Every now and then I wanted to read a crime story that I could not put down. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister was the perfect read for a weekend getaway to Singapore last Friday. Despite having been in legal practice for decades, I still get anxious whenever I encounter some challenges on a file. Somehow as I age, my resolve does not seem to grow with years, thus a weekend getaway in the comfort of a good read is the perfect antidote.
Aside from reading on board the flight, amidst catchups with our daughters, I read whenever I could. The story keeps you in suspense and you cannot wait to get to the last page.
21 June . It’s eight in the morning and ‘the sun is as sharp and yellow as lemon drops‘. Camilla, a literary agent is heading back to work. This is her first day resuming work after maternity leave. What feels odd to her is that her writer husband, Luke Deschamps, a doting father and loving husband is not around since early morning. He has left her to deal with Polly’s first day of nursery and her return to work by herself. At first she doesn’t think too much about it and then, she finds a strange note which she can’t quite understand. When she arrives at her office, she tries contacting Luke but her texts do not deliver and his phone is turned off.And the last thing she, or anyone else, would expect is to see a breaking news story about three hostages being held by a gunman in a warehouse in central London. Luke is involved, only he’s not a hostage; he’s the hostage-taker.
Luke is a journalist and a ghostwriter for celebrities. When he first walked into Cam’s agency, she had offered him representation and she had sold to Penguin Random House a football manager’s memoir about a Premier League team’s rise to success ghostwritten by him . Her agency also represented him for his subsequent books. They are the right fit for each other: he makes her more fun and she makes him more sensible.
Now that her husband is the one holding the gun and pointing at the hostages, she finds it totally unreal. She is shown a video of the CCTV footage.’It’s grainy CCTV, hard to make out.‘
‘And then he turns and looks properly at the camera. It’s just a glimpse, no more than a second. But it is him. It’s him.”
Cam’s mind has to go on speed and finds it hard to process what is really happening. Though she recalls snippets of incidents wehn Luke is acting out of character, she does not tell the police. She needs to find out why this is happening. Enters Niall Thompson, a hostage negotiator. The negotiation goes astray and Luke is on the run. Niall is haunted by his failings on that day. While one hostage is released, two are dead. The identities of the hostages remain unknown. That same night Niall’s wife leaves him. It was her birthday and he has once again prioritized work.
‘Tell my wife that I love her.Her and Polly‘ is the message that Luke asks Niall to convey to Cam. These are the only words Niall manages to get from Luke when he tries to make contact by offering him coffee.
Luke has left a note :If anything is written on one side. When Cam turns it over, the words are : ‘It’s been so lovely with you both.Lx’
Was Luke being forced into this or is he having a mental health issue? Cam believes that her husband the eternal optimist who likes to eat Jaffa cakes and junk food is a good person. She needs to find the truth.
During Luke’s absence , Camilla reverts to her maiden name Fletcher. She raises Polly alone with some help from her sister, Libby who has been trying to have a baby with her husband,Si. Cam reads countless manuscripts in her job and yet she always prefers to read. ‘She represents wide-ranging fiction, but her taste could be described easily in one word: escapism. There’s a German word for this, too, Weltschmerz. Translated as world-grief. To Cam, it is perfect.’
Cam remains conflicted and finds herself unable to move on without knowing why Luke was involved in the hostage situation seven years ago. ‘Moving on will be hard, she tells herself.’She is determined to find the truth of the matter so is Niall who is now seeing a therapist against his will. He has been sent to see the therapist because of his gunshot dreams.
The premise of the story has me hooked right from the start. It is a thriller and it is also a love story and a story about sisters.
The book is divided into four acts. Act one is entitled ‘The Siege’ followed by Act two entitled ‘Seven Years after the siege’ Chapters 20-41 . Act three is entitled ‘Seven Years after the Attempted Murder’ Chapters 42 -.60 and lastly Act four entitled ‘Seven Years after the second shooting’ Chapters 61-62.
The book length of Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister is 389 pages. It is an engaging read. What’s more the protagonist is an avid reader and an introvert who prefers to read fictions.
Bookaholic Macchiato 