This book snatched my weekend, my breath, and my ability to trust anyone.
Thank you, Thomas Mercer, for the gifted copy of Last Seen by J.T. Ellison {partner}
 
Genre: Mystery
Format: 🎧📖
Pub Date:  8.1.2025
Pages: 447
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆.5

“Never trust the ones who tell you how pure their hearts, how good their intentions. They insist they are servants to the world. There are lies in their words. They say they are servants to the greater good? They are servants to their urges alone.” 

Last Seen was hands down the wildest reading ride I’ve been on in 2025. I picked it up thinking I’d read a few chapters — and then… I did not put it down. It’s one of those books where every chapter peels back a new layer, revealing darker and more twisted secrets, and just when you think you’re catching on? You’re not. Not even close.

J.T. Ellison packed so much into this story, and it shows — the structure, the pacing, the payoff. It’s a carefully crafted thriller that’s impossible to stop thinking about, even when you’re not reading.

I know there were clues scattered throughout, but I missed them all. Every. Single. One. The ending left me completely blindsided in the best way. I was flipping pages, shouting internally, and literally picking my jaw up off the floor.

Read if you enjoy:
🤩 Dark & Twisty
🔍 Stories of missing people
😅 Cults
🐱🐭 Cat & Mouse 

If you like layered thrillers with clever twists, messy secrets, and morally murky characters, this one belongs at the top of your list.

J.T. Ellison does it again. Love her early releases!

Halley James knows her marriage is over. But she's not prepared for the rest of her life to fall apart too.

She just lost her job at the forensics lab. Her dad needs emergency surgery. But the biggest blow comes back home in Marchburg, Virginia, where she discovers her mother didn't actually die in a car crash. Her mom was murdered--and her father lied about it all these years.

I have nothing to hide from you. Are you hiding something from me?

Since she was six years old, it's been Halley and her dad. Now, she doesn't know what to believe. Desperate for the truth, Halley chases down a lead in Brockville, Tennessee. But all there is not as it seems. Brockville's utopian charm hides a chilling darkness. And Halley's search for answers threatens to expose an unspeakable reality.

Wow!!! Last Seen might just be my favorite J.T. Ellison standalone yet. Yes, I do say that every time, but somehow she always tops herself. This book is absolutely WILD... in the best, most jaw-dropping way. I was hooked from the first chapter and could not put it down. The pacing is flawless, the tension is razor-sharp, and the creeping dread builds beautifully until the final gut-punch of an ending. I actually had to watch The Office after finishing because I couldn’t go to sleep. It was 2 AM, and I still had that eerie feeling in my bones.

Halley James is such a compelling protagonist. She is gritty, vulnerable, and relentless in her pursuit of the truth. The emotional unraveling of her past, her fractured memories, and the chilling twists tied to family secrets gave the story incredible psychological depth. And those short, unsettling interludes from the antagonist? Chef’s kiss. The layers of menace felt disturbingly real.

I absolutely loved the Easter eggs from Ellison’s other books. If you are a longtime fan, you will definitely catch a few nods to familiar names and places. I won’t spoil anything, but they made me grin. One more fun detail from my reading: I pictured Theo as Theo James the whole time. Honestly, that happens with most attractive fictional men. In my head, it is almost always Theo James, Tom Hiddleston, or Henry Cavill. It added to the experience.

I have already recommended this to all my thriller-loving friends and even woke up my husband in the middle of the night to rant about it. He was only half-awake, but very supportive. This one is dark, twisty, and unforgettable. J.T. Ellison is at the absolute top of her game.

Holy shit does JT Ellison spin a dark and twisted story. Said best in the book - an idyllic utopia with dark and disturbing dystopia just below the surface (paraphrasing) but holy fuckballs, this one had me on my heels a few times. The actual resolution was way wilder than I anticipated. If you like dark and desolate thrillers with a culty twist, pick this one up!

Last Seen is a wild, twisty rollercoaster from the always compelling J.T. Ellison — a writer who knows how to keep the pages turning even when the plot gets unhinged in the best possible way.

The story centers on Halley James, whose world begins to unravel when her father lands in the hospital and a long-buried family secret comes clawing to the surface. The tale she was told as a child — that her mother and sister died in a car crash — was a lie. What actually happened is darker, more shocking, and now resurfacing in fragmented memories Halley can't ignore. Her search for answers leads her straight into the path of her estranged sister, Cat — a reunion that proves to be both dangerous and strangely inevitable.

Told in two timelines, Ellison masterfully builds tension between past and present, revealing layer after layer of trauma, betrayal, and psychological damage as the sisters' stories spiral toward each other. Is the plot totally off the rails by the final act? Yes. Did I still enjoy the ride? Also yes.

Even when the narrative takes a sharp turn into the surreal, Ellison’s ability to construct emotionally believable characters and immersive settings kept me hooked. Last Seen is undeniably over-the-top, but also compulsively readable, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want in a thriller.

#LastSeen #JTEllison #ThomasAndMercer #PsychologicalThriller

Halley is having a really bad stretch. Her marriage is probably over, her job at the lab is over and now her father has had an accident and needs her.
Add to that the fact that her father has lied about how her mother died when she was a child.
Growing up she knew her mother died in a car accident, now she knows that her mother was murdered.
Family, truth, memory, all find a home here. Ellison is brilliant at creating multi-faceted characters. No one is all good or all bad.
This one will keep you on the edge of your seat, so get some snacks!


NetGalley/ August 01, 2025 Thomas and Mercer

This book was fantastic! Twisted, confusing, dark, mysterious. Halley has quite the gut punch with losing her job, struggling in her marriage and having to go take care of her father who has fallen and ended up in the hospital. Here she discovers a startling truth about her mother’s death. We follow along while she investigates what really happened and who is behind it, as she searches for her sister who she thought died with her mom. Whoa!