Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This book is fantastic! I read it in a day and the twists that it took me on!!! I kept screaming out loud. It's a must read for any thriller lover.

Famous Last Words
Utterly compelling read with love and marriage at its core.
What would you do if you found out your husband is involved in a barricade situation and he isn’t one of the hostages- he is the gunman?
4 stars

A Masterclass in Twisty, Unputdownable Thriller Writing

Gillian McAllister has done it again with Famous Last Words—a gripping, intricately woven thriller that keeps you guessing until the very last page. The novel is packed with twists and turns in all the best ways, delivering surprises that feel both shocking and brilliantly earned.

The story unfolds with McAllister’s signature precision, blending suspense, emotion, and deeply compelling characters. Every chapter propels you forward, making it impossible to stop reading. Just when you think you have it figured out, the narrative shifts in a way that makes you question everything.

What sets Famous Last Words apart is McAllister’s ability to balance intricate plotting with rich character development. The tension builds perfectly, leading to a resolution that is as satisfying as it is unexpected. Fans of psychological thrillers will absolutely devour this one. Highly recommended!

Camilla & Luke have a lovely life. Where Camilla is anxious her husband Luke is laidback. Camilla is the introvert who is happy to be left alone with a book while Luke is the life of the party and has never met a stranger. They are the perfect compliment to one another. After months of maternity leave it is finally the day for Camilla to return to work. She is feeling anxious and nervous to leave her infant daughter in daycare. It seems strange to wake and Luke not be there with his steady hand and comforting words. Only a note is left that morning, how strange the message. Not really saying anything. Camilla goes about her day not realizing that today will change the course of her life forever. Breaking news comes out of London a gunman has three hostages. The cops arrive to tell Camilla that her husband is part of the siege captured in the news, only he is not a hostage but the gunman. Camilla can't reconcile the lovely easy going man she shares a life with being the man they describe. Here begins a mystery that spans 7 years. 7 years of wondering how she could have missed the signs, 7 years of wondering if he is alive, 7 years of raising their daughter alone. Struggling to move on she tries to date and finally list the home they loved and lived in together. I just love the way Gillian McAllister weaves a mystery and unfolds a story in a unique way. This was a captivating read that had me trying to put all the pieces together. You become so fully invested in Camilla and want the best for her. At the same time we are also following Niall the hostage negotiator and the toll that this has taken on his life. He feels untethered by this experience no longer trusting his instincts. He ends up losing his career as a negotiator, his marriage, and peace of mind. There are still so many unknowns after 7 years. One hostage was set free the other two executed but still after all this time have not been identified.
Five stars: I absolutely loved this and have already purchased my copy. I can't wait to read it again and be fully immersed in the story. Definitely recommend reading this on a day when you can sink into it with no distractions. Thank you so much to NetGalley. This just solidifies that Gillian McAllister is a favorite and auto buy author for me.

A fun, unexpected, have to finish it in one day type of thriller! Famous Last Words is a rollercoaster of a ride in the best kind of way. It didn’t immediately grip me (it took a few chapters), but once I got into it, I was hooked. I loved the short chapters, multiple narrators, and layered story approach. Fans of investigative books and shows will love this one; you feel like you are a member of the police right in the thick of things throughout many of the scenes.

For Camilla, a seemingly normal day becomes the worst one imaginable when police show up at her work and inform her that her gentle, loving, never-committed-a-crime-a-day-in-his-life husband is suspected of holding several people hostage at gunpoint in a downtown warehouse. Before she knows it, her life turns upside down and she’s left with far more questions than answers, but is determined to stand by her husband and uncover the larger story.

Thank you to Gillian McAllister, William Morrow, HarperAudio, & NetGalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

I love Gillian McAllister's books because not many authors in this genre can so perfectly combine a gripping, fast paced plot, with well developed characters. Typically in mysteries and thrillers it is the character development that is lacking- but this is where McAllister really shines. I LOVED Cam's character so much. I loved learning about her job, I loved how relatable she was as a new mother, and I loved her love for her husband. The negotiator's character was well fleshed out and likeable too. Overall, the plot kept me intrigued and turning the pages, but I was a little disappointed with the ending. It felt like the resolution was quickly and easily wrapped up after YEARS of searching for answers. Other than that, I really enjoyed the reading experience. If you're looking for a faced paced novel with well done characters, this one is for you!

I couldn’t put this book down! It starts off strong and becomes a slow burn with clues and twists and turns. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I will definitely be reading more. Highly recommended!

This one started out fast and exciting. Right away things were not as I expected. It was written through different perspectives and I enjoyed both of them. There were definitely surprises that I wasn't predicting and it made the book so fun. This is the second book I have read by this author and the second one that was great! A recommended read.

I pity the book I'll be reading after finishing McAlister's Famous Last Words. This book is a solid 5 stars (I would give it more if I could!) and will be on my list of top books for 2025.

It's everyone's nightmare: hearing the name of your partner/child/parent blasted on a news broadcast. And not because they have come to harm, but because they are the one enacting harm.

Camilla is steadfast in her belief that Luke could not have done the things the police and news so clearly say he has. But after 7 years, with no word from Luke, she is ready to have him declared dead. Start dating. Put her house on the market. But then Niall, the hostage negotiator who was outside the warehouse when the siege took place tells her something that will shake her to her foundation.

This is a book that will take you out of whatever reading slump you're in. Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance reader's copy.

Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @gillianmcallister for my gifted ARC. Famous Last Words is out Feb 25, but it’s also a @bookofthemonth pick for February!

I absolutely loved this book! It’s one of the best suspense novels I’ve read in a long time.

Camilla thinks the hardest part of her week is her young baby starting daycare, but that same day, her husband goes missing. Suddenly she hears unfathomable news: her husband is involved in a hostage situation, but he’s actually the one holding people hostage! How can this be the father of her child? The love of her life? I was hooked on this book throughout and I loved the time jump near the end. I really felt for Camilla who had so much to deal with being a single parent and her husband under scrutiny and surveillance. She doesn’t speak to him after the events and she must have so many questions.

I also love when books have a special connection to your real life. In the book, Cam’s daughter Polly starts daycare the same day as the standoff. The same week I read this book, my own daughter MOLLY started daycare. I’m happy to report Molly’s first day went much better than Polly’s!

To me, this suspense novel read more as a family drama.

The hostage situation that the description focuses on takes place at the very start of the book and only lasts a few chapters. The majority of the book takes place seven years later, as the main character continues to wonder what happened to her husband in the aftermath of the hostage situation.

While the first few chapters were intriguing, the rest of the book felt repetitive, with little plot development. There were many instances of characters explaining things to other characters when we had already understood them through the first character's perspective. There was a heavy focus on the personal relationships of both the main character and the hostage negotiator who originally worked the case (and his point of view didn't feel necessary at all if the story was meant to focus more on emotions than actions). The pace picked up at the end, but the conclusion felt underwhelming and left several loose ends.

Overall, this was a miss for me, but fans of The Last Thing He Told Me may enjoy it!

I enjoyed McAllister’s book Wrong Place, Wrong Time, but had written in that review that I probably wouldn’t read any more of her books because of all the f-words. Well here I am. I read another one. I apparently didn’t remember my own advice.

And there were, indeed, some f-words in this one as well (though not as much as some other books)

But maybe it’s worth it? I don’t know.

I decided I like how Gillian (we’re on a first name basis right now) combines both the mystery and suspense of a thriller with some emotional mom/wife stuff in her books.

Gillian’s comment on Goodreads for this book is “a love story set in a hostage situation.” (Or rather ‘siege’ because, again, we’re very Brit here, not actually being seiged by an army in a fortress.)


In both books, she does a good job of drawing you into the character’s dilemma and emotional struggle with the conflict at hand and the internal risks of coming to terms with reality.

In Wrong Place, Wrong Time, we have a mother trying to figure out why her son stabbed a guy. In Famous Last Words, we have a wife (and mother) trying to figure out why her husband sieged three people, killed two (unidentified), and disappeared.


The book starts out with Cam being frustrated that her husband left the house and left her to do everything for their daughter, Polly’s, first day of day care when Cam goes back to work as a book editor. (I included this whole explanation because seriously, morning routine is the worst and how could you jet with no explanation!?!)

It doesn’t take long for her to see the news and see that her husband has a good excuse. He’s kinda in the middle of something. You know… a warehouse with his hostages. So the police have shown up to search their house and see if Cam has any knowledge of what Luke (her husband) is doing. (Duh, detective, if she was going to be involved she would have made him help with breakfast and drop offs and THEN go do the siege. Amateurs.)

That’s the first part of the book- the siege. (You’re gonna hear this word a lot.)

Then we jump ahead seven years. Luke has been missing this whole time. Cam is torn between presuming him to be dead and being able to move on with her life and wanting him to be alive because she still wants to believe he’s a good person and that he will come back to her.

“How, exactly, do you move on? she wants to say. Tell me. Tell me how to stop searching for answers. Tell me how to be fine with abandonment. Tell me how to embrace being a single parent. It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, not in these circumstances, not when you’re alone and disciplining and cooking and bedtiming and lying to your child every single day about who their father truly is.”

I’m not sure what single parenting has tried to crack up to be, but I think it’s always hard any way you slice it and I feel her struggle. When your loving husband does something that doesn’t make sense and no answers are ever figured out, how DO you move on from that?


Well after seven years, Cam gets an anonymous text with a set of coordinates and a time to meet. This sets off a whole new round of investigations where Cam sets aside ‘moving on’ in hopes that Luke is finally contacting her and she’ll finally discover what was behind the siege.



Oh yeah, and as per the title he has some famous last words: “It’s been so lovely with you both.” At first they don’t seem to allude to anything helpful. However, if anything, I was able to determine part of what was going on.

The thriller part of this is somewhat figuring out who the bad guys are, but it’s also just wanting to know the catalyst for the siege. You don’t really get the full story until close to the end so I like that Gillian didn’t reveal too much too early. It kept the suspense up.


It’s told in alternating POVs between Cam and Niall who was the hostage negotiator during the infamous siege. After the bad outcome of the situation, it’d been haunting Niall and he ends up doing some of his own investigating to figure out what went wrong and why his instincts steered him so wrong that fateful day. Cam and Niall’s lives obviously continue to cross one another.



A few things I liked:

I liked that Cam and Luke had their own inside jokes, like being ‘sweepy.’ I was realizing that my husband and I have been married long enough now that we have some inside jokes that we have no memory of why or where they came from. Perhaps we will adopt sweepy to add to our collection.

I liked how she described her boss Stuart: “he has been, for the past couple of years, that most toxic of things: a gym convert”

I liked the side relationship of Cam with her sister, Libby, and how there was a closeness to their relationship but also growth as they navigated Libby’s infertility struggles. Dysfunctional and suspicious family members tend to be the norm for thrillers so I like that her and her sister’s relationship had its challenges but was generally very stable. I was also able to relate somewhat to Libby’s infertility feelings. I never had to do IVF or struggle for as long as her but I still understand the jealousy and feelings towards others that you know are unwarranted but nevertheless how you feel because why can’t your body make and hold a baby?! It’s such a tough thing to endure.



One plot criticism:

The ‘hiding out’ period of seven years feels like a lot to survive. I can’t really imagine someone doing what he did for so long without going insane. I wonder if shortening that time period would have made more sense, although I think that time frame was chosen because of the laws about declaring a missing person deceased. So I guess this is just one of those things where you just accept that after seven years there’s still just a sleeping bag instead of a bed and of course he’s only spoken out loud five instances in all that time but is still a normal human being. Moving on.


One other criticism:

“The trainers he wanted— Vejas— came into fashion and then went out again.” Um… I was literally told last week to buy these Veja shoes. I ended up getting a pair from someone, but you’re telling me they’re already out of fashion!? Or is the US behind? Or maybe this is just the speculative fiction part of the novel and everything is fine. Talk about the biggest twist of the book…!



Obligatory Words I Learned Section

Jaffa cakes: Cam and Luke’s ‘eating your feelings’ treat that is made of sponge, orange-flavored jam, and chocolate. I guess my feelings are more pure and salty instead of spongy- bring on the chips and straight up chocolate

fisselig: a German word meaning ‘flustered to the point of incompetence”; I don’t know how to use it in a sentence but if I could I would all the time

copper: apparently it’s not disrespectful to call police officers ‘coppers’ in England or else Gillian would probably be in jail right now

pensioner: probably the equivalent of a US snowbird but they just stay put and get to be called by their source of income instead of something prettier

dressing gown: that fancy little (but probably big) robe that men wear to smoke a pipe or something? I’m trying to imagine any male I know owning a dressing gown but I can’t… is the American version of this concept just sweatpants and a hoodie?

mange-touts: sugar peas; but if I didn’t look this one up I would have guessed it was a nasty looking fish

five-a-side: an indoor football… well soccer… game with five people to a side; good thing all sports have a different number of people on a side or this could get real confusing

lock-up: a storage unit (that someone was staying in… not to be confused with jail, because he was definitely not in jail as that was the failure of the last seven years for the coppers….. Police. I can’t say it without feeling like a criminal)



Recommendation

Well I thought I wasn’t going to read any more of Gillian McAllister’s books but then I forgot what I thought and now I think maybe I will.

I don’t like the swearing, but I think she weaves a good story and taps into both my desire for suspense and mystery and my complex mom feelings where I agree that every child that dies is Polly (well, my Pollies) and all parents are me and how could my kids ever live without knowing their dad and could my parenting ever turn my kid into a stabber?!

So I guess read at your own risk, but to quote myself from my review of her other book: “Swearing aside, I can’t think of a reason not to read the book. Unless you don’t like time travel.” Whoops. Not that last part. No time travel here! Well. I guess they jump seven years into the future but we’ll give that a time travel pass.

Also, if you love books where husbands disappear and leave something behind and the wife is left with their daughter to figure out what he’s mixed up in, you should read The Last Thing He Told Me.


[Content Advisory: 36 f-words, 20 s-words]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

Loved this addictively bingeable book. New mother Camilla discovers that her husband is in a hostage situation, as the hostage taker. He manages to escape and disappear completely leaving only a cryptic note behind. Years later as Camilla is trying to get her husband declared legally dead subtle clues and the feeling of being watched start to become common place. Is he really gone? Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Famous Last Words
𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛: Gillian McAllister
𝙿𝚞𝚋 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎: 02/25/25
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Mystery, Thriller
𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚝: Physical book (336 pages)
𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

3.5 stars
•~

Thank you so much to the author, William Marrow, and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜: “If anything... it’s been so lovely with you both.”

I think McAllister is a brilliant writer; all her books are so clever and they have the ability to keep me hooked.

It started like any other morning for Cam, except it's her daughter's first day of daycare and her husband, Luke, is nowhere to be found. After trying to reach him multiple times and not getting ahold of him, Cam could just feel that something was terribly wrong. Then the police came knocking.

I enjoyed the different timelines here. We are immerged in the present situation and then we jump 7 years ahead. I think this allowed us to truly envision just how one single moment could change the lives of everyone, really. My heart broke for all the people that were involved, one way or the other, in the hostage situation.

While there are so many things I loved about this story, I was able to guess early on how it would play out. I don't pin this on the author, this is all me, I read too many books within this genre. The middle part also dragged a little but I didn’t find it unbearable to get through. Lastly, I do feel like you have to keep an open mind with how certain things unfold.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend Famous Last Words. I think this book told a great story overall and I had a lot of fun reading it.

This was Gillian's best book yet! I absolutely loved this one. SO much happened in the first 30% of the book, i was wondering where the story was going to go from there, but Gillian did not dissapoint. There were so many twists and turns in this book, It was so creative how Luke got in touch with Camilla under the guise if the manuscript. Niall was great, as was Camilla. I was hooked from beginning to end.

This was okay, but nothing too memorable. This author seems mediocre for me now after the success of her first few novels.

Famous Last Words follows Camilla on her first day back at work from maternity leave. Her day takes a turn when police arrive at her office to tell her that her husband has taken hostages. The story follows Cam as she tries to figure out what happened to the man she loved and the last words he left for her.

Camilla and Luke are new parents navigating the adjustments when he leaves her a note as he heads to work that it has "been lovely being with the 2 of them". This makes no sense to her and doesn't sound like him at all and it gets weirder when she receives a call that he has a gun and 3 hostages near his writing studio. Her husband? In her gut she just can't believe it. The hostage negotiator detective can't believe he failed and goes on his own investigation. This is not only a suspenseful murder mystery told from the viewpoints of both Camilla and the detective but also a gripping novel about love as she questions everything she ever knew about her husband and the things she did not know!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC! @FamousLastWords

Camilla seems to have a perfect life--until she wakes up one day to find her husband missing. But Luke is quickly found. He hasn't disappeared after all, but is instead on the national news holding a group of people hostage in a downtown building. As Camilla tries to come to terms with her new reality and life without Luke, she also starts looking into the reality of what may have happened that fateful day. While an interesting premise, Famous Last Words failed to keep my attention. I didn't particularly feel like all the loose ends were tied up, or that they provided the best explanation. Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

I loved this book! Gillian McAllister never misses…I became instantly hooked by the hostage negotiations and trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Gillian also creates characters that feel so real and I felt so deeply for Cam and Luke. The complexities of the story keep me guessing until the very end, and I loved every minute of it!