Review: The Last Party

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rhys Lloyd was a local boy from Cwm Coed in Wales who found fame and fortune as an opera singer, noe he's returned with his wife Yasmin and twin daughters to invest in and build a luxury development of exclusive lodges, imaginatively called The Shore, on the shores of Llyn Drych on his father's land. The border between Wales and England runs through the centre of the lake, so that the lodges are technically in English soil, although Rhys' father was adamant that the land was the last Welsh stronghold. On New Year's Eve his business partner Jonty Charlton and his wife Blythe host a party for the current residents of the first five lodges and invite the local population to come along in the interests of generating some goodwill. The other residents are a boxer-turned-soap-star Bobby Stafford and his influencer wife Ashleigh, a retiree called Dee Huxley, and a mother and son from a London sink estate called Clemmie and Caleb.

DC Ffion Morgan is recently separated from her husband and has fallen into the habit of anonymous one-night-stands, although given her job she always gives a false name and occupation. New Year's Eve is no different, but when she is called in on New Year's Day to investigate a corpse which has washed ashore in the middle of the village's annual New Year's Day swim, she is horrified to find that her counterpart from Cheshire Major Crimes DC Leo Brady is none other than her companion of the previous night. Totes awks!

When the body is identified as that of Rhys Lloyd it soon transpires that absolutely no-one is sorry he's dead, indeed most people living at The Shore and the locals of Cwm Coed have strong motives to kill him - but which of the suspects is the killer? How did he die? And can Ffion investigate when she knows so many of the suspects personally and has her own secrets to hide?

This novel has more twists and turns than the famously crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco and kept me gripped right to the very end, its true that in a small town everyone knows everyone else's business, but it doesn't stop people having secrets.

Loved it, can't wait for the next in this series. I haven't come across Clare Mackintosh before but I will definitely look out for her back-catalogue.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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