Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

The Last Party

DC Morgan Mysteries #1

by Clare Mackintosh

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2022, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

At midnight, one of them is dead. By morning, all of them are suspects.

It's the party to end all parties….but not everyone is here to celebrate.

On New Year's Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he's generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbors.

But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year's Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, 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, murder is just the beginning.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"A superb blend of psychological thriller and police procedural...A gripping portrait of two fractured people merges with believable plot twists, and the author perfectly captures the ennui of a small town where gossip can destroy lives. Mackintosh consistently entertains." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Layers of historical and social context deepen the allure of this icy murder mystery set in North Wales...Come to meet the interestingly dysfunctional characters; stay to cheer them on with a full heart." - Kirkus Reviews

"Like the TV series Broadchurch and the novels of Ann Cleeves, this wonderful novel takes the reader—through twists and turns, and red herrings aplenty—deep within a community. Crime fiction is a whole lot better now that DC Ffion Morgan has arrived." - First Clue

"The writing is superb. Wicked fun, devilishly clever, with echoes of Agatha Christie. This is a party you won't want to miss." - Patricia Cornwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Brilliant, so atmospheric….I fell in love with the courageous, complicated detective Ffion Morgan and I think readers will too." - Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of One by One

This information about The Last Party was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth@Silver'sReviews - Disappointed
It definitely was the last party for Rhys Lloyd.

Was it an accident or did someone kill him?

There were quite a few people who didn't like him so there are many suspects for the police to interview.

We meet Ffion and Leo in the opening pages as they crawl out of bed after a one-night stand and then when they are shocked that they are assigned to the same case.

We follow the investigation and the stories behind the these two characters and others.

THE LAST PARTY was a slow read, a bit confusing, difficult for me to keep track of the many characters, and not one I was anxious to get back to.

There were a few surprises, but I was disappointed because I always enjoy Ms. Mackintosh's books.

I hope it turns out better for you when you read it. 3/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Clare Mackintosh Author Biography

With more than two million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016.

Both Clare's second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. All three of her books were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club. Clare's latest novel, After the End, was published in June 2019 and spent seven weeks in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller chart.

Clare's latest thriller, Hostage, will be published in June 2021.

Together, Clare's books have been published in more than forty countries. Clare is patron of ...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Clare Mackintosh's Website

Other books by Clare Mackintosh at BookBrowse
  • I See You jacket
  • I Let You Go jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more mysteries...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

In war there are no unwounded soldiers

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.