The Last Thing He Told Me (Hannah Hall, #1)

Review

I thought this book was a fine mystery/thriller with a relatively interesting set of twists and reveals, but I didn't enjoy the style or the pacing. One of my pet peeves in mystery novels in general is when we, the readers, are too far inside the protagonist's head—that is, when the protagonist has an impossibly rich and detailed internal monologue that essentially carries the reader along without letting them do any of the work for themself. For me, it dampens the fun of the mystery when I don't have to do any real thinking to figure out what's going on! This book definitely went too far in that direction for me—at times, it felt more like reading an instruction manual than a novel. Another thing I wasn't a huge fan of was that the core mystery of the story is revealed within a relatively small section of the book in the middle. The sections before and after that are mostly rote following along. With that said, there were pieces of the book that I really enjoyed, too! The developing relationship between Hannah and Bailey was genuine and fun, and I liked the "antagonist" characters revealed near the end—I just wish they could have had a little bit more time to develop. Of course, the initial hook of the disappearing husband, the inscrutable note, and the bag of cash was immediately absorbing, and over all, I thought the writing was clean and fun to read. Not a book that I'm likely to read again, but I had a good time with it!