Laura Dave shook up the literary world in 2021 when she published THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, a page-turning, exhilarating mystery about a man who disappeared and the wife and daughter left to work together to find out where he went and why. The answer --- a crime syndicate with a bone to pick --- blew both readers and viewers away when the novel was adapted into a hit television series.

Now Dave returns with THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM, a sequel that picks up exactly five years, 10 months and 24 days since Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, watched their lives implode, their husband and father vanish, and their relationship take on an entirely new layer. However, something has gone wrong in the airtight plan that Hannah crafted almost six years ago --- and it changes everything.

When we reunite with these characters, we see that Bailey has graduated twice --- first from high school and then college --- moved into her own apartment, and become close with her grandfather, Nicholas, and his family. Once the head lawyer for a notorious crime syndicate, Nicholas has since “gone clean.” However, he has maintained contact with Frank Pointe, the head of the syndicate, in an attempt to keep his granddaughter and her stepmother safe from the fallout of Owen’s betrayal. It’s that same betrayal that put Nicholas and several high-ranking members of the syndicate behind bars.

"Through every jaw-dropping, breathtaking moment of Hannah and Bailey's flight to safety, Dave populates their interactions with tender moments of love and reflection, elevating this madcap dash through international crime to something much more emotionally resonant and relatable."

Through it all, Hannah has never once let her careful vigilance fade --- with burner phones hidden throughout her house and workshop, escape plans hatched in nearly every direction, and a silent, unseen security detail following Bailey wherever she goes. So it is shocking when Hannah looks up at the expo where she is presenting her newest work and sees him: Owen. On the one hand, her heart soars at the sight of him. On the other, she knows that if he is risking her and Bailey’s safety in this way, it means that not risking it was even more dangerous and that something is coming for them.

The answer to what exactly is happening arrives quickly via a call from the FBI and a news blast: Nicholas has died of a heart attack…and with him, apparently, the deal that no harm would come to Hannah and Bailey from Frank and his syndicate. Men already are following them, and those plans that Hannah has been streamlining and perfecting over the years are now crucial. Before she can flee, though, she receives a text from an unknown number instructing her to check her pocket. It seems that Owen slipped her a thumb drive containing numerous photo albums --- some of their honeymoon in Paris, others of her work, and still others of Owen’s former best friend and wife, a couple who readers may remember turned very cold to Hannah after Owen’s disappearance. 

It is obvious that the images conceal some clue about where Owen is, where he expects Hannah and Bailey to go, and, hopefully, some answer as to when they finally will be reunited and free. But before she can really examine the pictures, Hannah has one priority: Bailey. Through coded text messages, packed go bags and well-timed calls to the right people, Hannah and Bailey find themselves in the same car, en route to a safehouse where they can regroup. But Bailey’s grief at losing Nicholas soon devolves into confusion. Why would Nicholas’ death cause the dissolution of his deal with Frank? The answer is a changing of the guards. Frank has taken a step back from his everyday dealings, allowing his daughter and son to take the reins. It turns out that Quinn and Teddy have a very different way of handling betrayal.

The novel unpacks a mystery years in the making. It reaches not just to Owen’s disappearance, but even farther back --- to Nicholas’ first meetings with Frank, his rise in the syndicate, and the eventual reckoning with Owen. It becomes clear that Nicholas had been keeping secrets. He and Owen had their disagreements, but they knew that only one thing mattered: keeping Bailey safe. What they didn’t know, or at least severely underestimated, was the lengths to which Hannah would go to protect her daughter.

When Owen turned on his father-in-law and the syndicate, he ruined Quinn’s life, dismantling her family and taking her children’s father from them. As the heiress apparent to Frank’s empire, it seems that she is seeking vengeance. Owen and Nicholas may have known a lot about capture and escape, and hiding from people with eyes everywhere. But Hannah knows about being a mother, which means she knows Quinn and one inarguable truth: it’s impossible to consider what a woman will do if she thinks she’s protecting her family.

Laura Dave has done it again! For years, suspense novels about crime syndicates and betrayals, disappearances and vengeance, have been led by male characters. But in THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME and THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM, the intriguing plot is centered on a woman and all the myriad ways that she approaches, acts on and predicts the dangers unfolding around her --- always with a compassionate, gentle consideration of her daughter, who she loves most in the world.

Through every jaw-dropping, breathtaking moment of Hannah and Bailey's flight to safety, Dave populates their interactions with tender moments of love and reflection, elevating this madcap dash through international crime to something much more emotionally resonant and relatable. She nimbly and effortlessly balances her plotlines and characters, not just building on the previous novel, but also fleshing it out and clarifying its history even as she takes her characters to new, unimaginable lengths.

Paired together, THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME and THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM are not just mysteries or ripped-from-the-headlines domestic thrillers, but searing, overarching stories of love and the faith it inspires. This double wallop of emotional suspense packs a punch and will leave readers hungry for more from an author who simply never disappoints.