I really liked J.M. Winchester’s novel, All The Lovely Pieces, so when I saw Last One To Lie, I knew I had to read it! Imagine going to pick your child up from daycare only to find out she was never there? And not only that, there is no record of her? That’s some crazy switching dimensions and timelines stuff right out of the Twilight Zone!

But this isn’t a sci-fi novel so there is a legit reason and as we read further, the pieces began to fall into place, sort of. The reader is guessing especially as we learn the main character, Kelsey, has something to hide…

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Moving to a new city was supposed to be a fresh start for her family. Now it’s a nightmare.

Her little girl was supposed to be at day care when Kelsey arrived to pick her up. But they have no record of her daughter ever being there. And to make matters worse, her husband is missing too—he won’t pick up his phone, and the school he supposedly works at says he never accepted their job offer.

Detective Paul Ryan knows something’s up with Kelsey’s story. Kelsey’s husband might be involved in their daughter’s disappearance, but the deeper the detective digs, the more inconsistencies he finds.

As Detective Ryan tries to uncover the truth, what he finds are more deeply buried secrets that someone clearly never wanted found.

From the first pages I was hooked on the story and the suspense kept me glued to the pages all the way until the end. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, who I could trust. I love suspense like this and now I need the author to hurry up and write more!

This book comes out on June 9 and you can pre-order here!

Review for 'Last One To Lie' by J. M. Winchester

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Thomas & Mercer publishing .

Available to preorder ready for release on June 9th

This is the first book that I have read by this author. It is a standalone book. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to look for any more of her books but I would read one if I came across one.

This book is written from the perspectives of 3 different characters including the detective Paul. I like when books are written from different character perspectives as you don't tend to miss any of the main storyline.

THE book was well written and flowed well. I read it quite quickly and did quite enjoy it. However, I don't think the author did much if any research into police work and most of the procedure was unbelievable which made it lose a star (all books start with a 5/5 with me)

THE storyline itself was quite interesting and had quite a few twists and turns which were good and I'm happy with te way it ended. I can't say it didn't leave any questions as a case of a certain person (won't say who so not to spoil it) seemed to be added in and forgotten about. This led to another star being removed.

THE characters were believable and quite strong and the descriptions were good.

THE chapters have the time of the events so you can know what's happening at what time which I found very useful.

If I was to recommend this book it would be to fans of crime and mystery.

Rated 3/5 (It was OK) on Goodreads and Amazon (UK and. Com) and over 30 Facebook
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£3.98 to purchase on kindle. I think this is an OK price for this book

288 pages

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A bit confusing at times, due to the narrator not being specified before the chapter starts. But overall an interesting thriller. loved all the plot twists as they came. This book will keep you on your toes.

What a mind twister... I really enjoyed this book. The moment I thought I knew what was going on there was a good twist. Kelsey just didn't know her past would catch up to her. She thought she escaped it but she didn't.

My first reaction after finishing this book was, "This is actually the worst book I have ever read," which I think says all you need to know. ef in order to try and get some sort of enjoyment from this.

Kelsey is the main character, who arrives at daycare to pick up her daughter to find that she was 'never there'. What follows is a confusing twist of amalgamation of storylines, most of which were ridiculous. I really had to suspend disbelief in order to get some enjoyment from this book! Despite the writer clearly trying to throw in a lot of twists to detract from the ending, it was pretty predictable and by the time the ending came I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading the rest of the book. Although it is predictable, the ridiculous storylines also left me with lots of questions at the end thanks to some plot holes. I hate to be so scathing about a book, but I really did not find this enjoyable in the slightest.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot. There were a few things I did not like, that really made me angry. I also knew exactly where this was heading, although there were plenty of twists I didn’t. Overall, a good, suspenseful, thrilling read!

I am definitely one of those readers that looks for a hook to keep me interested in the first few chapters. This book did just that! Once I got into this book, I couldn't stop reading. I definitely didn't see it coming and 3/4 of the way through I had to stop and really think through the twists. It was hard to keep straight at some points, but this was a great read! I think I played out a few different scenarios in my head that weren't even a part of what happened. I also kept thinking to Detective Ryan, "Don't do it!!"

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Well this was a wild ride.

And unfortunately not for all good reasons. I'll start with the good stuff!
1. Nicely paced—I read through in 5 days, mostly over 3 sittings.
2. Intriguing premise
3. DRAMA!!!!!!

But then... oh man. I knew I was in for something when the "tech specialist" was introduced, somehow multitasking "crazy code" and a violent video game on two separate PCs, with two separate keyboards, while talking on her headset. Look, I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE but that is improbable.

Improbable would probably be my go-to word for this one. It requires an incredible suspension of disbelief. I think I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief when enjoying books or films (well, I hate it when my partner likes to point out things that don't make sense anyway), but it was really difficult to do with this book. There was just too much.

Many of the characters, like the hacker (who is never introduced again), read as caricatures: the incredibly sexy, smart, dangerous vixen; the jaded older cop.

If you want to read a (maybe sexy? question mark) thriller without big expectations then this is one for you to read. It's a quick read that has you asking a million questions and answers pretty much all of them.

But if you're not sure, I'll tell you this, because I feel like it gives you a bit of insight to the book's vibe. The main character is a beautiful, smart, woman. She worked as a financial advisor in an attempt to finance her career as a professional dancer. As a VERY young child, she was the best dancer who had ever stepped foot in any Hollywood ballet schools. She had TALENT. Her parents were famous film stars who turned into famous Hollywood porno stars (???), who only bought drugs, drink, and ballet lessons until they died in a fiery crash while THEY were chasing the paparazzi.

Sounds wild, huh? Well.... if you want more of that, read this book!

~~ Thanks to Thomas & Mercer, Netgalley and J.M. Winchester for allowing me to read the ARC and give my honest review ~~

This will be a short review not because it was not a great book but totally the contrary. I so totally recommend this book you are constantly in surprise. We all know that when we read a thriller one tries to guess what is going to happen, and in this book I could not decipher, and was totally in awe when I knew the truth. I totally recommend this book so please when it comes out on June 9th read it.
Surprises along the way is my final sentence

In Last One to Lie, the main character, Kelsey, arrives early to pick up her daughter from daycare only to be told her daughter was never there. Panicked, Kelsey attempts to get a hold of her husband, Malcolm, but cannot reach him after multiple tries. Detective Paul Ryan is called to investigate the case.

This book had a lot of good twists and turns, and jumps from multiple narrators. With each narrator jump, the reader isn't really given any information about which character is speaking, which I believe is intentional on the part of the author. This does make it confusing about who exactly some of the characters are. The pasts and presents of the main characters are also conveniently interconnected to the point of not being believable.

I received an ARC of Last One to Lie in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes! What a ride! I won’t spoil it & tell one of the first twists you’ll find, which is the basis for this mystery. Suffice to say that the twists & questions continue throughout the book & even to the ending. This was a fantastic read, a tiny bit confusing at times but I believe that was the author’s intent. I haven’t read a book with this depth of secrets & mysterious in quite a while but I’m anxious to do it again. Five. Stars. For. Sure.

What a thriller! Very confusing at times. Would have been helpful if each chapter had the name of the narrator. Loved the twists in the plot. Kept reading to find out how it all would play it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of J.M. Winchester’s Last One to Lie. This book follows about a week in the life of Kelsey Jennings, who finds her daughter is not at daycare when she returns from yoga one morning. Her husband, Malcolm, is not responding to her calls and it quickly becomes unclear what either parent’s involvement is in the missing person case.

From the start, it is easy to tell that this book would follow a typical “unreliable narrator” arc, but I’m notably terrible at predicting these twists so the truth behind Kelsey’s daughter’s disappearance came as a surprise to me. I enjoyed Detective Ryan’s storyline as we don’t often get the law enforcement perspective in this genre, though not all aspects of his story seemed plausible.

Last One to Lie is a compelling read that I didn’t want to put down. While it was apparent from the start that you shouldn’t trust Kelsey’s perspective, my worry that this book would fall into some of the overplayed psychological thriller tropes were unfounded. I would recommend this book to fans of the genre and look forward to more books from J.M. Winchester.

Overall, it was a decent thriller, a gripping story but unfortunately the trope used as the main plot twist was one we've seen too many times in thrillers already.
I enjoyed the writing style, though, and the engaging narration.
Still, I had issues with some of the characters - one felt too cliché and the other was too messed up to be able to identify with.
The plot development was not consistent: The first part is strong and highly captivating, but, as the story progresses, and from the moment the plot twist is revealed, the pace slows down.
The twist is deceiving and got me annoyed. I feel like it was the easy way out of this story and it drags down the potential of this thriller.
If, like me, you are used to thrillers and know a bit about them, this one does not bring anything new to the genre and will be soon wiped out of my memory.

Last One to Lie was a page turner. J.M. Winchester took a traumatic event, a nightmare every parent fears, and took the reader on a ride of woven lies and deceit. Lies of Kelsey’s traumatic childhood to Kelsey as an adult. A toddler goes missing, no one at the daycare Kelsey dropped her daughter off at has ever seen her or her daughter before. Kelsey is not lying, she’s not crazy, what is happening! Is it possible her husband and daughter were kidnapped? Did they just disappear? The detective is determined to find Kelsey’s daughter and the truth. However, the detective can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with Kelsey, memories of his past and similar trauma fuel an ill fitted connection to Kelsey. Desperate to find her daughter, Detective Ryan struggles with Kelsey, his past trauma and a quest for the truth. But which truth is the real truth? Last One to Lie was full of twists and shocking revelations... who is telling the truth? Can you ever be sure?

𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐌 𝗪𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫. Thanks to @netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC for an honest review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Kelsey just moved to a new neighborhood with her husband and daughter. She’s not excited about it, but she thinks she will make do. Until she goes to pick up her daughter at daycare, and the girl isn’t there. Her husband is also missing from his new job. It’s up to her to figure out what is going on, as the authorities don’t have a strong belief that she’s telling the truth...⁣
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Whew, this book has so many twists and turns that is becomes a bit unbelievable and cheesy. Parts were certainly campy and predictable, although it was still a fun read. I have a major issue with part of the ending being believable, but I can’t discuss without spoilers. I did love the location of this book: Ellicott City, which is near me. It was fun hearing local places mentioned. ⁣

I mean honestly doesn’t the title just want you to dive in?! So amazing... seriously I could not stop reading it and didn’t want too! Go ahead and read this one ASAP!

This was my first book by this author, and I will certainly read another.

The book centres around Kelsey Jennings, who goes to pick her daughter up at daycare and is told her daughter was never there. (That alone would be terrifying) The matter is reported to the police, and a detective is assigned. Detective Paul Ryan starts looking into the missing child case and starts to believe that nothing about the story or Kelsey is as it seems.

I thought the premise of the book was really interesting, especially because the author went back and forth between back stories and the current story for each character. I liked Detective Ryan and was rooting for him. At times I felt even anxious for him and the decisions he was making. I truly wanted things to turn out for him.

The only downside to the story for me was that I felt it got a little confusing towards the end. I won’t get into why (for fear of ruining the story), but I felt a little confused about how things wrapped up. This is likely a result of the breakneck speed I was reading at because I wanted to know what happened.

I think that fans of Gone Girl or similar stories will like this because there are a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, and the writing really made you want to keep going until the end so you knew what happened.

I will definitely read another book by this author, and enjoyed what I would describe as a twisty psychological thriller that kept me turning pages well past my bedtime.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for my advanced copy!

This book was not what i expected in a good way. It seemed like it was one thing, then became another and then another and then even another. It was confusing at moments but i love unreliable narrators and complicated stories that are not about what they seem. Not sure if the lack of chapter headings with names on them was on purpose to add to the confusion, in the beginning it was confusing to not know if it was the detective or the main character and then got even more confusing as it went on, thought at first it was because of the ARC but now it seems like it was deliberate and there were moment that were very clever in this psychological thriller. I would give it a 4.5, at moments it almost seemed like a five

Talk about your unreliable narrators! This is one of the books where you can rely on anything the narrators tell you. And there are many, many plot twists. This is one of those books that after you read it, you want to start all over to find out what you missed. There are some aspects of the story that are not at all believable, but overall, I enjoyed it.