The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

Step Siblings Investigate Their Father’s Death

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Laura Dave is the author of seven novels. The sixth one, The Last Thing He Told Me, was a Reese’s Book Club pick, which promptly placed it on the best sellers list. It was also turned into a seven-part movie on Apple TV starring Jennifer Garner.

I read book #6 thanks to its Reese’s Book Club pedigree and enjoyed it. It was a mystery, which is not my usual genre, but it was also a story of a relationship that was very compelling right up until the male partner in the love story disappeared.

Having enjoyed that book, it was natural to pick up Laura Dave’s new book. Again, it is a mystery with interesting relationships.

In this book, we have Liam Noone, a very wealthy hotel developer who has owned an oceanside cottage for decades. It is not his primary residence, but his favorite place to go when he needs to get away. It is built on a cliff. So precarious is the property line that he was reluctant to bring his children there when they were young. But he was always safe there, knowing the property like the back of his hand.

Thus, when he falls from the cliff to his death, and the police rule it an accident, his son, Sam, is not so sure. Sam enlists the aid of his half-sister, Nora, and they do their own investigation. In it, they learn their father’s long-held secret – and how it impacted what happened the night of his death.

Again, the book is full of relationships. Liam had three marriages. Nora was the product of his first marriage. Sam and a twin brother were the product of the second marriage. And a third marriage took place as well though it produced no children.

Liam stayed close to his ex-wives and to his children through the years, but he pretty much kept them separate from each other, thus this alliance of Nora and Sam is one in which they finally become family.

Beyond that budding relationship, we have Nora’s personal love story going on in the background. And Sam’s. In both cases, there is a true love and a complicating second love. The author also gives 50 years-worth of history on Liam, who also found true love and complicating future loves.

I really liked all the characters and wanted to see what would happen to them. And of course, I wanted to find out what happened to Liam on The Night [They] Lost Him. And I am glad I read the book.

However, some of the explanations for the complications in the various relationships – especially Liam’s – made no sense to me.

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Just for the record, here are all of Laura Dave’s books:

1. London is the Best City in America (2006)
2. The Divorce Party (2007)
3. The First Husband (2011)
4. Eight Hundred Grapes (2015)
5. Hello, Sunshine (2017)
6. The Last Thing He Told Me (2021)
7. The Night We Lost Him (2024)

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Click here to learn more about The Night We Lost Him on Amazon.

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