The Last Thing I Told You

A Novel

By: Emily Arsenault

Narrated by: Roger Wayne, Tavia Gilbert

From the acclaimed author of The Evening Spider and The Broken Teaglass comes this psychological thriller about the murder of a psychologist in a quiet New England town and his former patient whose unreliable thread will keep listeners guessing until the shocking end.

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 16, 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 20 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.

©2018 Emily Arsenault (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Pass on this one

Convoluted plot - and not in a good way. Mediocre narrators, particularly Mr. Wayne as Henry, the main investigator, the symbolic dinosaur and doll, with a very limited range make a weak story hard to endure. I kept waiting for it to pick up and go somewhere, anywhere, but it never really did.

Secrets....everywhere

This was so good at first but tanked near the ending, which was so disappointing.

Okay

A fairly tangled storyline with too many first names. The biggest problems, though, are the “fry” in the female narrator’s voice and the fact that the male narrator sounds exactly like Brian, the dog in “Family Guy.” It’s hard to take seriously a detective while you are envisioning a cartoon character dog.

Hard to finish.

I couldn't get into this book. I had to make myself listen to the end after starting for the third time. It seemed to never pick up. I kept thinking I was zoning out and maybe missing something, so I would go back and nope, it was just that dull. I do not recommend this book to anyone.

Disappointing end

I love the author’s book “The Broken Teaglass” but this one comes up short. Very good elements and rising action but I didn’t care for the resolution.

A book about nothing that goes nowhere.

I am so aggravated that I listened all the way through. I kept hoping for a plot.
This is the second book in a row that is just awful. I preordered both without seeing reviews.
I won’t do that again!!