I think I have quite a gooey heart, this book, a pure murder mystery, had me quite emotional at times.

The story started with a girl dying and wanting her father to make it all right. Somebody had murdered her. Cop and family friend Matt, father Jake, and mother Julie were all devastated when Jordan’s body was found. The step-father didn’t care less about it.

My first book by author P L Kane, I too wanted to know who killed this child who was so troubled in life that she was scuttling herself. My insides twisted as the family life unfurled. I felt sad for the parents for their loss of love and relationship, and the way they lost their only child. The story was quite a domestic drama.

The story was quite slow, some parts jumped up at moments to prod me to keep reading, especially the ones with lawyer Sam Ferrara. But it was the twist which shook me and made this book come alive. I loved the rush of excitement, the heart beat rising with every page, and the ending which caused a surge of adrenaline. It was this twist which invigorated me and made this book a fun read.

I liked this book but I couldn't say I loved it. It was slow in some areas, it started to become a little long winded . The synopsis was what grabbed me in the first place so it was disappointing.

Truly enjoyed the pacing of the story and the well written characters. This book took me by surprise. It kept me interested throughout the story and I needed to see what was going to happen. I would recommend this story to all thriller and who-done it lovers.

The death of a child, your own child, is the worst possible experience a parent can go through, even more so when your child is brutally murdered.

Jake and Julie are completely devastated by the murder of their daughter Jordan. The only comfort is the fact the police already have the murderer in custody. Bobby was found covered in his girlfriend's blood, but he still insists that he is innocent.

Her parents, in particular Jake, find it difficult to reconcile their present with their past. Jake has to deal with the new man in her life and the new father figure in his daughters life. A man he takes an instant dislike to - is it just jealousy?

One of the most poignant elements of this story is guilt. Jake realises that there is no going back - no do over as a father to his daughter. He wasn't there to protect Jordan or to give her advice. Instead the separation from wife and home also resulted in the father and daughter relationship being severed.

He points the finger straight at his ex-wife. Why didn't she pay more attention to what Jordan was doing and who she was seeing? It's an easy way to deal with your own sense of guilt I suppose. Blame someone else, because the reality is so much more painful than Jake wants to acknowledge.

It's an emotionally charged domestic noir - fraught with guilt and regret. Kane plots a crime, but turns the story into a compelling tale about relationships, broken homes and families.

This book brought me to tears. It is a story told from the POV of the grieving father , his turmoil, guilt,grief are all described so well that you feel his pain. You become invested, in his fight for justice and the truth. You want him to put to rest all the regret he feels for not being in his eyes a better father. His fight for the truth takes him on a dark lonely path , alienating people in his desperate search. He is haunted by the ghost of his daughter and he knows that while ever her murderer is out there she wont rest in peace. The first suspect seems to be the one but is he Jake is not totally convinced. Jake takes on those that want the death wrapped up as soon as possible leaving him convinced there is some form of conspiracy. The book charts his seemingly self destructive path to the truth , and we the reader are grieving alongside him as he struggles on. They tension, pace and depth of the book make it an engrossing book and one i finished in one day. Totally moved by the description of Jakes thoughts and feelings it could have made for hard reading, but for me it was also uplifting and poignant. The final truth when it is revealed is such a shock not only to him but to me as i never saw it coming. A different take on a crime novel by using the POV of the grieving family over the detectives searching for the killers make it a fabulously powerful book.

Jake Radcliffe’s daughter, Jordan, has been murdered, stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Robert ‘Bobby’ Bannister. It seems like an open and shut case – all the evidence points to Bobby being Jordan’s killer – but Jake feels something is off and decides to investigate and find out the truth. Despite being warned off on several occasions, he refuses to give up and looks into the events surrounding his daughter’s death with help from old friend and policeman, DC Mathew ‘Matt’ Newcomb.

Jake hasn’t seen his daughter for nearly three years. They’re estranged after the pair fell out and she told him she never wanted to see him again. When she was 15, Jordan got in with the wrong crowd and her personality changed and she began sleeping with lots of boys, smoking, possibly taking drugs, staying out late, disappearing for days on end and causing her parents worry and stress. Jake didn’t handle things well and gave up too easily on his daughter when the going got tough and just walked away and it resulted in the breakdown of his relationship with Jordan, as well as the end of his marriage to Julie.

A lot has happened since Jake left Redmarket and got a job with a local TV company and Julie has now remarried to widower Greg Allaway, who has a son called William. When Jake returns to town after Jordan’s death, he struggles to cope with what has happened and blames Julie for not protecting her and keeping her safe. They’re both distraught and have lots of regrets.

Jake and Julie go back a long way – they first met at school and were the Three Musketeers with Matt – and he still has lots of mixed-up feelings for her, which he struggles with. He also has a few jealous run ins with Greg as the men butt heads and rub each other up the wrong way. Greg can’t handle what has happened and drinks heavily and nearly self-destructs again but he manages to bring himself back from the brink with the help of Sam Ferrara, a lawyer who was hired to defend his daughter’s suspected killer.

After letting his daughter down in the past, Jake is now trying to do right by Jordan and be a better father and solve her murder, even though it’s, sadly, far too late to mend their relationship. He feels so guilty and tormented about the past and is full of remorse for everything that has happened that led to him walking out on Julie and Jordan.

Poor Jake was really tortured by the past and his actions and, even though he rather brought it all upon himself, I had sympathy for this poor grieving father who has lots of regrets and guilt and was unable to protect his little girl when it counted most and save her from being murdered.

This was an entertaining, well-written book and I really liked the way the plot developed and we got to know more about Jake and Jordan. The story was a bit slow paced at first but it was good to build up a picture of events and see things from Julie and Jordan’s viewpoints. Then things ramped up as Jake got nearer the truth and found himself in some dark and dangerous situations. There were lots of interesting twists and turns and a surprising back story is revealed that I wasn’t expecting! Overall, an enjoyable, quick read and I’ll be looking out for more of P.L. Kane’s books in the future.

This was my first time delving into anything written by this author.
We are immediately thrown into the gruesome discovery of the body of Jordan Radcliffe daughter of Jake & Julie.
All evidence is pointing to her boyfriend Robert "Bobby" Bannister but Jordan's dad Jake feels something is off with him having committed the crime.
Thrown into the equation is the fact that Jake didn't have a great relationship with his daughter in the later years of her life so trying to find out anything about her life and her friends proves a little difficult for him.
Emotions are high between Jake, his ex Julie and her new husband Greg. Why can't Jake seem to get on with Greg?
And old feelings are being stirred up between himself and Julie which isn't helping...
Jake does have a good friend in Matthew though, the police officer on the case.
But he is a man on a mission to solve his daughter's murder while trying to deal with his grief on his own. Grief that at times is too much for him to handle.
I felt there was so much to his daughter that he just didn't know. Children grow up, they have lives and secrets of their own that they don't want to share with their parents.
You have to wonder did he really know his daughter at all or did she have secrets that ultimately she couldn't handle on her own...
A gripping read that will have you turning the pages quite quickly..

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jordan Radcliffe is killed and found with a knife sticking out of her body. Her boyfriend is caught running from the scene. Jordan's estranged father, Jake, decides to do his own investigation into who killed her.

3.5 stars.

This book was ok for me. I read it in a day but mostly because I had nothing else to do, not because I was that engaged. I thought it was slow at times and I found my mind wandering as I read it. The ending had some surprises but I wasn't sure if they were well done by the author or if I had missed the clues cause I was in a zoned out state.

Strong writing from this my first book by this author. A man, devastated following the loss of his daughter, decides to do some sleuthing when things don't add up with the police investigation. Great twist that I didn't see coming. Review left on Amazon

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I felt that the book started off interesting. It was a promising thriller and I was hooked and ready to read more until I began to feel it drag on.

As it went on I found myself stopping and coming back to the book rather than wanting to read it all the time. It got rather repetitive in some parts as well.

There's enough action in the beginning and end that allowed me to finish the book although, the middle dragged on a bit too much for my liking with a lack of any suspense or twists.

I really enjoyed this book so much. It has a really great plot, superb main characters and I read it in one sitting. I would highly recommend this book.

Strong start to this story.
Jake, a divorcee, finds out his daughter has been murdered and returns to his hometown.
He and his ex wife Julie were childhood sweethearts are devastated at her death. Jake , a newspaper photographer is determined to find out what happened to his estranged daughter and enlists the help of his old friend Matt who is now a policeman.
There are many twists and turns in this book although, in the middle, it gets a bit repetitive .
There are some surprising red herrings in the concluding chapters, particularly with the mayor which I found unrealistic and distracting from the main plot. Without this I would have given the book 4 stars.
The real murderer is not revealed until the end.
Overall I enjoyed this book and would read more books by PL Kane.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy of Her last secret by P.L. Kane. Jake finds out his daughter has been murdered, and it appears her boyfriend is guilty. He is convinced there is more to this case, and starts to investigate while his ex-wife is reluctant to let him back into her life. Although it started out ok, I couldnt really get into this book at all.

Her Last Secret by P.L. Kane
High school sweethearts, Julie and Jake, have a child at 17. A baby girl they named Jordan. Now divorced, Jake must go back to his hometown because Jordan is found dead. The suspect, her boyfriend, is apprehended almost immediately with pretty damning evidence. At first overjoyed by the overzealous police department, it soon becomes just a little too convenient how everything seems to just fall into place. Jake begins his own investigation which ruffles some feathers. How far will people go to cover up their secrets?
Read Her Last Secret and uncover the truth for yourself!

Jake is estranged from his only daughter and hasn't seen her for a few years. He's moved away from his family home and old life... But one day he gets a call to say that Jordan has been murdered and so he is catapulted back into his old world. Feeling guilty and helpless he decides he must find out the truth about his daughter's death. This is the only way he can try to make amends.
******
Thrillers and crime mysteries are my absolute fave genre, and it's been too long since I had a good one to get my teeth into!
I absolutely loved Jake and the idea of a normal civilian investigating a crime (I hope he will get a book 2, I have lots of ideas for this!! 😉)
He has to really dig deep into himself to uncover the truth about his daughter and my heart broke for him!

This book is full of secrets some big, some small, and it has a couple of really strong plot twists. There's lots of darkness and danger and I held my breath more than once!
The plot twist at the end though is more than I could have asked for!! 🤤

I've seen a review saying that one part of this story was a bit too far fetched, but as I am closely linked to a real life detective, I know that this isn't the case! (sadly) and I loved the fact that I didn't see this twist coming at all!

There are side plots to the main storyline of friendship, love and forgiveness and I really liked the characters! I especially liked Sam (can she go into book 2 please?) Overall thoroughly enjoyed this one it's a 4.5 🌟 for me!

Thank you @hqstories @netgalley for letting me read this Arc!

This is a fantastic character driven book , highlighting the fractious relationship between a teenage daughter, before her murder, and her now divorced parents.

The detailed account of their grief tore through me as a parent of a teenage girl myself and having been a similar teenager to Jordan back in the day made me empathise with her too.

Starting with a slow but steady pace it picks up once Jake starts investigating and my favourite character, lawyer Sam Ferrara is introduced. In she waltzes to get Jake released from the cells and gives the book a little light relief from all the darkness. I loved her attitude, her sharp perceptiveness and her sense of justice in wanting answers even if it could hurt her client who is the main suspect in Jordan’s murder.

A dark domestic crime thriller with a really strong plot that delivers some nice unexpected twists and another author to add to my booky radar.

Didn;t really like this book, found it pretty boring and hard to care about the characters. skimmed it mostly to get it done with to fulfill my responsibilities to review it or else would have just stopped reading it all together

I recieved a copy of this through NetGallery and now I'm leaving a voluntary review.

Her Last Secret is a psychological Thriller. I was looking forward to reading this because it looked interesting and the cover stood out to me.

The story started off strong with a murder and the aftermath. 

The problems started in the middle half of the book. There was no action, no suspense, no thrilling parts. It was just story. I found the middle really long winded and I got quite distracted from the story.

It started picking up again in the last couple of chapters. We had action and we finally find out who the killer is.

The characters Julie, Jake, Greg, Sam and Matt were likeable characters and held the story together.

If this story had more happening in it then I would have gave it 4 stars

Jordan is found stabbed to death and all of it points to her boyfriend. It sounds like an open and shut case of yet another man killing his girlfriend, something we all know happens every day, with little consequences, even when women have reached out to get help. But her estranged father, Jake, doesn't believe this is all there is to the story and he sets out to find the truth.

I really enjoyed the storyline and the plot twist was like WOAH. It was well written and easy for me to read quickly. My only complaint is the story is a bit repetitive and I felt like I was rereading some things over and over and over again. I wonder if there were better ways to get the point across even when characters had the same experiences.

Overall though, it was well worth the read and I will be checking out any future books by this author.

This starts with the murder of Jordan Radcliffe, stabbed and left to die…..

Her estranged father, Jake, wants answers. Who killed his daughter?

Jake’s ex-wife Julie is distraught, her husband Greg doesn’t seem much support.

When Jordan’s boyfriend is arrested for the crime, Jake wants revenge…..but is there more to this than it seems? Can Jake find the truth?

This is a story of a family tragedy and a murder mystery. A tale of loss, grief and guilt after the death of Jordan….the what if’s and maybe’s . This is not a police procedural or thriller, it’s gripping murder mystery with an emotional heart. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for a free ecopy of the book. This is my honest and unbiased review.