I’ve been a fan of Clare Mackintosh for a while now. Her standalone thrillers are always a good twisty read with some interesting characters. I was quite interested to see that this new book The Last Party is the first in a new series featuring DC Ffion Morgan. Set on the North Welsh / English border this book explores the complicated yet symbiotic relationship between the two nations and brings us a whole raft of new larger than life characters.
Welsh singing prodigy Rhys Lloyd has returned to his childhood village and has helped to create an exclusive holiday park known as The Shores on the edge of the lake. The new residents are all wealthy English people and there has been some discontent between them and the local villagers. On New Years Eve the owners of The Shores throw a big party and invite quite a few of the Welsh neighbours to join them. The following morning the locals are gathering on the lakeshore for their annual open water swim in the lake when a body is discovered in the water.
Ffion Morgan is a fabulous invention and at the end of the book she feels like a friend. She is a wonderfully flawed character who has been shaped by her own experiences and is very involved in village life. On the morning of New Years Day she finds herself escaping from the bed of her NYE one night stand. When she gets called out to the crime scene which straddles the English/Welsh border she is horrified to discover that her English liaison officer is none other than her bedfellow from the night before – DC Leo Brady.
Mackintosh takes us on a twisted journey gradually revealing the real stories behind all of the major protagonists leaving us with a large number of prospective murderers for Rhys Lloyd. It turns out that he wasn’t exactly a national treasure after all! I loved the setting for the book. This area of Wales comes to life under Clare’s expert stewardship. It really feels like you are on the shores of the lake watching the action unfold. The book has a very cinematic quality that draws you in and the very visual descriptions of the area are just the best tourism advert ever. I’m already really looking forward to the second outing for DC Morgan this time next year.
Supplied by Net Galley, Sphere and Little Brown Book Group UK, in exchange for an honest review.
UK Publication Date – Aug 4 2022. 447 pages.
Categories: 4 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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