Famous Last Words captured my attention from the beginning! I loved that McAllister jumped right in with the tragic and suspenseful events that unfolded throughout the book! This was not a "keep me awake at night scared to sleep" suspenseful book, but a gently unfolding tale of something is not quite right. McAllister's characters were full and her writing created depth in each, giving me a true picture of who they each were.

The narrator did a beautiful job of bringing McAllister's words to life! Looking forward to future works from both!

Oh.my.goodness! This book kept me hooked the whole storyline. I don’t want to give spoilers but this was such a good story. I felt bad for Cam and you wanted to hate Luke but you couldn’t he seemed so good. Something was weird about how the hostage situation played out. I did figure out about the “one reporting back to brother.” The mystery and twist……..WOW. Loved!

I really enjoyed the intrigue around the why for siege - everything seems out of character for Luke but the police are just see what’s directly in front of them and believe he has just snapped and taken hostages. I liked that Cam’s love for Luke shows up throughout the book as it echos the idea that people who care for you never truly give up on you.
I believe this is my second Gillian McAllister book and I enjoyed this one even more than the last!
Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio for the advance audio of this book!

My first book by Gillian McAllister and my first 5 Star rating of the year.

The incident that the book centers around happens right smack in the beginning. You spend the rest of the book following clues and figuring out the truth with the characters. I think some may consider this a slow burn suspense because there wasn't a lot of action. This book was definitly character driven. A huge page turner for me, I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. Now it's time to go read the author's back log.

If you enjoy audiobooks with an accent, the narrator, Emilia Fox, was fantastic.

This is my 3rd book of Gillian McAllister's that I have read. It had a lot of twists and turns. I was left me wanting to know what would happen next. I will read more of these books and I am hoping it will be just as good.

Hmm, didn't really care for this one. Too slow. Didn't care enough about the characters. I would call it boring.

4.5 stars. A love story set in a hostage situation. Cam is going back to her job as a literary agent after a 9-month sabbatical. She had her first child, Polly, and has been living in an idyllic bubble. However, her husband Luke is nowhere in sight as she's getting ready to go. And she finds a strange, cryptic note. The day goes from not great to way worse FAST. The police show up at Cam's job and inform her that Luke is currently in a hostage situation. However, Luke is the one holding the gun and terrorizing people. After the Siege concludes, 2 people are dead and Luke is in the wind.
The second part of the novel focuses on Cam moving forward. Even the hostage negotiator, Niall, has received serious fallout from the situation. But Cam hopes that Luke is still out there. And she still can't come to terms with him being the terrorist.
Clever and twisty.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and HarperAudio for this digital audio e-arc.*

Gillian McAllister’s “Famous Last Words” captivated me with its intriguing premise. Camellia’s return to work after maternity leave is upended by a cryptic note from her husband, setting the pace for a spiraling story.
Emilia Fox’s captivating narration keeps you engaged throughout the book. Highly recommend

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper publishing for this ARC. I really enjoyed this book. The storyline was clever and the way in which Gillian wrote it was very unique; different than a lot of mainstream thrillers. I did anticipate one of the twists but there were several I didn’t see coming and the way she wrote her characters had me emotionally invested and on the edge of my seat. All in all, a great thriller by a great author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

TL;DR: This was not for me. The characters were annoying (in my opinion), and the plot seemed ridiculous and cheesy. What started as a solid premise quickly turned into a silly story that I struggled to engage and connect with. Even the twists were somewhat predictable, and I just found the whole thing relatively boring.

This started out so promising! And I am obviously an outlier. [book:Wrong Place Wrong Time|59947696] has been on my reading list for a long while, so when I saw this on NetGalley and needed a new audiobook, I was excited to test this author out. I was disappointed... I'll still try <i>Wrong Place, Wrong Time</i> at some point, but I'm not sure this writing style was for me.

The premise - a woman's husband takes three people hostage - was really interesting. I was initially caught up in the story, although Niall (the hostage negotiator)'s point of view kind of felt awkward and jarring (this continued throughout the story - while I understand why his perspective was included, I didn't enjoy it). And I was engaged for the first 1/3 of the book - and then I just stopped caring as much.
Part of it was because I didn't care much for Cam. The plot between her and Libby was honestly the most interesting to me - I didn't really care about what happened with Luke, even though that was the mystery. Niall started to really irritate me and his plot was dumb. The story just slowed down for me, and I could not find interest.

I also thought the end was a bit predictable (I called two of the three major plot points early on), and very cheesy. Minor spoiler if you haven't read the book - <spoiler>the words 'my enemies' started to drive me seriously nuts and I COULD NOT handle it</spoiler>. It was ridiculous, to be honest, and if I had not been listening in the car, I probably would have just stopped reading at the 80% or so mark - which is generally not something I do. I usually stick with a book if I've gotten past 50%.

Overall, this would be a better fit for someone looking for a domestic thriller that is more domestic than thriller. Also, if someone wants a story that's more about love, and doesn't need it to be LOVE, this might work for them. It didn't work for me, though.

Famous Last Words was a fabulous listening experience written by Gillian McAllister. I have listened to all of her novels and have yet to be disappointed by her storytelling. Camilla is on her first day back at work after a nice long maternity leave. She successfully maneuvers the daycare dropoff of her baby but has yet to hear from her husband, which she finds odd. Suddenly the police show up at her office asking questions about her husband and how he might be connected to a hostage situation. The story leaps forward almost a decade and we learn the outcome of the hostage situation and how it impacted Camilla's life. The reader of this audiobook does an excellent job narrating and providing distinct voices for the characters. Read and enjoy!

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister was not the mystery I was expecting! It's Camilla's first day back to work as a literary agent after maternity leave and it's her daughter Polly's first day of daycare. So, it seems particularly out of character for her husband Luke to not be there that morning to see them off.

In his place is a cryptic note. One side reads “If anything” but it’s been crossed out. The other side says “It’s been so lovely with you both."

While at work, Cam gets a call that her husband Luke is involved in a hostage situation, but he is not a hostage, he is the gunman.

This was a unique mystery and it was paced very well. I enjoyed it very much.

Famous Last Words follows Camilla on her first day back at work from maternity leave. Her day takes a turn when police arrive at her office to tell her that her husband has taken hostages. The story follows Cam as she tries to figure out what happened to the man she loved and the last words he left for her.

This book was so interesting to me because I was so torn on my review! 3.5 stars rounded up.

I loved the plot, I thought it was fun, spooky, all things good.. just a little slow? I knew immediately when she started reading Alex's book where that plot line would go and I was happy with it. Just thought there could have been more twists and turns at a quicker pace during the middle of the book. The ending was great and I'm SO glad we got the 7 years after perspective, that was phenomenal.

I liked all the characters and different POVs. I'm glad we didn't get Lukes, but thought Nial's was a great addition.
The narrator was AMAZING I loved listening to this as an audio book!

This was my first read by Gillian McAllister and I'd definitely read more by her! Thank you to Gillian, NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy of this book. I'll definitely be recommending!

A woman fresh off a maternity leave is about to go back to work only to get shocked when she learns her husband has taken a group of people hostage. Fast forward seven years and her husband is still missing, Camilla is no closer to finding out the truth but things come to a crescendo when a mysterious manuscript shows up indicating that maybe her husband wasn't so guilty after all. This was good on audio and perfect for fans of authors like Laura Dave. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Intricately plotted, propulsive read, with lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing. For the most part it had a fast pace, with only a few slower parts here and there. My favorite part was the method the author chose to deliver the information Camilla needed to solve the mystery--masterfully done! I can't say too much about it without spoilers, so I'll just leave it at that. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The narrator of the audio version did an excellent job.

Basically a love story disguised as a thriller.

I should have read more of the reviews before leaping into this because I thought it was going to be more of a fast paced nail-biter instead of a slow burn domestic drama. Even though it started off with a literal bang, the hostage crisis, it quickly became something else when the focus shifted to Camilla dragging through the years because her husband disappeared. I found it repetitive and the whole scenario required a great deal of suspension of disbelief. The revelations about Luke and the very tedious investigation were not surprising twists.

The other issue was that I was not able to appreciate the characters nor really feel much for either Camilla nor Niall. I often actively disliked her with her brain on constant repeat and stuck in a state of suspended animation most of the time. Sure, I get it — she missed her husband. The expected truth comes out and everything ended just about exactly as I had anticipated. No surprises. The narrative was quite convoluted though the actual plot was very simple.

I listened to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. The narrator was OK but the production would have benefited from a larger cast, especially for the male voices. At times her pronunciation of certain words got on my nerves and I have found when that happens it takes away some of my enjoyment of the book.

Ultimately, this was an OK book.

I really like Gillian McAllister -- I thought this was quite clever and really well done.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Thank you @netgalley and @HarperAudio Adult. I was not prepared for the ending of this book. I really enjoyed Camilla strength, love and dedication to her family. The narrators of this audio were fantastic. They really made the book come alive and keep me drawn in with every turn of the book. This is a must listen if you like suspense and hostage negations. I will be reading more of Gillian McAllister books.

This was not my cup of tea. I think it was a little slow and the hostage taking premise would normally be more exciting, but since it is mostly from the perspective of people of the outside, it is less so. I think it was well written, but not for me