An entertaining and slow-burning mystery with a satisfying conclusion. I think the author did a great job conveying each character and their flaws. I felt like I really got to understand each character and how their mistakes all connected. I was expecting more in the thriller area of this story and was a bit underwhelmed with the overall reveal. To me this book was more about the deep fissures their secrets created in an already toxic friend group and airing them out rather than the actual murder mystery.

I binged read this one. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it to anyone that likes thrillers

Years ago, Swedish nighttime radio host Sophie Lind’s fiancé died under puzzling circumstances while their close friends were right outside the door. Tonight, in a glossy penthouse apartment, the estranged group will reconvene to finally uncover the truth. Imbued with emotion and chilling atmosphere, The Last Time We Met elevates the 'what really happened that night’ story to a whole new level. Locked-room mystery fanatics will be thrilled.

𝑻𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔, 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉, 𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆.

Sophie hasn’t seen her college friends in just over ten years when she receives an unexpected dinner invitation from Ava, a member of that friend group. Sophie has moved on and as far as she knew, she didn't make her whereabouts known on social media, so she's curious how Ava found her. This group of friends were inseparable, meeting for dinner once a week, even after graduation. But time has split the group because the last time they met for dinner, one person was dead before the end of the night.

Curiosity gets the best of her, and she accepts the invitation. When she arrives, she is asked to surrender her cell phone, which raises her suspicions. When the group sits down to eat, there is a box at each place setting. When the boxes open, it becomes clear that Ava didn't reunite the group out of nostalgia; she did it to unveil a killer. And no one is leaving until the truth comes out about what happened that night.

This was a classic case of judging a book by its cover, and in that regard, this one fell a little short for me because it was a slow burn, and I'm so impatient with those. Another issue, and it's not the fault of the author, is that I just couldn't connect with these characters. They just didn't seem anything more than names on a page, and I didn't really care what happened to them. However, I did enjoy the writing style, and I'll definitely check out what this author comes out with next. Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the early copy. This title will publish August 6, 2024.

To be honest, I nearly DNF this in the beginning, but glad I didn’t. It was a bit confusing in the beginning, but once they get to dinner everything really starts, and it flowed better. I did figure it out about halfway through, but I still enjoyed reading it and finding out I was right. I would recommend this, just push through until the dinner, it’s worth it.

I was hooked from the cover and description, and so glad I was able to read this. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed from the genre. I thought it had a great psychological feel to it and worked with the six former friends. I was never bored when reading this and enjoyed the way Anna E. Wahlgren wrote this.

This book had the same plot as another book I'd read. At first I wasn't going to finish it because they were so similar, but I decided to read on.

Sophie had five friends, William was one of them. He was her fiancé. Among their friends was Ava. Sophie had seen William spending a great deal of time with her, including going to her house many times. Jacob was a friend of William and he had fallen in love with Sophie. He wanted her to leave William for him. And she had grown close to him as well. One night, after they had all gone out to dinner, they decided to go back to William's apartment. Once there, the two of them went into Williams bedroom and it was there that, having had enough of him and Ava, she broke up with him. She left the bedroom and went into the kitchen.

After a while, everyone noticed that William had disappeared. He gone into the bathroom but hadn't come out. Concerned, Ava went to the bathroom door and called to him. When he didn't answer, one of the guys broke into the bathroom and they found him in a tub of water, dead. It was assumed that he had committed suicide. The day after Williams funeral Ava fled the city.

Fast forward 10 years. Sophie received an invitation to a dinner party at Ava's apartment where she was bringing all the friends together again. None of them had seen each other since Williams funeral. When everyone arrived, Ava saw to it that the front door was locked from the outside and no one could get out. Ava's goal in bringing them together was to finally find out what really happened to William. It was her theory that someone killed him.

One of the friends, Tess, had been a drug addict. While at the dinner party, she had too much wine to drink and Charlotte, another of their friends, had given her a Valium. She got into an argument with their friend Adrian and attacked him. He shoved her and she hit her head on the credenza corner. She ended up dead. They moved her body from the living room to the bedroom. So here they were again with a dead body in their midst. They made up a story that they were going to tell the police. They were going to say that she got drunk, hit her head, got up and went into the bedroom to lie down. After they got their story together, Ava thought to it that the front door was unlocked and they were able to leave. The police showed up and questioned them all.

It turns out that Ava had really done her homework. She kept tabs on everybody, and in her sleuthing she learned secrets about them that they thought no one knew. That's how she knew how to locate Sophie. Sophie had disappeared and purposely left everyone behind, she'd also changed her last name. But Ava knew all of that. Also, there was nothing romantic between Ava and William. Ava had mental health issues and she had taking him into her confidence and he provided a huge amount of support for her.

All of those years Sophie had felt William had committed suicide because of her and she carried a tremendous amount of guilt. There were so many questions she needed answered.

Even though I had read a book just like this one, it was able to hold my attention and I'm so glad I finished it. I thought the author did a fabulous job developing the characters and the plot was easy to follow. I really enjoyed it. I gave it five stars.

This book held my attention, particularly when unveiling secrets and intensifying the narrative by revealing more about the events of that night. It proves to be a compelling thriller, keeping readers engaged with its intriguing plot twists.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC! It was my first book by Anna Wahlgren and I enjoyed it!

This is an excellent book. It’s a character-driven locked room mystery. This is my first book from this author and she is extremely talented. The alternating timelines are seamless. There are many characters to keep track of, but I think the author handled it well and you can easily follow what’s happening. As for the end reveal, I didn’t see it coming! I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to recommend it! Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!

PS I see a few comments about the cover not fitting the book. I think the cover is great, for what it’s worth!

I gave this novel 3.5 stars. Though it was not what I was wanting going into the novel, it was not a bad read. It was a slow burn mystery and I also found the "who dun it" easy to figure out.

This was a closed room mystery that had me feeling like I was locked in the room with the characters themselves. It got confusing for me at times with the alternating timelines and the number of characters. It was just hard for me to get to know each one of them because there were so many. I found myself having to keep them organized the right way in my head constantly to stay in tune with the story. The cover leads you to think this is something completely different than it is. Yes, its a thriller with murder, but its also just sad. This author is one I'd read again. I enjoyed this and I recommend to any locked room whodunit story lovers.

This was a very interesting psychological thriller read. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in this type of genre

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Last Time We Met.

First, I love this cover; it's sinister, creepy, and devious. Yet, the narrative is nowhere near as dark and deadly.

In fact, it's kinda sad.

The narrative is nothing new; old friends with secrets are brought together to discuss the death of their closest friend a decade ago.

Everyone believed it was suicide, but it was murder.

All the tropes are here; the deceased was the good guy, the popular one, the guy everyone wanted to hang out with and gravitated to. One of the members of the group was in love with him, there was a love triangle brewing, everyone had their own personal relationship with the deceased that might have motivated them to kill him.

Will exposing their secrets lead to the killer?

The narrative lacked urgency and suspense; especially since I expected all the revelations.

Some of the subplots was deeply sad; for example, Ana is suffering from a mental breakdown that stemmed from a horrific assault she experienced as a teenager; a couple is unhappily married, and Sophie's grief and guilt has caused her to cut all social and personal ties.

I didn't like anyone, including Sophie. I couldn't understand why William or Jacob found her so interesting and alluring and wanted to be with her.

She was dull and boring, and I didn't care about William and all the problems everyone was dealing with.

I did guess whodunnit correctly; I usually do.

This book definitely kept me captivated especially when secrets start to come out and the intensity is added as we learn more about what really happened that night.

10 years ago a close group of friends had a meal at their usual Greek restaurant before heading to William’s flat for the after party. Unfortunately the night ended in tragedy, William’s apparent suicide. Sophie, his fiancée has spent the past decade running away from the events, but an out of the blue invitation leads her back to meet with the friends.

The story moves back between the fateful day of William’s death and 10 years later. We slowly find out more about the events and are introduced to the gang of friends. Each has secrets to hide which Ava, who is holding the party, wants to uncover, believing William was murdered.
It’s a claustrophobic thriller, with the dinner party being held in a locked apartment. The secrets are slowly revealed during the dinner and we get flashbacks filling in more of the story. It’s a Swedish set, and translated, novel. It was well plotted and I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this suspenseful, locked room mystery. It was fast-paced, with a smart conclusion. I didn’t see this one coming, but it totally made sense. Interesting characters too. This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read for me. Highly recommend checking this book out when it hits shelves in June 2024. ❤️ #avivaandfriendsrecos

This book felt like a nice slow burn that kept me interested the entire time and honestly I really liked that about it. I felt like it was a smooth ride of watching it all unfold. Great story.

This isn’t nearly so deliciously vicious as the cover implies.

The plot has been done. Many years ago, tragedy happens. A decade later, everyone is invited to a get together. Doors are locked. Secrets are unveiled. Bad things happen.

But done to death or not, the storytelling is good here. I liked our characters and, while not terribly surprised by the who of everything, I was surprised by some of the secrets.

Despite the cover, it’s actually a quieter and sadder read and I definitely enjoyed it.

• ARC via Publisher

A mesmerizing, unbearably tense thriller.
Sophie Lind hasn't seen her college friends since ten years so when she receives an invitation from her old friend, Ava to meet at her place she just couldn't say no because after all these years she really wants to know what happened to William. These friends had a rule, they used to meet with each other every Friday but the last time they met with each other, William, one of them died.
As all the friends gather at Ava's place, a box is waiting for them in which their dirtiest secrets are there and soon Ava made it clear that they have to remember what happened to William and no one will leave this time before telling the truth. Someone isn't telling the truth. What happened to William is buried beneath someone's betrayal. But whose? Who killed William and why? Are they all going to leave Ava's house alive? Read to know more about this story.
I was hooked from the first page. First I thought it was an ordinary thriller but then I piqued my interest. I really wanted to know what happened the night William died. They all have something to hide but whose betrayal is the worst and how this crazy nightmare will end.
I loved all the characters especially Ava, Sophie and Tess. Other characters are awesome.
Narration of the story is excellent and flawless. I raced through it.
Overall, this is an up all night thriller which can't be missed.

This is an intriguing locked room mystery about 6 one-time friends who reunite at the dinner invitation sent out by one of them, Ava.

The last time they all met, the night ended with the death of Sophie's fiance, William. Tempted by the prospect that this reunion dinner could give her some measure of closure Sophie decides to attend. But soon after they are all sitting at the dinner table, with mysterious little boxes containing information about long hidden secrets next to each of them, it becomes evidence that there is more at play here then any nostalgic gathering of past friends...

The question is, will they all make it out alive this time? And who knows more about William's death than they have previously revealed?

By the end of the evening, the truth will out. But will it set anyone, least of all Sophie, free?

An interesting and well-written murder mystery, with some unexpected elements to it. Worth reading.