The First Time I Saw Him (Hannah Hall Book Two) by Laura Dave

 

The First Time I Saw Him (Hannah Hall Book Two) by Laura Dave.

Published 15th January 2026 by Penguin.

From the cover of the book:

HE DISAPPEARED. NOW HE’S BACK. AND THEY HAVE TO RUN.

Five years ago, Hannah’s husband Owen vanished without a trace, leaving Hannah and her stepdaughter Bailey to piece together a new life from the wreckage.

When Hannah spots Owen at her Los Angeles exhibition – silent, watching – she knows immediately that the danger they once escaped has found them again.

Then comes the message: 

‘GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. NOW’

Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them, pursued by enemies they cannot see and haunted by questions that have never been answered.

Why has Owen returned? Who is hunting them?

And can they finally uncover the truth before it destroys them all?

***********

Five years ago, Hannah's husband Owen left for work one morning, and then disappeared - leaving behind a note asking her to protect his sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. It took all of Hannah's resourcefulness to do it, but her efforts bought them the freedom to live their lives, even if it meant never seeing Owen again.

When Owen makes a surprising appearance at one of Hannah's exhibitions, she recognises him straightaway, even underneath his disguise. She is puzzled about what this might mean for her and Bailey... and then a message from Owen arrives telling her to "Get out of the house. Now!".

The moment Hannah feared has arrived. The agreement she hoped would keep them safe has been broken. She and Bailey must go on the run, and she has no idea what safety will cost this time.

In a brilliant twist, this gripping thriller begins with a prologue that repeats the closing chapter of the previous book, The Last Thing He Told Me - when Hannah spots a heavily disguised Owen in the crowd at her exhibition. Dave uses this emotionally-charged moment to kick off an action-packed sequel in which Hannah and Bailey are forced to flee for their lives, after a change in leadership amongst the crime family Owen betrayed. 

Hannah and Bailey are in danger of becoming collateral damage in a long-standing vendetta once again, even though they have been reconciled with Nicholas, Owen's former father-in-law. Despite the closeness that has grown between Nicholas and Bailey (a closeness that has encompassed Hannah too), Hannah has never allowed herself to relax. She has planned for this eventuality, but even Hannah's foresight did not allow her to predict the chain of events that will take them right into the jaws of danger.

Unlike the first book, which unfurled from Hannah's point of view alone, Dave mixes things up beautifully in this follow-up. Hannah's voice is now joined by Owen's, giving his side of the story around his disappearance, and where he has been in the intervening years; and by Nicholas' as he tells about the relationship between himself and Frank (the crime lord who changed the course of his career, and became his closest friend).

The threads of the story weave back and forth in time, segueing between edge-of-your-seat peril in the present for them all as they try to negotiate an exit strategy with some very bad people, and revelations about the past from Owen and Nicholas' history that drastically change your perspective on the things you think you know about how this whole situation came into being. 

The action is relentless, with delicious twists and turns around schemes made in the wings of Hannah and Bailey's lives, and stunning disclosures that blur the edges between friends and enemies. The story develops so cleverly as Hannah, Bailey, Owen and Nicholas risk everything in one final play to ensure Owen can return to his family. Inevitably, there is a cost to pay, but what this will be only becomes clear in the tense climax.

I absolutely inhaled this book, totally caught up in a story that combines great characters with a genuinely exciting plot. I really enjoyed the themes of family, friendship, guilt, and reconciliation that run through the novel too. What a cracking sequel!

The First Time I Saw Him is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Both Hannah Hall books have been adapted for Apple TV+, as The Last Thing He Told Me. 

Thank you to Penguin for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Laura Dave was born in New York City and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English, and went on to gain an MFA from the University of Virginia's creative writing program. She was a Henry Hoyns Fellow and a recipient of the Tennessee Williams Scholarship.

She is the national and international bestselling author of Eight Hundred Grapes, London is the City in America, The Divorce Party, The First Husband, Hello, Sunshine, The Last Thing He Told Me, The Night We Lost Him, and The First Time I Saw Him. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, Glamour, Redbook, The Huffington Post and The New York Observer. In 2008, Cosmopolitan named her a 'Fun and Fearless Phenom of the Year'.

She is married to Oscar-winning screenwriter Josh Singer, with whom she resides in Los Angeles, California.