Published: August 4th, 2022
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Crime Series
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook
Welcome to my review for this sensational start to a new series by one of my favourite authors. Thank you Sphere for the gifted ARC.
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SYNOPSIS:
INTRODUCING DC FFION MORGAN, IN THE UNMISSABLE NEW SERIES FROM #1 BESTSELLER CLARE MACKINTOSH
‘Superb, with echoes of Agatha Christie‘ PATRICIA CORNWELL
‘A dark delight of a murder mystery’ JANICE HALLETT
‘Detectives Leo and Ffion make a storming debut‘ BELINDA BAUER
‘Mackintosh is just getting better and better‘ PETER JAMES
On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests.
His lakeside holiday homes are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. This will be the party to end all parties.
But not everyone is there to celebrate. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.
On New Year’s Day, DC Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects.
The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family – and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.
With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead . . . but who finally killed him.
In a village with this many secrets, a murder is just the beginning.
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MY REVIEW:
“Is anyone at The Shore who they appear to be?”
Do I need to start a new crime series? No. Was I going to the moment I knew Clare Mackintosh had written one? Of course!
The Last Party introduces us to DC Ffion Morgan, a spiky detective who lives in Cwm Coed, North Wales. I loved Ffion. She isn’t always likeable but there is something about her that makes her compelling to read. We know from early on that she has secrets and I loved how that made me question if I could trust her, even making me wonder if she could be our perpetrator a few times. By the end of the book I felt a real bond with her character and am excited to see what’s next for her as the series continues. For this investigation, Ffion is paired with English detective Leo Brady, something neither one is thrilled about. I loved their dynamic and found Leo to be a likeable and fascinating character in his own right, so I’m hoping he will be back for book two.
The case that brings Ffion and Leo together is the murder of local celebrity Rhys Lloyd, whose body is found floating in the lake during the traditional New Year’s Day swim. Rhys is a deplorable character who gave me the heebie-jeebies from the beginning. He is a man with more enemies than friends and I could understand why someone would want him dead. In fact, I had more sympathy for whoever might have killed him than the victim himself, which tells you a lot. But it isn’t that simple as the suspects are the other residents, an array of richly drawn background characters who also happen to be Ffion’s family and friends. And this small town is a place filled with secrets, including those being kept by Ffion herself. These added layers and complexities created moral dilemmas that helped us learn more about Ffion’s as both a person and a detective. Would she do whatever it takes to catch the killer or would she sacrifice justice in order to protect herself and those she loves?
Tense, twisty, claustrophobic and surprising, The Last Party is a great example of why Clare Mackintosh needs to be on everyone’s TBR. She is a master of her craft, carefully constructing the many threads so that they collide into a finale that made my jaw drop. I need book two now!
Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
With more than two million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016.
Both Clare’s second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. All three of her books were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club. Clare’s latest novel, After the End, was published in June 2019 and spent seven weeks in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller chart.
Clare’s thriller, Hostage, was published in June 2021, and her latest thriller, The Last Party, which is the first in a new crime series, is published in August 2022.
Together, Clare’s books have been published in more than forty countries. Clare is patron of the Silver Star Society, a charity based at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, which supports parents experiencing high-risk or difficult pregnancies. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles Emma xxx
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