#BookReview #Ad The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

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The Last PartyAbout the Book

It’s the party to end all parties….but not everyone is here to celebrate.

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, 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, murder is just the beginning.

Format: Hardback (448 pages)       Publisher: Sphere
Publication date: 4th August 2022 Genre: Crime, Thriller

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My Review

The first in a new series featuring DC Ffion Morgan of North Wales CID, The Last Party is a clever and intricately constructed whodunit. Set in an exclusive small development of luxury lakeside lodges, it has the feel of a locked room mystery.  As the book progresses it turns out pretty much everyone, including the residents of the nearby village, had a reason to want to kill Rhys Lloyd.

Since the murder scene is on the England/Wales border, DC Ffion Morgan is teamed up with DC Leo Brady of the Major Crime unit of Cheshire Constabulary. Their partnership gets off to a rocky start although, as we discover, they have more in common than they realise.

Alternating with the investigation are flashbacks to the months, weeks, days and hours running up to New Year’s Eve. These are told from a number of points of view, building up the back stories of the various characters as well as giving insights into their relationship with Rhys Lloyd whether that be business, personal or familial.  I especially liked the way the author often ends a chapter with a teasing final sentence. For example, ‘[X] tells people it’s all water under the bridge. It couldn’t be further from the truth.’ As the book goes on, the motives keep on stacking up, as do the red herrings and false trails.

The author gives Ffion a sardonic, no-nonsense attitude and a deadpan sense of humour. However is that just a facade?  Not only does the investigation expose fractures in the relationships between families but also between the lodge residents and the local community. And there are stresses in strains in Ffion’s and Leo’s domestic lives as well. However, I loved the way Ffion encouraged Leo to stand up to his overbearing boss.

The Last Party is an ingenious and absorbing crime mystery that will keep you guessing until the final chapter. The next book in the series, as yet untitled, is available to pre-order now.

I received a proof copy courtesy of Sphere.

In three words: Ingenious, intricate, engrossing

Try something similar: The Companion by Lesley Thomson

Clare MackintoshAbout the Author

Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award winning author of five Sunday Times bestselling novels. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide, have been New York Times and international bestsellers and have spent a combined total of sixty-four weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart. Clare lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children. (Photo: Twitter profile)

Connect with Clare
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#WWWWednesday – 25th January 2023

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

Dead of NightDead of Night by Simon Scarrow (ARC, Headline)

BERLIN. JANUARY 1940. After Germany’s invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party’s hold on power is absolute.

One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood.

Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor’s widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret.

Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . .

A WW2 thriller set in Berlin ticks a lot of boxes for me. I haven’t read the first book in the series but I’m hoping that won’t be a problem.

A Gift of PoisonA Gift of Poison (Brontë Sisters Mystery #4) by Bella Ellis (eARC, Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley)

Haworth 1847 – Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte’s has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.

At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.

Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt. 

I’ve enjoyed all three previous books in the series so couldn’t resist requesting this latest one. And it should allow me to  tick off another time period for the When Are You Reading? Challenge 2023.

Recently finished

A Winter Grave by Peter May (riverrun)

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere)

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne (Penguin)

 

What Cathy (will) Read Next

PontiPonti by Sharlene Teo (Picador)

It is 2003, and in the sweltering heat of Singapore sixteen-year-olds Szu and Circe develop an intense friendship. For Szu it offers an escape from Amisa, her beautiful, cruel mother – once an actress and now the silent occupant of their rusty house. But for Circe, their friendship does the opposite, bringing her one step closer to the fascinating, unknowable Amisa.  

Seventeen years later, Circe finds herself adrift and alone. And then a project comes up at work, a remake of the cult seventies horror film series ‘Ponti’, the same series that defined Amisa’s short-lived film career. Suddenly Circe is knocked off balance: by memories of the two women she once knew, by guilt, and by a lost friendship that threatens her conscience… 

The Emperor's ShieldThe Emperor’s Shield (Legionary #9) by Gordon Doherty (eARC, courtesy of the author)

Easier to split the sky, than part a soldier from his blade.

386 AD. The Eastern Roman Empire faces a trident of threats. The Gothic truce grows unstable. The standoff with Persia escalates. And the ambitions of the usurper on the Western throne grow dangerously unchecked.

Pavo, a broken veteran of the legions, cares for none of these things. His life is one of pastoral seclusion on his Thracian farm. A life of love, of peace. His wife and young son are his world. Still, every so often, things seen and done in his old life haunt him, like a cold and unwelcome breeze. But that is all they are, echoes of the past…

Until the past rises, like a shade, to rip his world and the Roman Empire apart.