The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields @HELEN_FIELDS @ELLIEPILCHER95 @AVONBOOKSUK #TheLastGirlToDie #20booksofsummer22

The haunting new crime novel from the bestselling author of One For Sorrow. Coming in September 2022.

On an island with so many secrets, she won’t be the last girl to die…

Book blurb

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 thoughts

The book starts when a private detective, Sadie Levesque, is brought in by the family of a young woman, Adriana Clark, who has disappeared.

The family are from the United States but Sadie feels they are keeping back information. Nevertheless, she investigates and finds the local police a little lacking in enthusiasm. Is it because the Clark family are not from the island? She doesn’t know but it doesn’t take Sadie long to find a body. Whilst not getting on the good side of the local police Sadie does make friends with the lead pathologist who is based on the mainland. There is clearly something going wrong happening on Mull.

At the request of the Clark’s Sadie stays on to find out what happened to Adriana but in doing so brings attention and threats to her door. Who killed Adriana? Will Sadie solve the mystery and get back home in time for the birth of her sister’s baby?

This is a whirlwind of a story as Sadie, a great lead character, looks into Adriana’s murder she butts heads with the police, the locals and yet finds out such a lot about the island and its ways but does Adriana’s death really link to another murder decades ago? If so, how? Sadie puts her nose into places that cause problems for her. She is arrested, gets locked in a basement containing bones and is almost killed as she presses on in her investigation.

Helen Fields has written a fantastic story which is devastating in so many ways. It is gripping, very well written and takes you on a helter-skelter of a ride through to the appalling, shocking conclusion.

An absolute cracker of a story that I would not hesitate to recommend.

Thanks

Huge, huge thanks to Ellie at Avon for the invitation to read and review The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields and to Avon Books for providing an ARC paperback.

‘A stunner! I guarantee you’ll put everything on hold until you arrive at the shocking final scenes. Without a doubt, one of the best crime novels of the year!’

No.1 international bestseller Jeffery Deaver

This is another book for my 20 Books of Summer, here’s my list. Cathy from 746Books is the mastermind and host behind this annual event.

It’s optional to pick 10, 15 or 20 books. It runs from 1 June to 1 September and it’s a very easy going challenge which is why I like it so much.

Information

Published: Avon Books – 1st September 2022

Available for pre-order or purchase from 1st September 2022

Buy: AmazonSmileUK | AmazonUK | Hive | Your local bookshop | Waterstones | Bookshop.org (affiliate link)

Author: A former criminal and family law barrister, Helen Fields has the expertise and experience to make the characters and plots scorch with authenticity.

With a background as both a prosecutor and defence cousel, Helen Fields has a depth of knowledge about crime that lends a fierceness to her writing. From Courts Martials to care proceedings, the Coroner Courts to the Crown Court, Fields draws on her professional years for the extraordinary colour and texture that makes her writing jump off the page. Twice long-listed for the McIllvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year, and a multi-bestselling author whose books have been translated across the globe, Fields consistently produces high impact, compelling novels that readers love. The ‘Perfect’ series, set in Edinburgh, introduced the world to DI Luc Callanach. This year saw the release of Degrees of Guilt, her first psychological thriller in the name HS Chandler, a book as shockingly realistic as it is darkly entertaining.

Helen Fields Website | The books | Twitter