It’s an absolute pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for The Last Party, the latest novel from Clare Mackintosh and the first of a planned new series, and to share my review. Published by Sphere Books on 4th August, it’s now available as an ebook on all major platforms, in hardcover (signed copies available via the author’s local independent bookshop, Awen Meirion), and also as an audiobook. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the invitation and support, and for arranging my advance reading e-copy.
You’ll know that thrillers and murder mysteries rarely feature on my reading list these days, but I’ve always been a particular fan of Clare’s writing. I really loved I Let You Go, not for its big twist but for what came afterwards (you’ll find my review here): I liked I See You even more, and still shiver at the thought of it every time I travel on the underground (review here). I must confess that Let Me Lie perhaps wasn’t a personal favourite – although it kept me reading into the early hours, and when I reached the halfway point I had 15 different theories of my own about how it was going to turn out, having identified at least half a dozen people I thought were distinctly suspect (you’ll find my review here). I listened to Hostage as I did my walking, and absolutely loved it – the different voices of the passengers worked so well as an audiobook, the tension and pace was simply wonderful, and the story entirely gripped me from beginning to end.
I was a touch uncertain about this one when I realised it centred on a police investigation – but the North Wales setting particularly intrigued me, and I’ve always particularly enjoyed the author’s well drawn and complex characters and the relationships between them. So let’s take a closer look…
On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests.
His lakeside holiday homes are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. This will be the party to end all parties.
But not everyone is there to celebrate. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.
On New Year’s Day, DC Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects.
The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family – and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.
With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead . . . but who finally killed him. In a village with this many secrets, a murder is just the beginning.
This was a book that felt fresh and original from its opening pages – with the most unusual and intriguing introduction to the investigating team of DC Ffion Morgan (certainly living up to her reputation as “Ffion Wyllt”, the wild child) of the Welsh constabulary and Cheshire-based DC Leo Brady. And that originality only grows as the story unfolds – a murder investigation with a real difference, a vividly drawn and very different setting, strongly drawn characters, considerable emotional depth, and a plot that follows multiple twists and turns to a very satisfying and unexpected conclusion.
On one side of Llyn Drych (Mirror Lake) sits the village of Cwm Coed, a close Welsh-speaking community – and on the opposite side, on the English side of the border, the new and distinctly unwelcome luxury lakeside development, The Shore. It’s a setting that had a particular resonance for me – I was brought up in a small Welsh village a little further up the North Wales coast, and can still remember the shock waves within the community when a marina was built and the moneyed and exotic owners began to arrive. But the story of the new development at Llyn Drych is rather more complicated – one of its developers is Rhys Lloyd, a local boy who used his father’s inheritance and the money he made through his now fading career as an opera singer, and with strong roots and a past within the Welsh community.
On New Years Day it’s become a tradition for the residents of Cwm Coed to start the day with a swim in the lake – but that’s quickly curtailed when a body is found. And when it’s identified as the body of Rhys Lloyd, and it’s unclear whether his death took place on the Welsh or English side of the lake, Ffion and Leo find themselves working together on a murder investigation. But there’s nothing linear about the way the story unfolds – as the investigation progresses in real time, the author uses multiple voices and points of view to establish all the individuals who are part of the story, that timeline moving in the opposite direction and revealing that there were many with real motives for wanting Rhys dead. I’ve made that sound terribly complicated, but it most certainly isn’t – it’s entirely compelling reading as the author builds a picture of both communities and the intriguing individuals who live there, every one of them with their deeply hidden secrets. And Ffion and Rhys become revealed as complex characters too – both of them flawed and extremely likeable and sympathetic, and their partnership and developing relationship was one I very much enjoyed.
The writing is incredibly clever – as you read, you can’t help racing to your own conclusions, forming your own opinions on the likely outcome, feeling sure that you’re a step ahead of the story, only to find yourself facing in the entirely wrong direction when the next secret is uncovered. The pacing is absolutely perfect – and coupled with the personal stories of Ffion and Leo, the complicated lives of the residents at The Shore, and the wonderfully drawn Welsh community of Cwm Coed, this was a book I found quite impossible to put down until I’d read to the end. This really is crime fiction at its very best – and, with great delight that this is the first in a planned series, I can’t wait for the next. Highly recommended.
About the author
Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of five Sunday Times bestselling novels, including I Let You Go, which was the fastest-selling debut thriller in the year it was released. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide, have been New York Times and international bestsellers and have spent a combined total of 64 weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart.
Clare spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant and is the founder of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. She now writes full time and lives in Wales with her husband and their three children.
For more information visit Clare’s website: or find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
