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The Last Party

DC Morgan, Book 1

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About this listen

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 BESTSELLER AND START OF A THRILLING NEW SERIES: AT MIDNIGHT, ONE OF THEM IS DEAD. BY MORNING, ALL OF THEM ARE SUSPECTS . . .

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.

©2022 Clare Mackintosh Ltd (P)2022 Hachette Audio UK Crime Fiction Domestic Thrillers Genre Fiction Police Procedural Small Town & Rural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mystery Village

Critic reviews

"Superb, with echoes of Agatha Christie." (Patricia Cornwell)

"A dark delight of a murder mystery." (Janice Hallett)

"Detectives Leo and Ffion make a storming debut." (Belinda Bauer)
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Buried within its 400+ pages there’s a decent plot.
Plus points: the location was great; the premise was good; there was a nice cast and the central mystery was intriguing.
Negative points: the landscape and houses were strangely indistinct and the characters were unsubtle.
In addition, the first-person present-tense narratives jarred. The constant back and forth in time, reliving the same event through the eyes of different people, was confusing and became irritating quite quickly.
It also slowed down the story, which you don’t want in a page-turner mystery.
After starting as an ebook, I switched to the audiobook to hear the lilting pronunciation of all the Welsh words, but sadly the narrator made heavy weather of the text with harsh distracting accents.

Heavy handed accents

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I'm a fan of Clare Mackintosh's previous work but unfortunately, this book which apparently is about Clare's life in the police force didn't spin my plate. The twists were OK but not the usual 'intake of breath' you usually get from this fine author.

Pray to God there's not a Book 2.

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Really disappointed by this book. No fault of the performance but I found the story incredibly unengaging. I got about halfway through before returning the book. Such a shame as Clare Macintosh's other work is fantastic.

Couldn't finish

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So so so accurate. I was born in North Wales ( Abersoch, which is mentioned in the book) and have a lot of family there, but have lived and worked in London for all my adult life and this is spot on accurate. The relationships between the characters made me chuckle as they are exactly what i experience. So lovely to hear a North Welsh accent which is so different to South Wales and English people trying to sound Welsh. Thank you

loved it, from a North Welsh lass

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Absolutely loved this - the narration was superb & gripping, with special attention to detail with the fact that it’s northern Welsh rather than the ‘sing song’ southern Welsh accent. I felt I was listening to a play being acted out & was transported into that world - so much more riveting than some of the boring “monotone” audios that I have heard. I whole heartedly recommend this audio book

Gripping story & narration

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