***** - The Last Girl to Die

THE LAST GIRL TO DIE

HELEN FIELDS

*****

In search of a new life, seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.

Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.

The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows.

Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?

MY REVIEW

*****

Since discovering Helen Fields on NetGalley, she has quickly become one of my instant-request authors. Her police procedural series books are great, but I’ve also read a few of her stand-alone books which really showcase her versatility as an author. The Last Girl to Die is one of these stand-alone thrillers as we meet private investigator Sadie as she tries to solve a disappearance on a remote Scottish Island.

The setting of the book is a good choice, it’s a close-knit community with its own folklore and mythology as well as past incidents and a population distrustful of outsiders. There’s a lot of strong characters (and some red herrings!) throughout the book. The plot also has a lot of twists and turns and it was not easy to guess who the perpetrator was. My only criticism would be there isn’t much characterisation of Sadie herself – I didn’t really feel like we got to know her very well. There’s a point towards the middle of the book where she decides she’s going to go camping and suddenly we find out that she has a lot of outdoor experience – none of which had been hinted to up until this point. I also felt that a lot of people seemed to trust her or give information to her which didn’t feel particularly realistic, and it got to a point where certain things just felt like convenient plot devices.

I was going to give The Last Girl to Die four stars, however the ending really blew me away and surprised me. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but it’s a great twist and also felt really brave and not something I have seen many authors do before. This definitely stepped the book up to a five star read for me.

Overall, The Last Girl to Die is a twisty read with a really strong and unusual ending. Thank you to NetGalley & Avon Books UK for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK

Waterstones