This was the first book I read from this author and I really enjoyed the twist and turns. I did find some parts drawn out and slow, but none the less it wrapped up beautifully and was a great read.

I really enjoyed Famous Last Words. The execution was perfection! I was riveted the whole time and racing to the end! If you like mystery/thrillers, this is a must read!

An ordinary man has a gun aimed at hostages in an old warehouse in London. He’s happily married with a baby girl, nothing about his life can explain why this is happening. Who are the hostages? Why is he threatening to kill them? His wife, Cam, a literary agent, has arrived at the staging area. The police have dispatched Niall, the hostage negotiator, to the scene. He has a background as a detective and trained for these types of scenarios. The drama plays out alternating between Cam and Niall over the next seven years of their lives. The aftermath of that one horrific day plays out for each of them differently. Cam has her sister encouraging her to move on with her life. Niall can’t move past his love for his X-wife. His obsession with his job cost him his marriage yet he still can’t stop secretly investigating the hostage case. Cam never wavers in her belief in her husband, his innocence and her love never wanes. There were times she got on my nerves and I wanted her to listen to her sister and accept how things are. I don’t believe I would’ve made the same decisions she did. I was totally invested in this plot. I really appreciated the viewpoints from the negotiator, I wanted to know everything about the process. While the plot is a tense and dripping with suspenseful situations, the story delves deeply into everlasting love, trust and devotion. I couldn’t wait to see how it ended but didn’t want it to end either. The plot was filled with results I didn’t expect and twists I never saw coming. Another fantastic read that I’m happy to recommend.
HarperCollins books (via NetGalley) provided an Advance Reader Copy of “Famous Last Words” by Gilly McAllister, publication expected 02/25/2025. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

SYNOPSIS
- Camilla & Luke are new parents to their baby girl, Polly. It is Cam’s first day back at work after her maternity leave. At work, there’s breaking news of a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and inform Cam that Luke is the gunman. Niall is the hostage negotiator.
- Cam can’t believe it. Is there more to the story?

MY THOUGHTS
- This is the third book of McAllister’s that I’ve read. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors.
- Compelling, gripping, & impossible to put down.
- Masterful pacing, progression, & plotting. Exquisite execution.
- Loved the characters. They’re developed so well. Cam’s escapism into literature really resonated with me.
- I love how the book touched on our instincts & trusting our gut.
- Satisfying ending.
- The POVs shift between Cam & Niall. I enjoyed seeing how their lives were impacted, and I liked getting to know them both.
- Time jumps from the time of the hostage situation to times in the future.
- The book is a thriller/suspense, but also looks at relationships, family, and love.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ahh, the Queen has done it again. LOVED this one. Add to your TBR immediately.

Thanks to William Morrow & Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchanges for an honest review. This book will be published on February 24, 2025.

Okay, this is a great read! It's nearly impossible to put down, and it keeps you guessing the entire time!

Cam has a good life with her husband Luke and baby Polly until the day she returns to work from maternity leave and soon sees her husband on TV, holding three people hostage. Two wind up dead and Luke disappears. Cam cannot believe Luke would do such a horrible thing, but he's vanished, and she has no proof. Seven years later, she's trying to raise Polly alone and still grappling with the ramifications of how her husband's actions affected her family.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS alternates Cam's story with that of Niall's, the hostage negotiator who "botches" Liam's hostage taking event, because he truly did not feel that Luke was a bad guy who would take a shot. He remains invested in Luke's case, which changed his life.

This story is so twisty and full of surprises and fun plot twists. Luke leaves Cam a mysterious note but not much else to go on. Her investigation--combined with Niall's--is fascinating. Even better, there's a wonderful character-driven piece woven into this story. Cam is a bookish woman (she works in publishing) and I found it so easy to identify with her introverted side. Through Cam, we receive insights on motherhood and there's a very moving side plot involving her sister, who is struggling with infertility. As for Niall, whose wife leaves him the day of the siege, he offers a surprisingly tender side along with his hostage and detective perspectives.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Cam and Luke are a lovely couple, their baby Polly is 9 months old. On Cam’s first day back from maternity leave, Luke is missing. We come to find out that there is a hostage situation, and the gunman…is Luke. For the first third of this book I honestly thought 5⭐️. I loved the thrill, and the way it was unraveling. The middle was a struggle for me to get into, and I felt like the end was rushed. Like the climax moment I wanted to be longer, and eliminate some of the middle. Overall, it was a good premise, and an okay read. I just thought I would be hooked, and then come 40% I was just trying to finish it.

Gillian does it again! I thought this one started a little bit slow but as soon as it hit Part 2, it really picked up steam and I couldn’t put it down. The twists were twisting in this one! Love when I’m not able to figure things out before the reveal. Thank you William Morrow team for the ARC!

I really enjoy the authors books, so I was looking forward to read this new one. I enjoyed the suspense and mystery of the story. I thought it went by a bit slow and was waiting for something to happen. But it picked up in the end and all the pieces came together.

Famous Last Words is Gillian McAllister's newest release. At its heart it is a story about Camilla and Luke, new parents who are thrown into absolutely unfathomable circumstances when Luke ends up entangled somehow in a hostage situation. The book unfolds slowly and patiently. I did guess some of the twists but it didn't matter-I had to read to the very end to know how things turned out for each of the characters. What Gillian McAllister does skillfully is flesh out characters that are real, flawed, and three-dimensional. Camilla, Niall, Luke, and even some of the side characters like Libby are all completely believable. The ending is great-everything is explained and all of the characters' storylines are tied up. I also loved that Cam works in the publishing industry!

If you are a die-hard Tana French fan (particularly if the Dublin Murder Squad books were home runs for you) then I would hand you this book in a heartbeat.

Thanks to the publisher for granting me my request for an ARC of this one!

4.5 stars!

This book was so good! I got about 3/4 of the way through and said "I cannot figure out what is going on", and that is the best feeling! The pacing of this book was perfect. The characters were so well written, that I really felt invested in them throughout the book. The dual POVs, and multiple timelines worked so well in this story. I was hooked throughout the whole book, I was shocked by the twists, and I loved the characters. This book is a must read!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the option to read and review "Famous Last Words"!

This book is about both love and crime and explores the question: how do you reconcile the bad things a person has done with the love you still have for them? I enjoyed the inner dialogue of Cam’s struggle to figure out if she could move on from her husband when she truly believed he was still out there, and it was cool to see that paralleled in Niall’s experience with his ex wife. Plot-wise this story really fell flat for me. It felt like the author couldn’t decide how to distribute the love story plot line with the mystery plot line, which left a lot of the mystery to unfold in the last 15 percent. The first chunk of the book was just inner struggle, and it felt like the storyline was not developing at all, leaving the last chunk to happen way too fast with new characters thrown in at the last minute. Overall it was a really cool concept, but I struggled with the execution.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

unfortunately i am in the minority of people who just didnt care for or connect with this book, the premise sounded extremely insane in the best of ways but the story progressed entirely too slow to keep me engaged. for the first time in a thriller i found myself not able to force myself through to at least get to the big plot reveals at the end, i simply just stopped caring what it could be…😅

i think my biggest issue in all of it was the negotiators point of very, i found being in his head annoying from the start. i enjoyed Cams pov and would have liked to have possibly gotten Lukes at some point but again i just cant push myself to get past everything else to get to the grander things.

im hopeful that in the future another of gillian’s books will work better for me, or maybe giving this a try with an audio one day?

This book started off strong and never let off the pedal. It was so hard to put down and I just had to know how it all connected! It was like putting a puzzle together while I read it! Such a masterpiece!!

Fantastic book by Gillian McAllister! A puzzle to piece together as you read. It kept me guessing the whole way through! It wasn’t a fast-paced thriller, but I picked it up every spare minute I had because I was so interested in the story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

I LOVE Gillian McAllister! I was so excited and when I found out that she was writing a new book! Let me tell you the book hangover is so real with this one. Who am I kidding? I’m probably going to just reread it now.

4.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for my ARC and exchange for my honest review. This book will be published February 25, 2025.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, who wrote the very popular “ Wrong Place Wrong Time”, a Reese’s Book Club pick.

I read this book in two days and couldn’t put it down. It was a definite page-turner with unexpected twists.

This book started off strong and never let off the pedal. It was so hard to put down and I just had to know how it all connected! Such a masterpiece!!

WOW. WOW. WOW.

What a book!! This book has me intrigued from the first chapter! I NEEDED to know how Luke was involved and what happened. And it did not disappoint. The entire book I was trying to guess what happened & who was the bad guy and where Luke was but I only got about 25% of it right. Yet the answers were under our nose the entire time!! This is hands down one of my favorite mystery/thrillers EVER

3.75 This book was a thriller set around a hostage situation that no one seems to understand. The Hostage taker seemed to have no reason to be taking hostages. As the story goes on, the reader is given snippets of information about the events leading up to the fateful day. It was meant to be an edge of the seat thriller, but I didn't find that to be the case. I found it fairly predictable. The good guy who was working for the bad guy, who was writing the novel that Cam and received., etc. I have enjoyed Gillian McAllister's books in the past, but this one just didn't have the same "twist" as the others. Thanks to Net Galley for this ARC opportunity.

✨ A love story. A siege. A hostage negotiation. Motherhood. Marriage. ALL of these elements and more are seamlessly blended into this page-turner that I couldn’t get enough of.

✨This is an excellent thriller with plenty of twists and turns. I was completely shocked at the final outcome.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Dual points of view
✨Multiple timelines
✨A puzzle to piece together
✨Fast-paced thrillers
✨London settings

My thanks to @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.