ARC!

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I loved this one! It pulled me in immediately because the action starts right away. One of the twists definitely surprised me which always makes me enjoy a book more. Gillian McAllister will continue to be an auto read author for me.

This was my first book by this author. I was a really good book with twists you don't expect. The ending was not expected. I give it 4 stars. the only thing i would say wasn't good was i felt like the timeline wasn't always easy to follow and I noticed that the outside vs inside wasn't always clear either. Aside from that, it was an amazing story.

After a long extended, 9 month maternity leave, Camilla goes back to work. Luke her husband, is suppose to go to the daycare center with her when dropping off Polly their baby. Cam cannot find him, he's stepped out. She waits until it's time to go. He isn't answering his phone, his texts or his whatapp. Off to daycare they go then Cam goes to work. Though frustrated, she goes to work and will find out why later. While at work Cam's day is going fine. She's getting back in the groove when she an officer comes to her and asks to talk to her. That is when she discovers Luke is holding three people hostage at gunpoint!

The book kept me guessing and had its share of "wait a minute...what?"

I would give it 5 stars, and I can't say why without a massive spolier.

Thankyou NetGalley and William Marrow for an arc of the book, was glad to read it!

I absolutely loved this. I read the whole thing in one sitting, like could not put it down. Just Another Missing Person was sort of a miss for me so I wasn't sure about this one but I was so pleasantly surprised! Highly recommend

How could she have been so wrong about her husband?

Camilla Deschamps, literary agent and somewhat frazzled new mother, is about to have her first day back in the office after nine months of maternity leave. She's equal parts nervous and excited....she loves her job and looks forward to going back but is conflicted about leaving her daughter Polly in daycare...and is annoyed when her husband Luke is nowhere to be seen the morning when she is getting ready to head out for her first drop-off. He is the calm, even-keeled part of their relationship, it's Cam who is the nervous worrier...she had counted on his presence to keep her in balance She finds a cryptic note he's left behind, but hasn't the time to focus on it. She also has no idea that her whole world is about to come crashing down. By the end of the day, Luke has taken three strangers hostage for reasons unknown, and after an hours long stand off will disappear, leaving behind dead bodies. This is not something that the man she knew, loved, and with whom she conceived a child would do, and yet...he did. She spends the next seven years without further word from or about Luke, not knowing what happened in the empty warehouse that day, nor whether or not he is even still alive. She still can't reconcile what she knew of her husband and what by all accounts he did that day, and has found it hard to move on. Then a series of events unfold that will bring those questions crashing down on Cam's life, and if she can't get answers to them her safety and that of her daughter hangs in the balance.
The age old question of whether or not we truly know the people we love forms the starting point for this twisty psychological thriller by Gillian McAllister. In protagonist Cam the reader has a well-developed and relatable character, a young mother trying to balance her career with her new parental responsibilities. An introvert for whom quiet alone time (often devoted to her lifelong love of reading) has always been important, Cam has relied heavily on Luke to handle his share of Polly time. To become in one fell swoop the wife of a notorious criminal (a killer!) and a single parent is quite an adjustment; she is fortunate to have colleagues and her sister (who herself has long struggled to conceive a child) on whom to rely as she adjusts. When is it time to move on? How does one finally accept that someone you thought you knew as well as you know yourself was someone capable of a monstrous deed? Love, trust, marriage, motherhood and other complex subjects are all part of the weft and warp of the novel. The underlying mystery pursued both by Cam and by Niall, the police hostage negotiator who tried and failed to resolve the hostage stand off without loss of life (and whose career and personal life imploded in the aftermath) has all manner of surprise turns throughout. As a veteran reader of mysteries and thrillers not all came as a complete surprise to me, but several did keep me fooled till the end. All in all, a well-paced tale with relatable characters and palpable tension, likely to appeal to readers of Lisa Jewell, Clare Mackintosh and Ruth Ware. Bonus points for the book publishing backdrop too. My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me access to this hard-to-put-down thriller in exchange for my honest review,

After dropping off her child at daycare and coming off her maternity leave, Cam's husband Luke is missing. This one kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat especially when Cam gets an alert about a hostage situation at a local warehouse and HER HUSBAND is the suspect. WHAT. I'll keep this short but if you like thrillers this is a MUST

Finally, a decent thriller!

Today is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and possibly the longest day of Camilla Deschamps' life. Today is the end of Camilla's maternity leave, and she will return to her job as a literary agent after she drops her daughter Poppy off at her first day of daycare. Camilla can't believe her husband Luke is missing it, but when she can't get a hold of him, she assumes he's locked away in his co-working space, hard at work ghostwriting his latest biography. Her morning passes without incident, until she sees the news about a hostage situation in downtown London. She knows in her gut that Luke is involved, and when the police arrive at her office, her worst fears are confirmed, but not in the way that she thinks.

Niall is a hostage negotiator, and he has been called in to the scene at Bermondsey to work his magic and deescalate the situation. But his instincts turn out to be wrong, ending both the siege and his career.

Seven years later, Camilla still has no answers about Luke, and she thinks she might be ready to move on. But then something mysterious happens, and she can't help but wonder if Luke has come back for her. With the help of Niall. she attempts to get to the bottom of what happened 7 years ago and figure out if she was wrong about her husband the whole time.

I have never read a Gillian McAllister book, and I was excited for this. It sucked me in right at the start. Is Luke the doting husband and father that Cam thinks he is? Or does he have a dark side that nobody suspected?

There were a good number of twists and turns in this book that I appreciated, because they weren't gimmicky, and they weren't there to shock you. They were there to propel the story. When we find out who Charlie actually is, I gasped. I haven't done that in a while.

I think I would have been interesting if Luke actually WAS a bad guy, and not just someone who got himself in a bad situation. I found Camilla's constant and desperate belief in her husband to be a little bit of a turn-off. I wanted her to move on, but I guess she was right!

I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking to get out of a slump, who wants a quick read that is interesting and also well-written.

Camilla is back at work for the first day after maternity leave, and is feeling unsettled that her husband hasn’t responded to any of her messages. The police show up to her office and tell her Luke is involved in a hostage situation….not as a victim, but as the gunman.

What follows is a character-driven story about the love a couple has for each other and the lengths they will both go to believe each other’s innocence. I’m looking forward to chatting about this with my book club.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I’m so excited to have read this as an arc. I love Gillian McAllister’s writing style. Twisty, exciting, engaging. Recommend to go in blind!

<i><b>"Three hostages sit on two wooden chairs in a warehouse in Bermondsey. But what is most mysterious about these events isn’t the man taking hostages: it’s that nobody— not even the police—seems to know who two of the hostages are."</b></i>

Camilla, is navigating new motherhood while grappling with an unfolding nightmare that shatters her perception of the man she thought she knew. The setup immediately hooks you in, combining domestic suspense with high-stakes drama.
McAllister is 3/3 on delivering a great story that keeps you on your toes.

<i>As always, shout-out to my homies at Netgally and the Harper Collins for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

3.5 rounded up. Great premise and great start. In fact, the beginning and end of Famous Last Words were 4+ but the pages in between were at times hard to power through. There was a lot of speculation and I guess a lot of setting up - but it was a lot! Camilla wakes up on the morning she is to return to work as a literary agent from maternity leave and her husband has left for the day. She's perplexed but powers through getting her now 9 month old Polly off to daycare for the first time solo. Within a few hours her entire life has changed drastically and there is no going back. At just a tad over 300 pages, this is a fairly quick read, but you will have to have a little patience to let the slower burn of the middle get set up for you. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow books for an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Famous Last Words will be available on 2/25/25.