Today I’m reviewing The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

Here’s the blurb

IN A VILLAGE WITH THIS MANY SECRETS, A MURDER IS JUST THE BEGINNING . . .

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests.

He’s celebrating the success of his lakeside holiday homes, and has generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours.

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.

She grew up in the tiny community, so the murder 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.

Review

The Last Party came highly recommend so I picked up a copy to see what the fuss was all about.

Rhys Lloyd seems to have everything, famous and popular… so lets find out why he’s just been found dead!

DC Ffion Morgan, a local cop, is assigned the case but is quickly forced to team up with DC Leo Brady from the Cheshire Constabulary. Cross boarder relations… and as it happens.. oh I’ll not spoil it but I loved that the author managed to immediately make the characters more personable and real.

It becomes apparent that Rhys’s death wasn’t without foul play.. but who was involved and why?

There’s quite a bit of animosity surrounding this little lakeside community Rhys setup, locals and those they see as outsiders, does that have anything to do with it?

Well as it happens and as the case progresses we learn pretty much everyone has a secret.. not all relate to Rhys but it’s a complex wab of lies and deceit..

It’s more of a struggle too for Ffion who knows all the locals.. some are friends even.. but is there more to it?

The plot is very addictive and messes with your mind.. just when you think the mist is clearing another snippet of info becomes apparent which throws everything up in the air again!

The Last Party is a very clever tale of misdirection and intrigue. There’s subplots leading to conflicting thoughts you need to muddle through which was fascinating.. it’s soooo clever how the story unfolds and when the truth comes out it wasn’t what I expected.

Being a small community you learn quickly about the lives of the residents and the complicated.. or sometimes not so complicated relationships.. by unravelling at a steady pace it allows you to really get to grips with the tale.

The tale of me was made rather unique too being set on the boarder of Wales and England which opened this up to more possibilities and complex work relationships. Leo’s boss for example..no spoilers.. even with a solid plot there was time to devote to character development which added to the story rather than distracting me from the main plot. Being the first in the series the setup allows the author many directions to take so I’ll be interested to see what happens next.

5/5 Stars

To find out more head to Goodreads or Amazon.