I enjoyed ElCicco’s review of Gillian McAllister’s Famous Last Words and promptly put it on my TBR list.
Camille is a book editor with a husband, Luke, and a new daughter Polly. On her first day back at work after maternity leave, she is contacted by police: her husband has taken three people hostage at a nearby warehouse. Needless to say, Camille is deeply shocked. She is even more shaken when her husband kills two of the hostages and then disappears. The hostage negotiator on the scene, Niall, is full of self-recrimination, feeling the deaths were his fault based on his misjudgement of the situation.
The books hops forward seven years after Luke’s disappearance. Camille is having Luke declared dead in order to sell the house, but she is understandably still haunted by what happened. Even though an explanation for what happened was never unearthed, and Luke remains a wanted man, she can’t help but try to reassure herself that he was a good man.
The book moves at a brisk pace for the most part, though there are a few spots that could have been tightened up. The POV changes from chapter to chapter between Niall–who has his own marriage troubles–and Camille. There are also brief chapters from the POV of a mysterious outside party that keeps the reader guessing.
The plot gets complicated when other deaths are brought in, but except for a few plot holes, McAllister does a good job bringing it all together. I read this book in one day as it kept me engaged through the end. An ultimately satisfying read.