Rapid Review: The Last Party

 

THE LAST PARTY by Clare Mackintosh

Ffion Morgan and Leo Brady are two cops—the former from Wales, the latter from England—who are thrown together to solve a murder on the border of the two countries. 

 Rhys Lloyd, a local celebrity with a partial ownership of a lakeside resort area, has invited both the ritzy and townies alike to his New Year’s Eve party.  It doesn’t turn out to much of a fun party when he ends up dead in the lake, though.  

Ffion and Leo are on the task, after having spent a casual, no-strings-attached night together previous to the investigation. This makes for an awkward introduction but the two quickly find a bantering groove whilst they finagle through the boatload of possible suspects, because Lloyd was someone with a lot of enemies.

Part police procedural, part mystery, The Last Party dishes up a lot of drama, from estranged families to secret affairs to a bit of murderous intent.  It took me a while to get comfortable with this one, it’s a lengthy novel with a lot of moving parts.  It seemed like there were just scores of characters and an even longer list of multiple viewpoints. It was a bit much, at least till partway through. But I will admit wholeheartedly that the last third of the book had me riveted, I read late into the night to finish it and was sad when it was over.  

Ffion and Leo are really great and well written characters, with believable and sometimes heartbreaking flaws. Both seem to have issues in their private lives and getting to the bottom of those problems together really makes them a strong pairing. I’ll be anxious to see if Mackintosh continues with both characters in her next book in the series, as they do seem stronger as a team. 

This book had a bit of a Scandinavian feel to it, with a lot of story and many twists and turns.  I really enjoyed it and will definitely pick up the next in the series, due in July.