Book ~ "Famous Last Words" (2025) Gillian McAllister

From Goodreads ~ It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband - doting father, eternal optimist - is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says ...

Camilla has been off on maternity leave and is heading back to work. When she wakes up that morning, Luke, her husband, is nowhere to be found. He isn't answering texts and she then finds a short odd note from him. After she drops their daughter off at daycare, she goes to the office, excited to start her day. She's not there long before there is a hostage situation in a warehouse and police determine that Luke is involved. They arrive at Camilla's office to take her home. Things go wrong ... one hostage is released, two hostages are shot and killed and Luke has disappeared.

Seven years later, Luke is still missing and Cam is still trying to move on with her life. Not surprising it's hard because she still wonders what happened to make Luke kidnap and shoot the two hostages, which was out of character for him. And how the events unfolded still haunts Niall, the hostage negotiator.

I wasn't crazy about this story. I found it overly long and draggy. I could have done without Niall's side story of the break-up of his marriage and the time spent with a therapist still dealing with the hostage taking events and his marriage. There was so much of the book devoted to this. I can understand these things would bother him over the years but thought it could have been covered in a lot less detail. I could have also have done without all the time spend on Cam's older sister, Libby's desire to get pregnant. It didn't add to the mystery of what happened to Luke and why he did what he did, which to me was the point of the book.

It's written in third person perspective with a focus on Camilla and Niall. I didn't find Camilla overly likeable and I found Niall kind of boring. When the ending came (we finally find out what happened to Luke and why he did what he did), I thought "huh?" and I wasn't buying it. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Book ~ "Wrong Place Wrong Time" (2022) Gillian McAllister

From Goodreads ~ Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your seventeen-year-old son. He’s late. As you watch from the window, he emerges and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man and he’s armed.

You can’t believe it when you see him do it:  your funny happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody. His future shattered.

That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost. Until you wake ... and it is yesterday.

And then you wake again ... and it is the day before yesterday.

Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime - and you don’t have a choice but to find it.

One night Jen is waiting up for her son, Todd, to get home. She sees him coming up the street, approach a stranger and stab him. Shocked she runs out to find the man dead. An ambulance is called, the police arrive and Todd is arrested and taken to the police station. Jen and her husband, Kelly, rush there demanding to see Todd but are told to come back the next day.

When Jen wakes up the next day, she is surprised to find Todd home and he and Kelly are acting like nothing happened ... because nothing did. Jen discovers that it's actually the day before the night of the stabbing so the stabbing hasn't happened yet. Needless to say, she is very confused. When she wakes up the next day, it's a couple days before the night of the stabbing. This continues to happen only it's not just days she goes back in time but it could be weeks, months and eventually even years. She realizes there's a reason she goes back to specific days ... there is important information that is revealed on this day which could explain why Todd stabbed the stranger.

I like reading time travel stories and this sounded like an interesting one ... and it was. I really had to pay attention to what was going on because there was a reason she landing on specific days ... what did it mean but it all came together at the end. It's written in third person perspective in Jen's voice. I thought the writing could have been tighter as I found it dragged at times. The last chapters heading to the conclusion moved at a better pace and I was okay with the ending. As a head's up, there is swearing.