11 Books to Binge-Read After The Last Thing He Told Me

The Woman Inside is the latest domestic thriller from M.T. Edvardsson, author of 2019’s A Nearly Normal Family. In it, Edvardsson crafts a stimulating and suspenseful narrative that follows Karla, an aspiring judge who works as a housekeeper to pay her way through law school. Tight on money, Karla begins renting a room from a struggling widower named Bill Olsson while working for a wealthy but mysterious couple known as the Rytters. Karla can tell something is off in the Rytter household: The husband is obsessive, and the wife suffers from a puzzling illness and rarely leaves her room. But when the Rytters wind up dead and Karla is called in for questioning, it becomes clear that everyone has secrets to hide. “Alienation, self-preservation, and hope propel the story toward calamity with unrelenting suspense” (Booklist) in this thrilling tale, which, much like The Last Thing He Told Me, makes the perfect summer read.

In her New York Times bestselling novel The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz delivers a propulsive literary thriller that horror maestro Stephen King recommends as “insanely readable.” Jacob Finch Bonner was once a rising literary star; now he’s a washed-up writer teaching at a low-rated MFA program. There he meets Evan Parker, an arrogant student with a killer novel-in-progress. Jacob knows that Evan’s manuscript is destined for the bestseller list. When Evan dies without ever publishing his work, Jacob decides to steal the student’s plot and claim it as his own. Just like that, the novel is a hit, and Jacob is back at the top of his game. That is, until an anonymous figure sends a threatening message about Jacob’s dirty secret, propelling the author on a desperate quest to save himself and unearth the plot’s true origins. Korelitz has written multiple acclaimed novels that Laura Dave readers are sure to enjoy: When you’re finished with The Plot, check out You Should Have Known, which was adapted into HBO’s The Undoing, or The Latecomer, Korelitz’s acclaimed family saga that’s brimming with secrets, drama, and twists.

Alex Michaelides’ The Maidens is an outstanding next read for fans of The Last Thing He Told Me — but be careful: If you read both books back-to-back, your pulse rate may stay elevated for days. The thrilling narrative is set at Oxford University, where the murder of a young woman sends shock waves across campus. Mariana Andros, a group psychologist and Cambridge alum, is convinced she knows who carried out the killing: Edward Fosca, a charming and handsome Greek tragedy professor who’s adored by faculty, students, and the followers of a secret society known as The Maidens. Andros is determined to expose Fosca and reveal the killer’s identity. But how far is she willing to go to reach the truth? Michaelides brilliantly weaves Greek mythology into this bestselling psychological thriller, creating a layered dark academia narrative that will keep you riveted to the page. After reading The Maidens, be sure to check out the author’s bestselling debut thriller, The Silent Patient, and his upcoming thriller The Fury.

In this New York Times bestseller, Mary Kubica delivers a gripping thriller packed with suspense, richly drawn characters, and a bevy of shocking plot twists, making it the perfect book to crack open after The Last Thing He Told Me. Local Woman Missing focuses on a string of disappearances in a quiet community — first Shelby Tebow, then Meredith Dickey and her little girl, Delilah. The vanishings shock friends and neighbors. But as the days go by and no new leads surface, the cases run cold. That is, until Delilah resurfaces 11 years later, sending the story to places you’ll never see coming.

Like The Last Thing He Told Me, Speaking of Summer follows a character in search of answers after the disappearance of someone close to them. In this case, it’s Autumn Spencer, who’s desperate to find her twin sister, Summer, after Summer vanishes from their Harlem brownstone. Author Kalisha Buckhanon powerfully evokes the all-too-real indifference of the media and authorities to finding another missing Black woman as Autumn goes it alone to uncover the facts. As her search for her sister intensifies, however, Autumn begins to spiral, becoming obsessed with other local cases and the invisibility of certain victims.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of unputdownable gems like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six. Chances are good that you’ve read at least one of her bestselling books. Malibu Rising, Reid’s sizzling family drama from 2021, makes a great next read after The Last Thing He Told Me. The book is set in the summer of 1983, where supermodel Nina Riva is about to host her end-of-summer bash in Malibu. All of Nina’s high-profile siblings are present, and the atmosphere is charged from the jump, with fiery family secrets threatening to combust. When some unexpected guests and incendiary revelations turn the festivities into full-blown chaos, the Riva family may never be the same.

Liane Moriarty is the author of multiple bestsellers, including the blockbuster mystery suspense novel Big Little Lies, which inspired the award-winning HBO miniseries of the same name. Any of her books will delight Dave fans. For the sake of this list, we’re recommending Apples Never Fall. The #1 New York Times bestseller centers on the well-known Delaney family: parents Stan and Joy and their four grown children. As youngsters, the siblings were shining tennis stars, but their careers eventually fizzled out. Now, as Joy and Stan prepare to sell off their tennis academy, the Delaneys may finally get the chance to be a family again. But then Joy goes missing, and Stan becomes a prime suspect, splitting the siblings’ loyalties and putting them on high alert. Sure, their father’s a difficult and demanding man — but is he also a murderer?

In The Paris Apartment, acclaimed author Lucy Foley delivers a modern-day whodunit about double identities and strained family dynamics that makes a superb follow-up to The Last Thing He Told Me. The bestselling thriller centers on Jess, who heads to Paris to crash with her half-brother, Ben, and clear her head after a particularly rough patch in her life. There’s just one hitch: When Jess arrives at Ben’s suspiciously lavish apartment, Ben is nowhere to be found. As Jess begins scrutinizing Ben’s life and searching for answers about his disappearance, she begins to suspect that the truth may be hiding in the apartment building itself and with Ben’s unusual neighbors — all of whom are now suspects.

In The Golden Couple, acclaimed thriller authors Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen introduce us to Marissa and Matthew Bishop, wealthy Washingtonians who appear to have it all. Behind closed doors, however, the golden couple’s relationship is on the verge of a breakdown. So, they reach out to Avery Chambers, a de-licensed therapist with highly unorthodox methods. Chambers requires that her clients commit fully to her unconventional approach to counseling. But as the sessions begin and secrets come to light, it soon becomes clear that the Bishops’ relationship is far from the only thing that’s in jeopardy. 

In The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller delivers a thrilling summer love story suffused with secrets, lies, and betrayal. The #1 New York Times bestselling novel centers on Elle, a 50-year-old married mother of three who’s visiting her summer home, nicknamed “The Paper Palace,” with her family. A visit to the Palace is a summer tradition for Elle — but this visit is different, because Elle has just reconnected with her old friend Jonas and had sex with him for the first time. Now Elle must decide between Jonas, after whom she’s yearned for years, and Peter, her beloved husband and the father of her children. It’s best to put your phone on silent before cracking open this sweltering narrative because its fiery love triangle is near-impossible to put down.

Just like Dave’s novel, Gillian McAllister’s brilliantly inventive psychological thriller Wrong Place Wrong Time was selected by Reese Witherspoon as one of her book club picks. The multiple-timeline narrative centers on Jen, who witnesses her teenage son commit murder on Halloween night. Jen is devastated, but after her son is arrested and she falls asleep from exhaustion, she wakes up to discover that it’s the day before the murder occurred. Each subsequent night’s sleep transports her one day deeper into the past — where she must find out what drove her son to murder and stop it from happening in the first place.