Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“This morning he was your husband. By nightfall, he’s a criminal.”

My book of the year. I’m calling it, right now. My eyes are streaming writing this. Oh my god. I always know Gillian’s books will be five star reads for me and OF COURSE her latest is no exception! In fact, I think Famous Last Words is her best yet, my new favourite. And this comes from the person who completely fell in love with Just Another Missing Person, who is still obsessed with Wrong Place Wrong Time. This book feels – if it’s even possible – just a step above. Gillian’s books always ask the questions, “What would you do in this situation?” “Is there any scenario in which you would do said thing?” The best writer of the moral dilemma you will meet! I’m so thrilled to share my review for Gillian’s new release, Famous Last Words, which I absolutely devoured!

About the book

It’s Camilla’s first day back at work, her daughter’s first day at nursery. But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation. At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.

Then it starts.

Breaking news: there’s a hostage situation developing in London.

The police arrive: Luke is caught up in it.

But he isn’t a hostage. Luke – doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist – is the gunman.

What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold . . .

The beginning

When I finished the first chapter of Famous Last Words, I sighed and said, “This is just SO good” to my husband. Because does Gillian KNOW how to hook readers in from the very start! Not only is her writing completely beautiful (and I mean, each and every sentence) but it fills you with curiosity, and in this book’s case, a sense of dread and fear so strong it made my stomach flip. We meet Cam, a literary agent who is heading back to work after maternity leave. Her husband, Luke – a writer who Cam represents – is nowhere to be seen on such an important morning for her and their daughter, which feels odd. She doesn’t think too much about it at first. But then, she finds a strange note which she can’t quite understand. And the last thing she, or anyone else, would expect would be to to see a breaking news story about a hostage situation developing in London. Luke is involved, but he’s not a hostage; he’s the gunman. The hook is just insanely good. The thoughts and feelings on Cam’s part so flawlessly unravelled. And I felt everything along with her. What do you even do when you’re put in that situation as a wife? A mother?

“And then he turns and looks properly at the camera. It’s just a glimpse, no more than a second. But it is him. It’s him.”

We soon meet Niall, a hostage negotiator. His job completely fascinated me and I loved seeing the hostage situation from his point of view, as well as Cam’s. He wants to make contact with Luke. And just the thought of it felt chilling, risky. But also necessary. There were so many reasons running through my head why Luke was caught up in all of this. He was a doting father. A loving husband. Easy going. An optimist. Why, why, why? But then Cam starts to remember all the small instances, the snippets of Luke acting out of character that she hadn’t really thought about much. Until now. Was Luke being forced into this? Had his new father role driven him to take three people hostage, and for what logical reason? Gillian has completely nailed the tension, the feeling of unease, as well as the feelings Cam has when she thinks about the impact all this would have on their future. Her characters are so real, so perfectly formed. The pacing had me turning page after page which honestly didn’t surprise me. As with Gillian’s other books, each chapter feels as exciting and as absorbing as the last. The perfect opening to the book!

The middle

The book is split into different Acts which I just loved. Act Two is set seven years after the siege, where life is totally different for Cam. She’s been forced to get on with her life, a life without Luke in it. But even after all this time, there’s still a part of her that thinks about him. She knows he’s alive, somewhere. She can feel it. I could feel it too. There was such a strange fire in my belly due to how desperate I was for them to be reunited. The love she still had for him was so strong, and Gillian’s portrayal of this wasn’t through words spoken, but through all the little things she remembers. The food he would order. The way he looked at his new daughter in the hospital. Their own made up phrases. The laughter. The whole picture was so beautifully painted for me, and it stirred up so many emotions. What really made me curious was a message to Cam’s phone. Coordinates. A time. Was this Luke, all these years later, trying to communicate with her? Cam and Niall’s lives are connected once again by this message and a sighting of Luke. But each of them want different outcomes. It’s completely gripping. I just couldn’t stop reading! Absolute perfection.

“You think you will, or you’ll get get over it, or even that you will learn to live with the uncertainty, but the reality is that you don’t. You just remain sad about it… Still searching.”

I absolutely adored the book theme; Cam’s job as a literary agent, the countless manuscripts she reads, the feeling she gets when she reads something great, how she immerses herself in submissions from her authors, the book events, how her favourite thing to do is to get in a bed with fresh clean sheets and a good book. I think Cam is a part of all of us readers and I found it so easy to relate to her. Her job distracts her from real life, books help her forget about the horrors of the siege and Luke’s disappearance. It’s the escapism she craves. I felt Cam and her situation so deeply in my bones, and as a result, many scenes made me unexpectedly emotional, which I don’t think has happened when reading Gillian’s books before. Cam is one of the strongest characters I’ve met, if not the strongest. It was here where things really start to get interesting. Niall finds himself on the right trail. He’s getting closer to the truth. Cam is under surveillance. A woman approaches her, claiming to be the wife of one of the hostages. She needs to know the truth too. Cam is in her own novel, playing detective, just like she does in the countless manuscripts she reads.

The end

By Act Three, I was so deep in this whole thing that I lost track of time. I didn’t, couldn’t, think of anything else. I was so immersed in the words, hoping and praying for a certain outcome for Cam, while also desperate for everything to be explained. I was preparing myself for that huge twist that I knew was coming, the reveals that I just knew would blow my mind. I had some suspicions by this point, a theory. I was carefully watching a couple of characters I thought could potentially be involved in keeping secrets, deceiving others, us. The build up to whatever was coming was truly delicious and beautiful and perfectly paced. I loved how Cam and Niall come together as new information comes to light about what really happened on the day of the siege. I loved the mystery of nameless characters who are, quite obviously, keeping tabs on Cam. And when we get a huge reveal, I was floored with its cleverness! In true McAllister style, it changes so much. The way this reveal built even more excitement, suspense and intrigue felt like a whole new layer had been added to the story. It was just absolutely phenomenal.

“Life has been leading her here for seven years. She didn’t know it, but it was. She’s just left her house but, really, she set off seven years back, on that hot June day that seemed to last forever.”

We’re pelted with so many satisfying pieces of new information and twists and my god my heart was racing. I felt anger, I felt fear, I felt uncertainty. But that fire of hope within me raged ever stronger. I felt even more protective of Cam. I continued to love Niall’s selflessness, how therapy helps him in more ways than one. There’s corruption, there’s intense danger, there’s fierce determination. My eyes were streaming. The impact of all this was just off the scale, my emotions all over the place. And that ending?! It was the most satisfying, most beautiful thing I’ve ever read in my entire life. I am completely in love with it. If I could buy this book for every single person I know, I absolutely would. If you’re new to Gillian’s books, you will be a die hard fan after this. If you already love Gillian’s books, just you wait until you read this. It might just be your favourite too. A masterpiece. I’m not quite sure how I will sink back into normal everyday life after finishing this book, but I just know it will be the one book I think about all year. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Overall thoughts

Famous Last Words is my new favourite book. Without a doubt. Is it a thriller? God yes. But it’s also a love story, and I’ve never read anything so different, so striking, so beautiful in all my life. It’s an intense exploration of a how a hostage situation escalates, years without closure or answers for Cam, whose husband is caught up in it in the worst possible way. It’s completely absorbing, so incredibly thought-provoking, forcing us to answer the question, “What would you do?” It’s filled with tension and so fiercely gripping. It really takes your breath away. A truly unmissable book. Please read it!

HUGE thanks to Gillian McAllister, Michael Joseph and The Book Party for my proof copy (which is now probably the most precious thing I own.) You can grab your own copy of Famous Last Words right now from Amazon or wherever you buy your books. And I really hope you’ll buy it because it’s going to be one of my biggest book recommendations this year! Make sure you’re following Gillian over on Instagram, X/Twitter and Bluesky for more updates.

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