Laura Dave

Laura Dave is an American author whose The Last Thing He Told Me — a thriller about a woman who discovers her husband has been lying about his entire identity — became the most watched Apple TV+ series of 2023.

Laura Dave published four contemporary novels — London Is the Best City in America (2006), The Divorce Party (2008), Eight Hundred Grapes (2015), and others — before The Last Thing He Told Me (2021) became one of the most commercially successful thrillers of its year. The novel follows Hannah Hall, whose husband Owen disappears the same day a crisis engulfs his tech company, leaving only a note that says “Protect her” — referring to his teenage daughter from a previous relationship.

The novel is a thriller about identity: Owen, Hannah comes to discover, is not who he told her he was. His real name, his real past, and the reason he is in danger are gradually revealed as Hannah investigates with the help and hindrance of the daughter she now has to protect. The mother-stepdaughter relationship that develops under the pressure of the central mystery is the novel’s emotional core, and Dave handles it with more care than the thriller plot requires.

The Last Thing He Told Me was adapted as a seven-episode Apple TV+ series in 2023 with Julia Roberts, who was also an executive producer. It became one of the platform’s most-watched series and significantly extended the novel’s readership. Dave’s earlier novels have been retroactively discovered by readers seeking more of her work. The Last Thing He Told Me is the ideal starting point: a thriller that is genuinely suspenseful and emotionally engaged with its characters.