It’s New Year’s Eve and there is a party at ‘The Shore’ – the new luxurious holiday apartments which reside on the borders of England and Wales. A goldmine for Rhys Lloyd and business partner Jonty Charlton, but not so popular with the locals in the village. Despite disapproval from the locals that doesn’t stop the whole village attending the party to drink champagne with their new wealthy neighbours.
The next day Rhys Lloyd’s body is found floating in the lake and undoubtedly everyone at the party becomes a suspect, leaving DC Ffion Morgan a whole village of suspects.
I have always been a big fan of Clare Mackintosh’s books. In complete and total honesty, I found the start of The Last Party a little bit slow and found it difficult to keep up with the number of characters- however these thoughts quickly diminished, and the storyline and strong characters grew on me. As you go through the book each character is developed whole-heartedly as opposed to being thrown in for the sake of it. I felt this really brought the heart and soul of Cwm Coed to life. Ffion Morgan is an incredibly strong female protagonist, and I am pleased we will be seeing her again. I was fully invested in her as a person, as well as her relationship with the village and it’s people.
As with all of Clare’s novels the detail is immaculate making it feel incredibly realistic and something you can fully immerse yourself into. The book is written from different time frames which I felt really gave us a spherical view. The book is full of secrets and whilst I wasn’t surprised by the ending and had my suspicions quite early on, I fully enjoyed the twists and turns of the book. The author continuously pulls us in different directions, and I really enjoyed the rollercoaster of a ride as we uncover the different characters and their potential motives for killing Rhys Lloyd.
Aside from murder other themes in the book include but are not limited to: class, statutory rape, sexual assault, patriarchy, toxic bosses, bullying, divorce and custody battles.
I am absolutely delighted that is just the first of a new series and also that the rights to a series have been brought.
Overall, The Last Party is simply the start of what is to be a gripping series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Last Party will be published on 4th August 2022.
Reads Must 