Synopsis:

Estranged siblings discover their father has been keeping a secret for over fifty years, one that may have been fatal…

Liam Noone was many things to many people. To the public, he was an exacting, self-
made hotel magnate fleeing his past. To his three ex-wives, he was a loving albeit distant family man who kept his finances flush and his families carefully separated. To Nora, he was a father who often loved her from afar – notably a cliffside cottage perched on the California coast from which he fell to his death.   

The authorities rule the death accidental, but Nora and her estranged brother Sam have other ideas. As Nora and Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past—and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s trademark combination of soulful suspense and evocative family drama, The Night We Lost Him is a riveting page-turner with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.

The Night We Lost Him is Laura Dave’s latest novel, her follow-up to the very successful The Last Thing He Told Me (My Review), which was adapted into a limited series, as well. As I was a fan of the book and the adaptation, The Night We Lost Him was a must-read for me. Dave provides the same familial focus, but here it’s between estranged half-siblings whose father has recently passed under suspicious circumstances. I was locked in to this one from the start. Dave successfully creates characters I’m curious about, as well as come to care about. She knows how to tell a good story.

In the ways that matter, it is all the same moment, isn’t it? The same choice. You move toward your destiny or you move away.

It didn’t hurt that this one was set on the beautiful California coast, where I’d just returned from visiting, as well as Brooklyn, New York, where I’ve been, as well. If I’m familiar with the settings, it usually enhances my reading experience. 

We meet Nora, who lives in Brooklyn. The recent death of her father has rattled her more than she wants to admit to herself, especially after it followed the death of her mother so closely. When her half-brother Sam reaches out with his concerns about their father’s death, she really doesn’t want to deal with it, but she can’t resist being pulled into Sam’s suspicious theories, wondering if maybe he’s on to something.