THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave

The best thing I can say about this book is that it was a fast read, because it certainly did not live up to the hype surrounding it.  Given its popularity, my expectations were high, but any thriller by Dennis Lehane or Erica Ferencik is a better read.  The author does a good job of building suspense but then drops the ball and moves on to another teaser.  Hannah is a woman in her forties, married for just over a year to Owen, whose 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, lives with them.  Almost immediately, we find that Owen has disappeared in the midst of financial fraud at his company, and a cryptic note from him asks Hannah to protect Bailey.  Enter a U.S. marshal and a couple of FBI agents, but Hannah soon discovers that her husband’s company’s criminal activities are the least of her worries.  She and Bailey jet off to Austin, TX, to jog Bailey’s memory regarding events from her early childhood.  The result is a pot that should not have been stirred, although Bailey’s thawing frostiness toward her stepmother provides a tiny grain of redemption for a character that is otherwise unpleasant, to say the least.  Nothing about the plot is remotely believable, including the ending, but this is fiction, of course.  Would a professor really frame an exam from the “worst student ever” and then not remember his name?  Just as we think we are getting somewhere in solving the mystery of Owen’s life, we reach a roadblock.  Then a previous roadblock is removed, and Hannah’s amateur sleuthing takes another step forward.  What she discovers is not a particularly complicated story, and the resolution is awkward.