★★★★★ 5/5
Author: Gillian McAllister Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Penguin Published: 3rd July 2025
Started: 3/01/26 Finished: 8/02/26
Page Count: 416 pages
“And Cam watches the sky and thinks, how somewhere the answer is out there, as obvious as the dawn itself, but still hidden in night.”
Who doesn’t love a good thriller? The tension, the questions, the fear. Having read all of Liane Moriarty’s books, and learning she’s a fan of Gillian McAllister, I had to give this one a read. Liane says Famous Last Words, ‘makes your heart race and then your heart melt,’ and I couldn’t agree more. Famous Last Words is a fast-paced thriller, and it doesn’t leave you much time to catch your breath, so buckle up for the ride.
The book follows Cam Deschamps who is happily married to Luke, and they have a baby called Polly. Cam, a book publisher has the perfect life, or so she thinks. Everything she knows blows up around her when she learns her husband is caught up in a hostage situation, only he isn’t the hostage, he’s the gunman. Cam’s world is thrown into chaos, who is the man she married? And what does this mean for her and their daughter?
At the heart of this gripping thriller is a moving love story, and Cam shows what she’s willing to do to save it. Despite the evidence against Luke, Cam simply doesn’t believe her husband to be a bad man, and she’s desperate to find out the truth, for closure, control, for love.
What stood out to me most is the control Gillian has over the tension between the characters. Cam tiptoes around her sister’s IVF, is never quite honest with the hostage negotiator, and her desperation to find out the truth of what happened to her husband, only raises questions in which the answers are only more questions. It’s like opening a box to discover a box, and then another, I was hooked and craving a resolution.
I also enjoyed Gillian’s writing style which I have already described as fast-paced, but in another sense musical. The stormy language Gillian uses drives this all-encompassing tension to its final conclusion, like a continuous background symphony. For example, ‘the shock repeats on her like rolling thunder’ and ‘rustling forensic bags’. The stormy mood is carried by rumbles, heavy rain and aftershocks, like lots of little music notes pouring off the page and creating a sustained, dramatic drumroll, leading to a crescendo that rings in your ears long after you’ve put the book down.
If I had to be picky, one thing that didn’t quite land for me was the slower pacing into Act 2, but it wasn’t enough to discourage me. In fact, I can see that the plot required it. I think I felt like this because Act 1 is so strong, the catalyst could have been the climax, I couldn’t believe there was still two thirds of the book to go.
Overall, Famous Last Words is a solid read that left me wide-eyed and amazed. I found myself oohing and aahing at every plot twist, reaching my own crescendo with a WOW! If you’re a fan of Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret and films like Gone Girl, which both explore the destruction of a perfect family unit, or you just love a good psychological thriller, you should definitely add this to your shelf.
Marie Lott Writer 