This was a wonderful read. I loved how Gillian McAllister wrote from two different POVs; the wife, Camilla (Cam) and the negotiator, Niall. The beginning of the story starts off from the perspective of the loving wife, Cam, going to work for her first day back from maternity leave but she can’t find her husband Luke. From there, her life changes forever as she finds herself on the outskirts of a hostage negotiation.


While we only hear from Cam and Niall’s perspectives, the storyline is intriguing and I felt the characters backgrounds were complex and well thought out. The first part of the book really lays groundwork for who Cam and Niall are. What makes them, them and what their lives revolve around. I think that groundwork allows us to see a greater depth to the characters. Towards the end of the book, the pacing feels like it slows a tad, but that could be because I was excited to read about the twists. I was a wonderful thriller and overall I would highly recommend.

Rating: 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for this advanced reader copy. All thoughts and comments are my own.

Famous Last Words is another great thriller from Gillian McAllister! This is my third book by the author and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cam is a literary agent who is going back to work after maternity leave. Her husband Luke is not there when she wakes up and has left a strange note. She can't get a hold of him and the police arrive to tell her that there is a hostage situation and Luke is the gunman.

I loved the main characters and enjoyed the pace of the novel. It had everything that I look for in a mystery/thriller.

Emilia Fox was wonderful as the narrator. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the advanced digital copy of the audiobook.

Phenomenal, as always for Gillian McAllister! I could not get through this one fast enough to see what would happen in the end. Highly recommended!

It is Cam's first day back to work after having her baby. She wakes up and her husband isn't home. Which is odd since it could potentially be a difficult day for her, dropping their baby off at day care. Barely back at work, the police come to her office. She is thinking the worst- or what she thought was the worst. There is a hostage situation, but her husband is not a hostage- he is the perpetrator. She doesn't believe it. Can she figure out what is happening and why?

This takes place in three timelines. The event, seven years later, and another seven years later. The bulk of it is seven years after the event, which surprised me. The event itself was over quickly and you never get any answers. That is what the next seven years are for- but it drags out. It wasn't until around 80% that the book finally picked up. Otherwise it was excruciatingly slow. The last portion did make the book better. However, I am not sure if there were intended to be any surprises- all of the major revelations were obvious as soon as they were introduced in the book.

Emilia Fox narrates the audiobook.

I received an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This was such a riveting book, but also it stressed importance of family, being there for each other, and life not always turning out as planned. Cam is just going back to work after 9 months of maternity leave, but when she wakes up, her husband is gone. He leaves a cryptic note, and she is a bit concerned. Then she learns that there is a hostage situation in London, and her husband is involved. Again, this was an emotional roller coaster. You see the actions of her husband and don't want to believe that he could do this. The hostage negotiator takes this one personally, and it changes hi life forever. I absolutely loved this book, and I think it will stick with me for a long time.

I originally heard about this book on a Booklist webinar and wrote it down with exclamation points and underlined because it was right up my alley. And I was right. It's a well-paced thriller, and though one of the reveals was too obvious, I liked how it played out. My only real criticism was how it ended all too quickly. Hours of reading the tension and dread, and the twist and explanation, particularly the last chapter, were so quick, i had to go back and revisit it to make sure I got all the details. Great book, though. Clever and with heart.

This was better than the last Gillian McAllister book. I enjoyed the first part of the story more than the second part of the story. Looking forward to her next book!

Gillian McAllister does it again!

I received an audiobook advance copy of Famous Last Words. The narration was really well done. Well written to be read as an audiobook.

Many twists. You have it figured out, but then you don't. Then you do again. But of course by the end you see you maybe only figured out some of it but not all.

Can't wait for more from Gillian McAllister!

This is, by far, my favorite Gillian McAllister to date. The character and storyline were just phenomenal.

Camilla and Luke have a great love, or so she thinks. She KNOWS her husband, or so she thinks. But on June 21st, she wakes up to a cryptic note. Continues about her day, wondering about her husband until she heard the news that her husband had taken 3 hostages.
Her husband kills 2 hostages then is on the run.

Many thanks to Net Galley and HarperAudio Adult for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gillian McAllister delivers! I was worried how this normal family was going to become embroiled in such an outlandish story without it seeming forced, but McAllister did a fantastic job of taking the impossible (it would never happen to me!) and making it real (oh yes, it just did). The heartache of a lost love, the wondering what happened, the constant loss Camila has to deal with...all told masterfully. I absolutely loved the literary bend too, obviously books are up my alley.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Gillian McAllister, and Harper Audio for my advance copy of this audiobook.

Act one started off really strong and it pulled you in! Then it slowed down and felt like it started to drag while we waited to hear the juicy details of what really happened. For that reason I felt like it wasn't a 5 star read for me.

This is my first book by this author. It's my BOTM choice and then I saw the audio on NetGalley and had to try it! The narration was perfection. I love an accent. Super easy to comprehend at an increased speed.

I've read well over 100 thrillers in the last year and I loved how this had a different premise then all of them. It'll definitely stick with me. I look forward to checking out the rest of her work!

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Famous Last Words is an enjoyable thriller/suspense/mystery audiobook. The narration by Emilia Fox helped carry the story even when it tended to drag a bit towards the middle.

There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing as to why Luke did what he did.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Gillian McAllister's latest novel is a quick and twisty thriller that will delight fans of her previous works. When new mother Camilla learns of her husband's involvement in a shocking crime, she knows in her gut that there must be some mistake. Luke then disappears without a trace aside from a short and cryptic note left behind, and for seven long years, Camilla must shoulder the weight of motherhood along with the never-ending cycle of grief. Knowing she should move on, she attempts to have Luke declared legally dead, but then mysterious events begin unfolding at an alarming rate. Told from both Camilla's point of view and that of the hostage negotiator on the day of Luke's disappearance, Famous Last Words pulls the reader/listener in from the very beginning. One thing that I really appreciated about this book is that McAllister's characters are so easy to empathize with. It often felt like I was reading about something that happened to a friend rather than a fictional character. Perfect for fans of domestic thrillers, but twistier than most! Thank you to HarperAudio for my eALC in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to get this ARC audiobook from NetGalley, I started listening to it right away. Here's the problem: I couldn't stop! This is a great book to binge! It's a love story set amid a hostage situation. Camilla is returning to work after a long maternity leave and Luke is nowhere to be found. It doesn't make sense. Did he even kiss her goodbye like her does every morning? As she gets herself and their daughter ready for her first day of daycare something feels off. Why wouldn't Luke be here to help? Then she finds a cryptic note from him.. What does it mean? Once she arrives at work she finds out about a siege in Central London. As she's watching the story unfold on the news police come to her office asking for her she wonders if something bad happened to Luke. Was he a hostage? Nope, was the gunman! How can this be? Does she even know her husband at all? A hostage negotiator is brought in and his gut feeling is that something more is going on than what it seems. The police want to go in but he makes them hold off because he is sure he can convince him to let the hostages go. 7 years later and they're all trying to move on carrying the heavy burden of Luke's actions. Camilla changes her and their daughter's last name so they're not immediately recognized. Niles, the negotiator, can't get past the fast that he was wrong about the situation. Or was he? He pulls himself off of negotiations and goes back to detective work. He can't stop thinking about how it all played out. His wife left him, he's seeing a therapist about his nightmares, and yet he can't shake the feeling that he needs to help Camilla get some resolution about that tragic day. The characters really made you root for them.

This book is written with clever plot twists and is a wild ride!

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for an advanced copy of this upcoming thriller. This book drew me in immediately.. a seemingly perfect couple in the morning, and by the afternoon the husband is a wanted terrorist who has killed two people for no reason? What made him snap? Why did he do it? How did the wife not know? The questions keep coming and the answers don't come until way later.. I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to know what happened and why, but honestly was disappointed in what I learned. I did love listening to this on audio though because of the narrator.. she seamlessly went back and forth between narrators without skipping a beat!

The way this story unfolds is absolutely riveting. Suspenseful and full of drama. I genuinely wanted to throw all things to the side and just stay on this ride. I don't think a person can help but ask themselves how they would deal with a situation like this in their own lives. What if you looked up at the TV one day and found your husband had taken people hostage somewhere? Your sweet, wonderful husband who has never been in trouble with the law and to your knowledge, didn't even own a gun.

Loved the character development, especially how it's almost a story within a story as we get to know Niall and Cam's sister. There are some very real passages about grief. I think it really adds some nice depth to the story.

The narrator was great - really brought the characters to life.

I don't want to give any more details because of spoilers. Go place this book on hold at the library right now!

Many thanks to HarperAudio for the ARC - you all are lovely!

Special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. I have read a few books by this author and while they were good, they were not books that blew me away. I thought it started off really strong, but then slowed and then the end part was a little messy and confusing. The one big plot twist, I had figured early on, so that didn't help either.

This one pace was ok but at times it dragged and the twist wasn't as good as I expected. It was easy to figure out and fell flat for me

I loved Wrong Place Wrong Time but I felt like this one fell flat for me. I wasn't great but it wasn't bad. Just ok. I liked parts of it a lot but felt that the pace set early on couldn't be maintained and it felt more like an action/adventure commercial thriller than suspense/thrillers that I expect from McAllister.