Skip to main content

THE LAST TO DISAPPEAR



SYNOPSIS

A luxury resort. Three missing women. One body.

When young London professional Alex Evans is informed that his sister's body has been pulled from an icy lake in Northern Lapland, he assumes his irresponsible sister accidentally drowned. He travels to the wealthy winter resort where Vicky worked as a tour-guide and meets Agatha Koskinen, the detective in charge. Agatha is a no-nonsense single mother of three who already thinks there's more to Vicky's case than meets the eye.

As the two form an unlikely alliance, Alex also begins to suspect the small town where his sister lived and died is harbouring secrets. It's not long before he learns that three other women have gone missing from the area in the past and that his sister may have left him a message.

On the surface, Koppe, Lapland is a winter wonderland. But in this remote, frozen place, death seems only ever a heartbeat away.


Title: The last to disappear
Author: Jo Spain
Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: May 12, 2022



REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐💫

Last year, Jo Spain’s previous book, The Perfect Lie, completely blew my mind away with its clever twists and its “one sitting read” quality, being a clear 5 ⭐️ for me. I was hoping hew new release, The Last To Disappear, would hook me up the same way but, although entertaining overall, it didn’t quite reach the same level as her previous one.

A body is found in Lake Inari, Lapland. It is Vicky Evans, a British girl who was working in a resort over there. Her brother Alex will travel to Finland to bring her sister’s body home and, at the same time, try to find some answers about her death with the help of the Chief of Police, Agatha Koskinen. Soon, the surface of this idyllic winter wonderland will start to crack bringing to light the town’s long time buried secrets.

On paper, this one had everything for me to absolutely love it. The premise sounded amazing and the setting couldn’t be better (you already know about my love of cold remote settings), so you’ll be wondering…where was the problem then? 

Well, in my opinion, the story was a bit all over the place with two many side plots that distracted from the main one. There’re present and past timelines, Vicky’s death investigation, the other missing girls’ one, Agatha’s personal issues…Too much for me to actually become truly engaged with the main mystery.

I also had a bit of a hard time warming up to Alex. His lack of trust and underlying anger were a bit hard to understand at first for me. Agatha, on the contrary, I liked right from the start. Her resilience in such a difficult environment and with a pretty hard personal situation was to be applauded. Some of the twists in this part of the story were the most shocking ones for me. 

The ending didn’t leave any loose ends, culminating in a really tense scene, but I would have liked a little more connection between all the different plots. 

Entertaining story in a beautiful setting that got a little bit lost in between everything it wanted to tell.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.






 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AN ESCAPE TO REMEMBER

  SYNOPSIS When Louise surprises her boyfriend by returning early from a work trip, safe to say she wasn’t expecting to see him in flagrante delicto with another woman. Heart-torn and vowing to stay away from men, when Louise’s next project involves restoring an ageing hotel in Italy, she leaps at the chance to get away. Managed by a crew of sextagenarians, the Grand Hotel del Monferrato needs all the love and care Louise can give it. But it’s hard to stay focused on the job when her thoughts keep straying to Vito, the reclusive and mysterious owner of the hotel. With his tragic past and her no-romance policy, Louise knows they can’t have a future. Yet something keeps pulling the two together. Title: An escape to remember Author: T.A. Williams Publisher: Canelo Publication date: March 24, 2022 I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I did languages at university a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to Italy for seven years as a teacher o...
Post a Comment
Read more

TERROR DE ESTADO

SINOPSIS Terror de Estado sigue la trayectoria de una secretaria de Estado novel que se incorpora a la administración de su rival, un presidente que llega al poder tras un mandato que relegó a Estados Unidos a un segundo plano en el tablero internacional. Cuando una serie de ataques terroristas dinamita el orden establecido, esta mujer será la encargada de aglutinar al equipo que descifre aquella conspiración letal, un plan calculado al milímetro para sacar provecho de un gobierno estadounidense débil y desconectado de la realidad. Título: Terror de estado Autor: Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny Editorial: Salamanca Fecha de publicación: 4 Noviembre 2021 RESEÑA VALORACIÓN: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Gracias a Salamandra por el envío del ejemplar. Nunca había leído nada de Louise Penny ni de Hillary Clinton, y el thriller politico no es de ni de lejos unos de mis géneros habituales, pero “Terror de Estado” llamó mi atención desde que leí la sinopsis por primera vez, y tenía mucha curiosidad por ver...
Post a Comment
Read more

A ROYAL MURDER

  SYNOPSIS At the royal boat race there are beautiful barges, plenty of bunting, a handsome prince and… is that a body in the water? Lady Swift is on the case! Spring, 1923. One-time adventurer and now amateur sleuth Lady Eleanor Swift is attending the annual royal regatta with her new pal Tipsy Fitzroy. Tipsy has Eleanor trussed up like a debutante in a new dress, determined to turn her into a proper society lady. Even Eleanor’s favourite companion, Gladstone the bulldog, has a new outfit for the occasion. But the sparkling prize-giving ceremony is interrupted when the devilishly handsome host gulps his glass of champagne on stage and collapses to the floor. The victim is none other than the king’s cousin, Lord Xander Taylor-Howard. He was rumoured to be entangled in a rather dubious gambling ring, but did someone kill him instead of collecting his debt? Or was this simply an ill-timed tragic accident? Either way, a right royal scandal is afoot… Sir Percival, the head of the royal...
Post a Comment
Read more