Below is the complete list of Laura Dave books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Hannah Hall Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
About Laura Dave
Laura Dave is an American bestselling novelist known for blending domestic suspense, contemporary fiction, and emotionally complex family drama. Her stories frequently explore marriage, loyalty, identity, and the secrets that reshape relationships. Although she established her career writing about love and family, she achieved international recognition with The Last Thing He Told Me, a suspense novel that expanded her readership and established her as a major voice in contemporary mystery fiction.
Born in New York City in 1977 and raised in Scarsdale, New York, Dave developed an interest in storytelling during childhood. She studied English at the University of Pennsylvania before earning a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. Her academic background helped establish the literary foundations of a career distinguished by accessible prose, compelling characters, and an interest in the emotional consequences of difficult decisions.
Dave made her publishing debut with London Is the Best City in America in 2006. The novel follows a woman returning to her family after years of separation, confronting questions about marriage, commitment, and personal expectations. Her second novel, The Divorce Party (2008), further developed her interest in complicated relationships by exploring the dissolution of a long marriage alongside the uncertainties of a younger couple preparing for their future.
These early works established recurring characteristics of Dave’s fiction: intimate family conflicts, flawed but sympathetic protagonists, and seemingly ordinary circumstances that reveal deeper emotional tensions. Rather than presenting relationships as straightforward romantic narratives, she examines the uncertainty that accompanies major life decisions.
Her subsequent novels expanded those concerns into different settings and circumstances. The First Husband (2011) explores romantic upheaval and unexpected reinvention, while Eight Hundred Grapes (2015) centres on a woman who returns to her family’s California vineyard after discovering a devastating secret about her fiancé. The latter became one of Dave’s best-known early successes, combining family drama, romantic complications, and questions about the meaning of home.
With Hello, Sunshine (2017), Dave examined public identity and personal authenticity through the downfall of a successful celebrity chef whose carefully constructed image collapses when her secrets are exposed. The novel brought a contemporary perspective to her established themes, particularly the difference between the lives people present and the realities they conceal.
A significant turning point came with The Last Thing He Told Me (2021). The novel follows Hannah Hall, whose husband mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a message asking her to protect his teenage daughter. As Hannah investigates his disappearance, she discovers unsettling truths about the man she believed she knew. The book became a number-one New York Times bestseller, won the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery and Thriller, and was adapted into an Apple TV+ television series starring Jennifer Garner. Dave co-created the adaptation with her husband, screenwriter Josh Singer.
Dave continued exploring family secrets through The Night We Lost Him (2024), a suspense novel involving two estranged siblings investigating the circumstances surrounding their father’s death. In The First Time I Saw Him (2026), she returned to Hannah Hall’s story, continuing the narrative introduced in The Last Thing He Told Me and examining the consequences of its earlier revelations.
Although her later novels feature increasingly prominent mystery and thriller elements, Dave’s underlying interests have remained consistent. Her suspense rarely depends solely on physical danger or the mechanics of solving a crime. Instead, tension emerges from the possibility that the people closest to us may harbour entirely different histories, motivations, and identities than we imagine.
Her novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into numerous languages. Based in Southern California, Dave has built a career spanning relationship-centred fiction and psychological suspense, with an emphasis on emotional authenticity. Her bibliography reflects a gradual evolution in genre rather than a complete change in creative direction, united by an enduring fascination with trust, family, forgiveness, and the difficult choices that define personal relationships.