This was such a satisfying story, I didn’t want it to end. I felt like I was in a village in Wales near an eerie lake. The author weaves a complex tapestry of interesting characters who carry secrets. Anyone at the lake could’ve killed Rhys. They all had a motive. It’s up to Ffion Morgan, a detective from Wales, and her counterpart from England, Leo Brady, to solve the mystery. Just when I thought the book was wrapped up at the end, there’s a twist. I look forward to reading other books by the author.

Lots to enjoy about this one, but I had to bump my rating down a bit for the unnecessary length/amount of characters in this story. 50-75 pages could have easily been cut and at least 2-3 characters have no real effect on the plot and should have been eliminated entirely. I loved how atmospheric the book was though, and Mackintosh really has a way with delivering multiple plot twists that never feel cheap or (for the most part) predictable. Despite it dragging a bit at parts, I’m so impressed by how intricately the story was plotted out.

I really enjoyed this mystery by Clare Makintosh that involves a man who is killed at a neighborhood party. Turns out that just about everyone in the area had a reason to kill the man. Told from different perspectives and timelines over the course of a year, the plot is tightly woven with several twists. I loved how the author described the Welsh setting and use of the unique Welsh language. I could see this being developed into a tv series like Broadchurch (which I also loved). This was probably my favorite Clare Makintosh book and I have ready many.

The Last Party is the newest twisty thriller by Clare Mackintosh. It's told over the span of one year from one New Year's Eve to the next. The initial New Year's Eve has a party occurring and a dead body is discovered. The small town on the border of England and Wales has plenty of suspects in regards to who would have like to have seen the victim offed. It's up to Ffion and Leo, the police officers, to discover the truth behind the crime. Lots of secrets and drama keep this book moving right along. I'm thrilled to learn that a sequel is already in the works. Read and enjoy!

new-series, Wales, crime-fiction, thriller, murder, murder-investigation, procedural, suspense, family-dynamics, family, friction, friendship, frustration, relationships, cultural-differences, celebrities*****

As if it isn't enough that the lake where the body of a celebrity is found is one which divides England and Wales so that two detectives from different jurisdictions are in charge, teaming up for solving the case. The worst is that those two detectives (Leo Brady from Cheshire Major Crime and Detective Constable Ffion Morgan from North Wales CD) had a one night stand the night before they met as colleagues!
Neither wants to work with the other jurisdiction, let alone be partnered! But. That only adds to a story filled with wonderful descriptions of the area and the process they must both go through to bring a fraught investigation full of lies and half-truths to a close. A pretty great read!
Being a North American, my only wish is to find it in audio so I don't feel a dunce in mispronunciations.
I requested and received a free temporary e-book copy from Sourcebooks/Landmark via NetGalley. Thank you!

The Last Party is my first book by Clare Mackintosh but it won’t be my last.
The Shore brings a group of people to Wales that probably wouldn’t have known one another if not for the promise of a luxury development. They each have hidden reasons for being there. Rhys Lloyd, famous Welsh signer, has a lot to lose on New Year’s Eve but he wasn’t expecting to lose his life.
The author keeps the story moving by having each chapter follow a snapshot of one character’s view in the timeline. It changes forward & back but it was easy to follow. The ending definitely surprised me.
There are a lot of Welsh words in the book & I wish that the author had included a pronunciation key in the book. I kept googling words to hear the pronunciation.

The Last Party is a twisty story involving a New Years party, a dead man floating in the lake, and many secrets and lies uncovered. Rhys Morgan is a very hated man, and it became more of a who actually did it, because everyone seems capable of it.

I struggled through this book and ended up skimming quite a bit. There were too many characters and too many lies to keep up with for my liking, and it just made me lose interest in the tale rather than suck me in. I kept having a hard time picking the story back up. I’m probably in the minority with my opinions, I saw several people that really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a favorite for me.

Thank you NetGalley and sourcebooks for my ARC in exchange for my honest feedback

This a well written, slow burn read. There were several twists that I never saw coming and lots of characters/suspects to choose from. I kept guessing (incorrectly) until the very end.
I absolutely loved this book and I hope to read more about Ffion and Leo in future books.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

There are too many characters in this book. It is long and hard to follow. The mystery aspect is solid, but between the timelines going out of order, it was hard to follow. The book examines a murder that took place on New Year's Eve, and the timeline goes from the present where they are trying to solve the murder, back to New Year's Eve. Only depending on the character, it depends on what time on New Year's Eve the story jumps back to.
This helps to build the timeline, but also is very confusing. So many characters jumping to different spots in the story makes this really hard to follow. It is a solid police procedural, and it seems to be the first in a series with these detectives. I liked the characters of the detectives and their banter, but there needs to be fewer characters in future books!

3.5 STARS - The Last Party is set around the murder of a local celebrity at a New Year's Eve party in a small, posh vacation community in rural Wales. The Welsh locale is atmospheric, and the suspect list is long which will keep readers second guessing the identity of the murderer.

Admittedly, the Welsh names were a mouthful for this Canadian, and even though I initially mispronounced many of the names in my head (Cwm Coed and even Ffion's name), I enjoyed taking the time to look up a few pronunciations to better understand this language which is part of my (albeit far back) Welsh heritage.

The Last Party felt more like a domestic drama/murder mystery than psychological thriller with a cast that had more than its fair share of dark secrets. Mackintosh provides many twists and red herrings that kept me guessing the identity of the culprit and the underlying conflicts/pasts of the townspeople and the residents of the posh Shore community added to the tension and mystery.

But it took me a long time to get into the story. The pacing is very slow and while the first half of the book gave me enough to keep me interested, it wasn't until just after the halfway mark that I felt things click and I was really pulled in. I enjoyed getting perspectives from multiple characters but there was a repetitive, drawn out feel as we witness the same scenes from different POVs. Add in a very large cast which was hard to keep straight, and the nonlinear timeline and things got a bit muddled at times.

This was an entertaining, multilayered mystery in a beautiful setting, that was a quieter, slower burn read than I was expecting. I enjoyed the police team of Ffion, a detective from Wales and Leo, a detective from England (and their unique meet up and chemistry) and look forward to reading more books featuring them and the beauty of Wales in the future.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for my complimentary digital copy of this book which was provided in exchange for my honest review.

While I own a few of Clare Mackintosh's books, I haven't read any yet - but I definitely will be now! I am very, very picky with thrillers, but there wasn't a single eye roll while reading The Last Party! Huge win here. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Welsh setting and names/words used throughout the book.

Usually thrillers with a whole bunch of different POV's are a turn off for me and hard to keep track, but this one was so well done, it made the story even better. There were so many things revealed I didn't see coming and I genuinely thought every single person was guilty at one point. I had NO idea what was coming and it felt like blow after blow towards the end and I couldn't get enough! I very, very much recommend this book for thriller lovers.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Clare Mackintosh for my copy of The Last Party.

This police procedural features an annual winter swim to bring in the new year, a long fraught rivalry between the locals and weekenders, and a floating body of a man brutally murdered.

What a way to start the new year. I really enjoyed the tension that was built right from the beginning. From the snapshots of the actual crime happening. And between Ffion and Leo.

As for the mystery it's self, the twists and turns were solid and while some things were easy to pick up as a mystery buff, the ending was a total surprise.

The only thing that was bit of turn off for me was how many characters there were to keep track of. It was cool being able to see the events from different POVs but I don't really like flipping back and forth constantly.

For my first Mackintosh, I was not disappointed.
Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This is a procedural mystery/thriller in which DC Ffion Morgon works to find the murderer of a not so nice man, Rhys Lloyd, at his New Year's Eve Party. There are many suspects with many secrets. I really enjoyed the main character, Ffion, but there were so many characters sometimes it was hard to keep track of what exactly was happening and with who. However, there are some good twists, and the book was exciting to read.

Mirror Lake divides land belonging to the Welsh and the English. Rhys grew up in the area and even as a youngster was considered a “bad seed”. He inherited land on the English side of the lake and was building The Shores with summer homes for wealthy families. His body was discovered face down in the lake during the annual New Year’s Day swim. Even though Rhys was a smooth talker, he was hated by most of the people in the area and any one of them had good reason to murder him.
This novel is told by alternating people over the period of the winter holidays. It is easy to follow and the ending was a surprise.

I really didn't enjoy this.. it was way too long and had so many characters and things happening yet still felt so boring. Just wasn't for me at all although I'm sure others will really like it!

Thank you netgalley for this earc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Last Party.

I love police procedurals; detectives working together, pounding the pavement and investigating witnesses and sifting through clues and interviewing potential suspects.

I was excited my request was approved, but my excitement was soon tamped by the multitude of characters, POVs, and a despicable victim.

The narrative is bloated with multiple POVs; everyone has something to hide, including Ffion Morgan, one of the detectives in charge of the murder investigation.

There are secrets piled upon secrets; adultery, drugs, rape, sexual violence, financial mismanagement.

Despite all these 'twists,' I actually figured out most of them on my own because I read so many books in this genre.

As other reviewers pointed out, the Welsh names were hard to recall, and remember who was who.

Leo was the only person I remembered, not only because his name was easy to remember.

I also liked him, and how his relationship with Ffion deepens as they work together; how they empower one another and find strength in themselves to fight for what they want; Leo to reunite with his son and Ffion to reconcile what happened to her nearly two decades ago when she was only 14.

But, it took too long to get to the point.

The author gives everyone's back story and why they despise the deceased and who was doing what on the day of the murder and on and on and on.

The narrative was unnecessarily long; the victim was a scumbag so you didn't care he was dead, and most of the characters were unlikable or one dimensionally described.

The Last Party wasn't for me but I'm grateful for the opportunity to read it early.

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

Is there anyone in the Welsh village of Rhys Lloyd that would not like to see him dead? Well that means there are numerous suspects when his body floats up on shore in the midst of their annual New Years Day Swim.
Rhys has left a wake of used and abused women starting as a teenager, continuing into his successful adult life as a classical singer. The singing career is drying up and now he back in town as a developer of an expensive lakeside community…the lake being part of his village and the Locals are not fond of this new influx of city people into their little community.
His murder is investigated by a detective with her own history with the victim that makes for uncomfortable and unethical situations…….but she remains unfazed and pursues his killer. Her partner, with his own personal issues, is a good match and they become a compatible working pair: her sarcasm and his calmness make for interesting dialogue throughout the book
There are so many secrets, so many illusions, all presented slowly and methodically by the author that you find you’re caught up in all the incestuous drama between all the characters that builds up to an exciting finish and the discovery of who did it and how.

Really solid mystery. Clare Mackintosh is one of my favorite psychological thriller writers, but I felt this one leaned more toward a procedural mystery. It was well plotted and I was fascinated by all the commentary about Welsh/English relations. Mackintosh remains an auto-read author for me!

A twisty ride that leaves you wanting more. A fun and dark story that you won’t be able to put down!

The tiny community of Mirror Lake in Northern Wales, is close knit and frigidly unwelcoming to outsiders. When local-boy-turns-celebrity Rhys Lloyd is found dead after an epic New Year’s Eve party, the villagers’ festering animosity toward him and his luxury housing development come to light. Detectives Leo and Morgan team up across districts and prove to be an unexpectedly well-suited team; his diplomacy filters her impulsiveness. The two uncover secrets that go back decades further than midnight, and while the list of suspects is long, the pacing is taut and is well served by alternating perspectives and timelines.