The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave (Simon & Schuster)

Was this novel destined to become a prestige TV drama? Reading it, you get the sense that somewhere out there a producer’s gears began to turn from the moment she sniffed out its alluring ingredients. The book is set mostly in northern California, where the protagonist, a furniture-maker-slash-artist called Hannah, has made a home with her software-engineer husband, Owen. The implosion of Owen’s company leads to his vanishing and ignites a quest to figure out what’s happened— not just where he’s gone but why he’s left behind a large duffel bag full of cash and a very light imprint on the world. The Last Thing He Told Me goes down like the series it will likely become—Julia Roberts has already signed on—light and bright, despite its edgy plot.—