Ffian goes through quite a bit in this novel. It is apparent that she has not dealt with all the things that happened to her in her past and that shows through the movement of the book. My only fault with this book was there were too many characters to have to keep track off. And each had a connection to the crime. It became hard to keep them all straight. But the twists were delivered in quite the peeling of the onion way which is the best way to do it.

The Last Party is Clare Mackintosh’s latest novel and, like so many of her other books, it does not disappoint. Not in the least. One of the reviews describe it as part psychological thriller and part police procedural and that is the book in a nutshell.

The Last Party begins on New Year’s Eve at the vacation homes on Mirror Lake in the Welsh village of Cwm Coed. It’s a quiet, picturesque place and no one would ever expect to find a body in the lake during the New Year’s Day swim the following day. Is it the result of an accident or is it murder?

Besides the many residents who were present at the party. there are also the local villagers who are not happy with the development along their lake. In other words, there are plenty of suspects. Since Mirror Lake sits on the border of Wales and England, a detective from each jurisdiction is assigned to the case and they have their work cut out for them.

What develops is an intriguing and multi-layered story that is hard to put down. The descriptions, the character development, and the dialogue are all stellar. And the plot - how clever and entertaining! The story moves nearly seamlessly through different timelines and with multiple POVs. The two detectives, Leo and Ffion, are such a great match and their developing relationship, both working and personal, adds yet another layer to the storyline.

This is a book I highly recommend and I’m looking forward to (what I hope) is another book featuring the detectives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

The Last Party is like stepping onto an escalator and looking around at your surroundings, observing all of the people going about their daily lives, unaware of any connections. When suddenly, your feet adhere to the step on which you stand, and the escalator speeds up. The higher the escalator climbs, the faster it goes. You’re looking around and trying to move, but you’re stuck. You’re riveted. I was fully immersed in this book, and it was hard to surface at times. It was brilliant, and I could not get enough.

The Last Party by Clare MacKintosh

This is book one in the DC Morgan series. We are introduced to the main character Ffion Morgan who is heading to a case that happened on New Years. Rhy's Llyod a wealthy famous musician is found dead in the lake at his vacation home. It is during the party he throws on New Years eve that he ends up dead. Who killed Rhy's and Why? So many people in the community do not like him. Ffion having her own little party on New Years eve hooks up with someone across the border and this is how she likes to do it. Simple little fun no complexities. She is assigned the case to Rhy's death as she arrives on the scene low and behold the guy she had a one night stand with Leo shows up to the crime scene as well. This makes things complex for Ffion and Leo both.

I like the slow drawn out thriller this story was it was a chance to get to know the characters which is a good way to start a series. I liked both Ffion and Leo both seem to be interesting and I hope in the future we see more of them together working cases or maybe even more. The case became clear as the story moved forward it came together as a who done it more so then just a mystery so many people did not like Rhy's so it was up to Ffion and Leo to figure it out.

Clare Mackintosh wrote a great opener to this series. I can not wait until the next book in this series comes out. I recommend this book if you like slow burning thrillers/mystery/whodunit then this book will be for you. It has the old school vibe of whodunit a nod to the past. I am giving it a five stars it kept me engaged in the story from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley and Source Book Landmark for a free copy of The Last Party for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I started on e-book from NetGalley and ended on audio from Hoopla. I would have had a hard time if I had only experienced it via audio. Actually reading the first half helped map out the second half. Really enjoyed the audio, getting to hear all of the Welsh words and seeing them on the "page" and their spellings. I did have to listen to this one slower than my normal pace because the accents were so thick!
I thought it was so interesting how well Mackintosh did the POVs. You absolutely 100% thought one thing based on one person's POV ie (being in one person's POV and him thinking one thing and then being in someone else’s POV and realizing that what happened wasn’t true!) Very well done.
That being said, I gave it 3 stars. It took too long to take off and I didn't love some awkward parts or the very ending.
I did enjoy this tag team duo and want to read more of their adventures.

The Last Parry is a mystery about the murder of a not nice man at the New Years Party. The suspect list is long and the number of intrigue is pretty long too.

Rhys is killed at his vacation home in a small town in Wales. His family, neighbors, and locals are all suspects, and the team investigating his death, DCI Fifon Morgan and Leo Brady have their own secrets to hide.

This was the first book I have read by this author, though I have considered reading others written by her, but my TBR pile is very large (as I'm sure most are for avid readers). The location of this story is the center of this story, the author really describes the mountains, the lake, the weather (cold, wet and foggy most of the time), since the author lives in this area, it probably explains why she can describe it so well. On New Year's Day, Rhys Lloyd, a has been singer/actor, is found floating face down in a lake in a beautiful small village in Wales. The beautiful setting is the reason that Rhys formed a partnership to build a number of lodges (very exclusive) to sell to rich investors. Two detectives, one from England the other from Wales, are assigned to investigate (the body was found in England, the closest police is in the small village which is in Wales), it soon becomes apparent that Rhys was murdered. DCI Morgan and Brady, who had happened to spend an intimate evening together the day before they are assigned to investigate. Both detectives have issues going on in their personal lives and when they start to investigate the list of suspects grows with almost every person they talk to. I did find the cast of characters very large for such a small village, almost everyone in the village had a reason to hate Rhys. It also took a long time to get to the bad person, though overall I did enjoy and would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

The first in a new series, this is a psychological thriller, police procedural and whodunnit all rolled into one. The writing and character development are stellar and there are lot of red herrings and surprises throughout. The ending yields some unexpected twists. The descriptions of the lake setting were the icing on the cake. I look forward to the next in this series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Everyone loved dad. He was the nicest man you could ever meet.”

Read if you like:
- longggggg chapters
- who-done-it murder mystery
- multiple points of view
- with just a liiiiiitle romance sprinkled in

Rhys Lloyd is found dead in the lake after his New Year’s Eve party he threw to meet all his new neighbours. But everyone loves Rhys… who would have killed him??

This is a who-done-it mystery, with many different characters and perspectives involved.
I have been hearing about this book literally non-stop for months, I am so excited to finally get to read it!
The language (Welsh) in this was a little tough for me to understand and took me a little bit of extra time to get through; I looked some words up and I’m still confused 😜 lol.
I love when books are written from more than one person’s perspective, because it shows us 2 (or more!) sides to the story and I can slowly piece together the puzzle. There were a lottttt of characters in this one and at times it did get a little confusing trying to keep them all apart, but it all together well in the end.
I tend to avoid DI/DC so-and-so books as they are not really my taste, but this one was really enjoyable!
This is my second by this author, and I really like the stories she tells!
This was definitely more of a mystery than a thriller though. Some parts in the middle did drag on a little, and I would have loved more twist or suspense, as this book is marketed as a “thriller”.
I definitely did not see the end coming!! I love when I am so sure I have the ending figured out and then I am completely wrong 😜

Thank you much to NetGalley and the publishers for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review! The Last Party is currently out now!

The Last Party follows two police officers, Ffion and Leo as they attempt to figure out who murdered Rhys, a musician who you find out ends up having a million enemies and isn’t the nicest person - he’s actually a terrible person. The problem I had with this one is the number of character POVs the story rotates through, and honestly some of the imagery I feel like the author might have been trying to portray was lost on me. I looked it up and she lives in Wales, so I’m assuming some of the locale was imagined from that, but living in the United States, it was a bit hard to imagine. I also felt like this one is pegged as a thriller, but it was more of a building suspense - there’s maybe one crazy twist in this one, but the climax felt lacking - I finished it and thought “oh….that’s it?” I see that this is going to be developed into a series, and I’m honestly not sure I’ll pick up the second. They left us with a bit of a love triangle at the end, but that felt weird embedded into a thriller.

Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review. Pub date for this one was 11/1/22, so it’s currently available for you to check out!

It’s New Years Eve and Rhys Lloyd is having his house party, but by midnight Rhys is dead. The next day Ffion has a village full of suspects and she learns everyone has secrets including herself.
This book truly had me hooked and I had no idea who was behind the murder. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out you are hit with a huge twist. You won’t believe the ending!

Book Review
The Last Party
Claire Macintosh

**autobuy author

Triggers- rape, child abuse, infidelity

What I Didn’t Like
The title- just didnt fit- should have been called “The Shore”
So many POV can be difficult for a reader to follow- I constantly double checked at the stRt of each chapter to see whose voice I was listening to

What I Liked
Our victim was depicted in such a way that so many people hated him and with reason - this allowed for the reader to build up a list of potential suspects and the author to throw in multiple red herrings
Different perspectives from different age generations - teens, midlife, seniors
Pace was fluid, there was a steady “stream” of happenings to keep the reader engaged

Overall
A bingable fast paced read full of twists and turns that keep the reader second guessing right til the end.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for my gifted copy in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own

I was a big fan of Clare Mackintosh's ""Hostage"so I very much looked forward to her newest book, "The Last Party." It's a slow burn murder mystery set in beautiful, remote Wales. It took me awhile to get into this one -- sooooo many characters -- but I was hooked at the end. Very glad to see it's the first of a series involving Detective Morgan because she was a fantastic character.

3.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

After a New Year's Eve Party, a popular resident is found dead. Who killed him? Well, that's a real problem the police face as there are no shortage of suspects.

This was a very compelling read which I gobbled down in one day. It felt as twisty as an Agatha Christie and when it came to the big reveal, I must admit that I hadn't considered it. I like when an author keeps me guessing like that. I am looking forward to the next installment in the series.


Publication Date 08/11/22
Goodreads review published 16/11/22


#TheLastParty #NetGalley.

I enjoyed reading this. It kept me guessing the whole time and I did not expect the ending. It was a bit hard to understand/read the Welsh words, but it did not affect my understanding of the story.

I wanted to love this one so much, after reading and LOVING Hostage by Clare Mackintosh. This one felt a little too long for this story. The length made it some what boring at times. I also felt like having so many different perspectives made wasn't the best or at going back so far. I didn't need to know every single characters back story.

I liked this book enough to finish it but I didn’t love it. It never really hooked me in and it was a little slow at times. There was a plot twist that I didn’t see coming but overall, the book was kind of predictable. I know there is another book after this, but I wasn’t a fan of the ending- I don’t like endings that leave you hanging. While I liked the diversity of the characters, I think the boom focused on too many characters. I would have rather it been a dual POV. I also feel like there wasn’t really any top suspects and instead the book just walked through how basically everyone could have had the motive to kill him but it didn’t go into the detail of how so I never really believed any of them did it. Overall, would recommend slow who dunnit mysteries with side plot twists.

So many suspects!
So much to love about the way this story unfolds.
A rich arrogant man is killed at his own resort and there are just SO many people who have reason to want him dead. One of the investigating police detectives grew up knowing the victim. Is she actually the murderer they’re trying to catch?
Thank you Net Galley for an advanced reading copy.

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

Such a good small town (village) mystery!

Set on the border of Wales and England, two detectives have to uncover who murdered Rhys Lloyd and everyone looks suspicious.

I really liked the supporting characters and all the baggage and secrets they carried.

Thanks @netgalley and @bookmarked for this advanced reader!

#BookReview #Bookstagram #ClareMackintosh #TheLastParty #SourcebooksLandmark #BookishLife #reading #Bibliophile #BookPhotography #BookRecommendations #InstaBooks #BookNerd #MysteryBooks #ThrillerBooks #Fiction

The Last Party
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Thriller
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 11/8/22
Author: Clare Mackintosh
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Pages: 432
GR: 4.05

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

My Thoughts: This a police procedural mystery, the first in the series DC Morgan, set in a small town with an icy lake. The story is narrated by DCI Morgan prominently followed by Leo Brady, with some other characters’ POV. The story is narrated in both past and present tense, as well as broken up in two parts. This is more of a slow burn psychological thriller. DCI Morgan’s character is independent, likes to work alone, and has her own secrets. When she is partnered newly with DCI Brady, it took some time to get used to “a partner,” also with his own secrets. The connection they share, goes a little back, and is a bit ironic. There are a lot of characters to sort out, but as you get into the book, you can distinguish the characters and it is not hard to follow along. There are many suspects to weed through. There are lies, deceptions, and secrets, red herrings, twist, after twist, the making an excellant thriller. The characters were fleshed out well, with depth, banter, creative, and were intriguing. The author’s writing style was complex, suspenseful, twisty, and kept me engaged. The book is a little long, but that is my only complaint. I would recommend picking up this book and it would be a good pick for a book club.