The Last Thing I Told You by Emily Arsenault

Published: 24 July 2018 by William Morrow

Swathi’s Rating: 4/5

Verdict: A powerful storyline with a riveting climax.

So, I’ve been waiting to share my review of this one for a very long time now. This is one other fantastic collection from William Morrow and I had a good time. Not a fast read, but I took my time with the Book, inhaling the story and the chapters that opened automatically. Here’s the plot.

Plot:

I hear myself whispering. Not again. Not again.

Why did I ever come back here? Surely because of you. Because I thought of something I’d always meant to tell you. Because you were the only one I ever really wanted to tell it to…

Therapist Dr. Mark Fabian is dead—bludgeoned in his office.

But that doesn’t stop former patient Nadine Raines from talking to him—in her head. Why did she come back to her hometown after so many years away? Everyone here thinks she’s crazy. And she has to admit—they might have good reason to think so. She committed a shockingly violent act when she was sixteen, and has never really been able to explain that dark impulse—even to Fabian. Now that Fabian’s dead, why is she still trying?

Meanwhile, as Detective Henry Peacher investigates Fabian’s death, he discovers that shortly before he died, Fabian pulled the files of two former patients. One was of Nadine Raines, one of Henry’s former high school classmates. Henry still remembers the disturbing attack on a teacher that marked Nadine as a deeply troubled teen.

More shockingly, the other file was of Johnny Streeter, who is now serving a life sentence for a mass shooting five years ago. The shooting devastated the town and everyone—including Henry, who is uncomfortable with the “hero” status the tragedy afforded him—is ready to move on. But the appearance of his file brings up new questions. Maybe there is a decades-old connection between Nadine and Streeter. And maybe that somehow explains what Nadine is doing in Fabian’s office nearly twenty years after being his patient. Or how Fabian ended up dead two days after her return. Or why Nadine has fled town once again.

But as Nadine and Henry head toward a confrontation, both will discover that the secrets of people’s hearts are rarely simple, and—even in the hidden depths of a psychologist’s files—rarely as they appear. 

Author Bio

Emily Arsenault is also the author of The Evening Spider, The Broken Teaglass, In Search of the Rose Notes, Miss Me When I’m Gone, What Strange Creatures, and the young adult novel The Leaf Reader. She now lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter.

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Swathi’s Review:

A psychiatrist is murdered in his own office. There are quotes that say “This is you. This is you. This is what you’ve done.” As reassuring they sound, they just make you guess what this is about. Whose words are these? Well, you’ll have to wait and see!!

The story is told in the perspectives of Nadine and Henry shifting from one another. There are also a few chapters that expresses Nadine’s thoughts, where she talks to the dead psychiatrist in her mind. Creepy it sounds, I know, but there’s also some interesting moments expressed in those chapters! These chapters just led me to suspect her for her motives, rather seeing her as an innocent woman.

As the book closes to an end, it gets the feeling of a detective story with standard police protocol and procedurals. After reading tons of crime novels, you kinda get used to it. BUT, there are a few twists that will keep you guessing, even though its written in a rather lazy pace.

This story is not for a binge read, as it has a deep and dark meaning to it, and require some serious reading time.

I received this book from this publisher in exchange of my honest review. All the opinions are my own.

Happy reading. XoXo!