The Night We Lost Him

I refuse to give this the thriller tag, because it's not all that thrilling.

Nora is a neuroarchitect (yeah, I had to look that up too) living in Brooklyn with boyfriend Jack. She's...not exactly estranged from her family, but near enough to it. Her father, Liam, dies suddenly from falling off a cliff at his California home. Whoops. Brother Sam contacts Nora, suspicious about the cause of death being ruled an accident, and whisks Nora away to do some whirlwind investigating in California. What's covered in this book is the complicated history of this family, Nora's reluctance to form attachments with anyone around her, and everyone's extensive backstory which doesn't usually play a part in the eventual resolution of their father's death.

This was way more of a family drama than it was either a mystery or a thriller. The plot moves at a glacial pace, so if you're here for the 'what happened to Liam' portion of this story, settle in for the long haul. I feel like the author tried to do too much with this story, and should have leaned into either a total family drama and left the murder mystery out of it, or a total murder mystery and left the rest of the family baggage out. As it is, we bounce between ideas a lot during the bulk of this story, and it takes forever for any one of the ideas to reach something close to a conclusion.

I also kind of didn't like Nora as a character either. She has commitment issues, and large parts of this book are her mental thoughts about how she should call boyfriend Jack to check in, continues to not do so, actively ignore his texts, and generally treats what seems like a great guy terribly. The relationship drama included in this book felt entirely unnecessary.

Kind of a miss with me. It's short though!

I really wanted to like this book, but it was quite flat. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the story was just Liam and Cory’s relationship. All this extra bouncing around with his kids felt like an odd way to tell Liam’s story. It didn’t give us enough time to understand Liam and Cory, but their story was the center of it all.

It’s a quick read, so I couldn’t help but finish it. Predictable. I would have liked a little more time with the side characters- Sam, Tommy, Jack. The main characters were just frustrating. Why are they making these same decisions year after year?!

I've enjoyed previous books by Laura Dave such as The Last Thing He Told Me and Eight Hundred Grapes so I was excited to see another book from this author. I'd categorize this one somewhere between the two I mentioned — part mystery, part family-oriented drama.    Liam Noone's death is ruled accidental, but his daughter Nora is skeptical. Her stepbrother Sam shows up, and soon Nora finds herself pulled into uncovering her father's illusive past. The story narrates in and out from past to present as we learn about Liam's past.    Sadly I wasn't as into this story as I was with Laura Dave's previous books. It was enjoyable, but I think my reading tastes have changed in the couple of years since I've last read her work. I would have liked this to lean more on the side of thriller rather than romance/drama. Either way, the story itself was enjoyable, just not what I'd expected.    Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for providing a free digital ARC of the book to read and review! 

Laura Dave is another author who decided to eschew women's fiction in favor of thrillers (see also [a:Lisa Jewell 93504 Lisa Jewell https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1657723367p2/93504.jpg] and [a:Luanne Rice 5076 Luanne Rice https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1718420439p2/5076.jpg]). Her first foray into the genre, [b:The Last Thing He Told Me 54981009 The Last Thing He Told Me Laura Dave https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603034599l/54981009.SY75.jpg 85761718], sold a zillion copies and was turned into a Jennifer Garner-helmed miniseries. I don't think this book will match those accomplishments, mostly because the plot revolves around a selfish jerk who is inexplicably loved by everyone.Liam Noone was a hotel magnate with a rags-to-riches success story. When he fell to his death near his central California coastal dream house, he left behind three ex-wives and three children. Nora, the only child from his first marriage, is surprised when Sam, one of her twin half-brothers from the second marriage, urgently reaches out to her. He is convinced that their father's death was not accidental. Although the siblings have never been close, Nora reluctantly agrees to help Sam, if only to convince him that his suspicions are baseless. I won't spoil the mystery of Liam's death, but I do have to discuss one of the major plot developments to explain why this novel didn't work for me. Through flashback chapters, we see the evolution of Liam's relationship with a woman named Cory. They become lovers in college, but over the years Cory resists Liam's attempts to deepen the relationship because he's a workaholic and she has her own professional dreams. We don't learn Cory's true identity, or how she fits into Nora and Sam's lives, until late in the novel. So basically we're asked to care about the fate of a guy who cheated on all of his wives, and a woman who slept with a married man for decades. But it's okay, because Reasons.Liam's promiscuity wouldn't have bothered me so much if it hadn't overshadowed the novel's other relationship arcs. Nora is unable to let go of an old flame and fully connect with her perfect fiancé. An injury forced Sam to give up a promising baseball career and he's struggled to find fulfillment ever since. Nora and Sam try to develop a more genuine sibling bond despite resentment and mistrust. Unfortunately, Laura Dave tries to cram all of this plus several mysteries into 300 pages, and Liam sucks all the air out of the room. I had similar complaints about Barbara O'Neal's 2022 release [b:This Place of Wonder 59616468 This Place of Wonder Barbara O'Neal https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644098687l/59616468.SY75.jpg 93886885] that excused the MC's philandering father because he was a larger-than-life chef who was never (intentionally) cruel to anybody. I don't need my characters to be perfect or even likeable, but rich philandering men who get a pass from the women in their lives are not worth my time and effort. ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for objective review.