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My Review with Spoilers for the Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave will discuss what kind of book this was, anyway? How similar is it to The Last Thing He Told Me? And most importantly, will YOU like it? Let’s discuss! This post contains a plot summary and protected spoilers.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
The Night We Lost Him: Jen’s Quick Take
- Follows a very similar format as The Last Thing He Told Me, which I will describe below
- It’s a stretch to call either book mystery or suspense, which I will also discuss below. Based on my own categorization rules, I’d call this a very loose amateur detective story.
- The TL;DR: The Night We Lost Him was women’s fiction featuring an aspirational travelogue and interesting family drama elements. If you liked The Last Thing He Told Me, you will probably like this.
- BUT I think that The Last Thing He Told Me is a better book, with more dramatic tension and more well developed characters.
- The Last Thing He Told Me also had a major unresolved element, and there will be a sequel coming out next year.
Review for for The Night We Lost Him
If you’ve read The Last Thing He Told Me, then The Night We Lost Him might feel familiar in concept and structure.
- A female main character with a creative, New Age-y job (artist/wood turner or neuro-architect.) Both women will use their job to make analogies about life and love
- An absent male character who leaves behind a big mystery (either a new husband or a father)
- Main character pairs up with a family member with whom she has a prickly relationship (I will call them the “Prickly Pair”)
- The Prickly Pair travels extensively to investigate the secrets of the absent male character and explore their shared grief over his absence.
- The travel involves hip, upscale/aspirational locations (Sausalito, Austin, Santa Barbara, NYC’s West Village and Brooklyn)
- Plot that involves the Prickly Pair running around talking to a bunch of people, many of whom are difficult, misleading, obstructive, forgetful, or secretive.
- There’s a lot of money involved, even though everyone involved has plenty of it already.
- There’s also a Mystery Woman who could be the key to everything.
Summary of the Book’s Premise
- Nora has lost both her mother and her father in the past year, her mother in a biking accident and her father from a fall.
- She’s contacted by her (somewhat estranged) half-brother Sam, who insists that their father Liam’s death was suspicious.
- Sam convinces Nora to fly from Brooklyn to the Santa Barbara area, where they both start looking into their father’s death. He died after falling from a cliff near his house late one evening.
- The police have classified Liam’s death as accidental, but Nora begins to think Sam might be right
- They fly back and forth from the East Coast to the West Coast multiple times and talk to a LOT of people: Liam’s brother Joe, his lawyer, the woman Liam was thinking of selling his company to, the widower of Liam’s former business partner, the woman who found Liam’s body.
Characters
- Nora and her fiancé Jack
- Liam Noone, and his three wives: Nora’s mother (do we ever learn her hame?) Sylvia, and Inez
- Liam’s brother Joe
- A mysterious woman named Cece Sheridan, who might or might not have been romantically involved with Liam and/or Joe
- Another mysterious woman named Cody (Cordelia) who seemed to be involved with Liam
- Sam and his brother Tommy, the children of Liam and Sylvia
- Grace, who worked with Liam and was, along with Joe, his trusted advisor. She died recently of a heart attack.
- Grace’s widower Paul
- Elliot, Nora’s ex, and his son Austin
Spoilers for The Night We Lost Him
To protect readers who HATE being spoiled you will need to log in with your email or social media account. By doing so, you will be added to my email list and receive awesome weekly updates about new books! For more information on why I protect my spoilers, please read this post! If you are having any issues PLEASE leave a comment as I want to help!
What Happened The Night We Lost Him: the Night Liam Noone died?
Whew. I am exhausted. Please tell me what you thought of this book in comments and let’s talk about it. Spoilers are fine!
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