I thoroughly enjoyed reading Her Last Secret. I felt the author did a great job of introducing you to the characters. The characters were complex but you learned about and felt you knew each one of them with the way the book was written from different perspectives. There were plenty of complications and twists that had you guessing right up until the end of the book. My attention was held and I was anxious to find out all the truths. Great read!

I wasn't able to get into this book and not sure why as the writing was well done

This is a fast paced book which takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions.
The story is told from the different perspectives of family members and I felt the most connection with Dominique, the mother.
I enjoyed the flash forwards to Christmas Day as this added to the build up to the end of the book, and gave snippets of what had happened. However, it's not until the end that the truth of what actually happened comes to light.
I admit I thought the outcome was much worse than it actually was but the final twist made me gasp!
If you enjoy a good family crime drama then this is for you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for sending me an advance copy to read and review.

A beautiful family with a beautiful life have to be all that they seem... Fast paced, voyeuristic.

i loved it, the book had a little of everything. A good book to read on Halloween.

Her Last Secret by Barbara Copperthwaite

It is Christmas Day and gunshots have been reported, heard from 15 Burgh Road in Blackheath, London. When police arrive, they find blood and devastation. The house is lived in by Benjamin and Dominique Thomas (a couple in their 40s) and their two children, teenager Ruby and little girl Amber, known to the world as Mouse. They seemed to be the perfect family, very well off, smart and content. But the police find a diary inside the house and the threads that held the Thomas family together fall apart.

Her Last Secret presents a countdown to Christmas Day, covering the eight days that precede the shocking events. The short chapters move between each member of the Thomas family, but also including those around them – colleagues, friends, lovers. And as we reach the end of each day, little interludes bring us back to the bloody horror of Christmas Day as the police move further and further into the silent house.

I thought when I began Her Last Secret that it would be more of a police procedural, an investigation into the lives of the Thomas family, the unravelling of the clues. Instead, this is a psychological novel that focuses on the family members themselves, one by one, presenting the disintegration of what appeared to all as a tight unit. We’re given a succession of calamities, broken dreams, innocence corrupted and pure misery. It builds and builds through the novel until we can be in no doubt that the fuse is lit and nothing can extinguish it.

I loved the premise of the novel but I had several issues with the story and with its telling. This is the tale of a tragedy but its tone throughout feels light and bouncy, almost innocent, even during the shouting matches. These are unhappy characters (to put it mildly) but there’s no real sense of rage or emotion. There is also too much going on for me. The woes pile upon woes and after a short while I rather stopped enjoying hearing about them and the tension was lost, as was any interest I had in the characters. There are few surprises and those there are fell rather flat as by that stage I was expecting them. My main issue, though, is the ending. It disappointed me, which is a particular shame because it was in anticipation of a good ending that I stuck with it. Obviously, I can’t explain why I didn’t like the ending but suffice to say that I felt a little cheated.

The psychological thriller shelves are overcrowded places and, having read a huge bunch of them, I demand something clever and special from those of them I read these days. When they’re good they can be very good indeed. Her Last Secret was a fast read, with an intriguing structure, and it did hook me in with its excellent premise and beginning but, unfortunately, it turned out rather differently. However, I did finish it! Which is more than I can say about some psycho novels.

I'm a bit late to the party with this author but, after having read and enjoyed The Darkest Lies earlier this year, I was quite excited to read this, her latest offering.
This book opens up on a bit of a scene of carnage. A whole family lying lifeless; mother Dominique, father Ben, teenage daughter Ruby and her younger sister Mouse. On Christmas day to boot. The rest of the story flits between present day as the police try and come to terms with and indeed work out what exactly has happened, and family life in the weeks leading up to the fateful night. Secrets are uncovered as the layers that disguised the family as perfect are slowly peeled away. All is definitely not what it seems, especially when the police discover Ruby's diary. As suspicion flits between all the main players, will the truth ever come out, and the responsible party/parties exposed?
Oh my goodness, what a dysfunctional family and a half this one is. Every one of them with their own secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour. Well, apart from young Mouse that is. She's pretty straight, hiding away with her books as the rest of them get on with it all. But it's all good, luckily I don't have to like characters to connect with them. As long as there's some connection, good or bad, which is a good job too as the rest of the family were pretty horrible. As with the majority of books of this genre, there are plenty of twists and turns, some quite clever (no spoilers) and plenty of supporting cast extras who flitted on and off my suspect list, often many times, along the way, keeping me guessing right up until the end. So much so that I pretty much gave up trying to work it all out. Good job too as what actually happened was so far off my radar that I had to sit back and think about it for a while when I finished.
Pacing was good. This wasn't a fast paced, frenetic book for me. Instead, the tension and intrigue builds up slowly but surely, adding more into the mix with pretty much each scene until, eventually it does ramp up quite well towards the end. I understand that this won't suit everyone but, to be honest, it reflects real life more this way as not everything happens at once, sometimes things take a while to build up. All things that made this a more realistic read for me. Definitely a more character driven book than plot driven for the majority.
The use of the short chapters that updated the reader on what the police were up to were brilliant. Perfect length, giving away just enough and at the right time to complement the main story, adding a bit of colour and the also kept reminding me of the awful times that were to come to the family. Especially towards the end when all was finally being explained. Oh my!
All in all, a good solid read that kept my attention nicely throughout. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Oh how this book drew me in from the start. Benjamin Thomas his wife Dominique and their daughters Ruby and Mouse appear to have the perfect life. Yet all is not as it seems. The beginning of the book opens with the police at the Thomas. home on Christmas Day. As the story unfolds the tension and suspense is gripping. This psychological thriller never lets up in the tension stakes with. plenty of twists and turns in the plot.and doesn't stop until the final page.

A tale of the seemingly perfect family: successful and hardworking Ben, trophy wife and stay at home mother, Dominique, teenage daughter Ruby and sweet little Amber. They appear to have it all. But all is certainly not what it seems as we witness this family being blown to smitherenes.

The opening scene leaves the reader shell shocked as police discover the gruesome scene of the entire family 's bodies lying lifeless on the floor of the Thomas residence.

From the onset, the family's dreadful fate is clear, leaving the reader very curious indeed to discover just what led the family to their devastating conclusion.

The reader is taken back a few days before the tragedy, reading of each family member's POV leading up to that horrendous Christmas day, discovering the many deep and very disturbing secrets they not only keep from the outside world, but from each other. The author cleverly gets the reader to distrust each of them, with loads of suspicion to go around as to who was responsible for the ultimate destruction of this broken family.

All but one family member are self absorbed and not very likeable. I could not help but cross my fingers that little Amber ( nicknamed Mouse) would have somehow scurried away and escaped the horror of that opening scene like her namesake.

'The constant insults were so deep-rooted in her now that they had tangled around her soul, choking off all the light, and stopping anything else from thriving within her.' With the heavy theme of teen bullying via social media featuring an integral part of the story, I must say that I felt the need to scrutinise my own relationship with my teenagers to decipher whether they too were showing any signs of enduring such atrocities in secret.

I could not help but wonder how things would have turned out if each character took the time to communicate as a family and take interest in each other's lives, how different the outcome would have been.

This was a quick read that had me totally engrossed as I just had to find out how the family had come to their tragic fate, taking me by surprise with its clever, twisty conclusion.

As a side note: I loved discovering the fact the author included one of her reader's names into the book, as a result of being the winner of a contest for this very purpose. What an awesome way to show appreciation and connect with her readers!

Well done to the author for another great read. Many thanks to her, Netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Fantastic book. It kept me fascinated throughout. A sad story of a family fragmented by lack of communication

Holy crap! Okay, it's official. I'm going to stand up and say it loud and proud : I am a Barbara Copperthwaite fan! After loving The Darkest Lies and Flowers for the Dead, I couldn't wait to start reading this latest one and the author once again delivered a most outstanding, twist-y tale that had me utterly gripped.

The story starts on Christmas Day when police is called to a house by a resident reporting the sound of a gunshot. It's clear quite early on something bad has happened but the who or the why remains a mystery for a little longer.

The Thomas family seems to have it all. Father Benjamin is a successful accountant. He and his family live in a million pound house in a nice neighbourhood in London. But Benjamin is in trouble, his wife Dominique isn't the cool cucumber people think she is and eldest daughter Ruby is the victim of horrendous bullying. Soon, a chain of events is set in motion that will have devastating consequences for the entire family.

Barbara Copperthwaite always manages to come up with realistic and believable characters in relatable situations. None of the characters in Her Last Secret are particularly likeable. They're stressed and harassed, flawed and damaged, seemingly vying for the worst-parent-of-the-year award and regularly made me want to punch them in the face. Yet, I couldn't help but be completely invested in them. There's one exception though, wee Mouse, or Amber as she's called. I thought she was a truly delightful little bookworm and I adored her from the minute I met her.

Her Last Secret very much deals with the way people portray themselves, how they often wear a mask and hide their innermost feelings and turmoil. And also, the effect a web of lies, deceit and secrets can have on a family.

This psychological thriller is taut with suspense and intrigue. It's quite dark, often disturbing and at times also incredibly sad. There's an excellent and compelling plot which I thought was brilliantly constructed as we discover what happened in the week leading up to Christmas. This also leads to a rather long list of potential suspects and conclusions that kept me guessing until the end.

If Barbara Copperthwaite hadn't already been on my list of go-to authors, she most definitely would be now! I thoroughly enjoyed this and I can't wait for whatever she comes up with next.

A complex, sad tale of the harm secrets, lies and miscommunication can cause in a dysfunctional family. Brilliantly written and highly recommended.

It's a bit of a cliché but I genuinely could not put this book down! All the characters were troubled with secrets and problems locked away. It's a seemingly normal middle-class family but you can taste the discord and friction in the house. The undercurrent is deliciously unnerving as you haven't a clue quite what is going on. It switches from Christmas Day when there's an incident and back to the days leading up to it. That worked well for me. I was particularly impressed by the characterisation. They were such an interesting group of people inside and outside the family. Dominique, the distracted, unhappy wife who suffers from Homicidal Somnambulism ( fascinating and informative). Benjamin the social climber, snob with his OCD watch problem. He is deluded into believing he is the greatest. Amber (aka mouse) who is in a fantasy world of her own living for ted and her books which in her case is probably escapism. But pivotal is Ruby. A commendable job done on a difficult teenager and the effect she has on her sibling, friends and parents. There are lots of extra interesting facets to the plot like night terrors, sleep therapy, social media, boyfriends etc. The plot is skillfully enacted and you are fed morsels of information but the ending is totally unpredictable. It demonstrates clearly the heartbreaking misery people can inflict on others. I can imagine this book will stay with me and be reflected on quite a lot. I can't recommend this book enough. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers. I shall post this to GoodReads, amazon.co.uk, Facebook and my blog on publication. Meanwhile I'll look at some of this author's other books on Amazon

I loved this book! The suspense in every page had me reading all night long, page after page. I kept asking myself who did it? The daughter, mother, father, or even the mistress? I was shocked by the ending i never expected what happened in the book to be how the ending made it, but i loved it! It shows you not only to appreciate what you have right in front of you, but how something as simple as family can be torn apart very quickly. This bolos faces a lot of issues teens/ young adults face in today's world with cyber bullying and the effects it has on the teen/ young adult that is being bullied. An amazing read for any age!

What a book! I genuinely think this is one of the best books I've ever read, I sat and read it in one go.

I couldn't guess how it was going to end and didn't anticipate the epilogue. A gripping page turner that had me in tears towards the end.

I'll be recommending it to others and will be looking out for other books by Barbara Copperthwaite.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and Barbara Copperthwaite for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Starting at Christmas Day, then going back a couple of weeks had me hooked. I was keen for the story to get back to Christmas Day and find out what had happened. Looking at the family with their lovely house, cars, watches, posh schools etc you’d be thinking that here was a successful businessman with the perfect life. Wrong! Things were not so rosy in the Thomas household. It drew me in, keen to get to the bottom of each family member, their friends, their colleagues, their schoolfriends. Dominique’s nightmares were awful, so vivid.
Thoroughly recommend this book, a read filled with tension!!
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Blog link to follow.

HER LAST SECRET WRITTEN BY BARBARA COPPERTHWAITE

"A lifetime can flash by in a moment. A moment can last a lifetime."

Domonique and Ben seem to have everything. Not really. They have two children Mouse who is only eight and Ruby an angry teenager. The neighbor has called 999 and Burgh Road in Blackheath is surrounded by police tape. Two gunshots were reported to have been heard from this family home. Ben has been having an affair for four years and his mistress literally bumps into Dominique on the street after a day at the salon and restaurant. Dominique decides to keep the secret from Ben that she knows about the affair.

Meanwhile the rage that has been building in Ruby is really over the top. Dominique gets a phone call from the head mistress from Ruby's school to a meeting because Ruby has just smashed her school mate in the face and knocked her down. When Ben who is a successful businessman returns home there is commotion and arguing that Mouse hides in her wardrobe. What about the gun shots fired? Chief Inspector Paul Ogundele checks his watch as he arrives to the scene. He checks his watch and it is 3:47 a. m. Some of the neighbors are bolder than others hovering in their front doors ready to escape at the first sign they see of trouble.

This is a psychological thriller that wasn't a good fit for me. It moved along at a snails pace. I didn't much care for any of the characters. They all harbored secrets. Using a teenager as in this case angry Ruby was a unique device for this type of genre. I hope and wish the author much success. This story wasn't as taut and suspenseful as most in this genre. I really had to force myself to keep reading. It wasn't an experience that I found myself hurrying to turn the pages. To my Good Reads friends I would wish you luck with this one as I definitely would not recommend it as stellar reading.

Thank you to Net Galley, Barbara Copperthwaite and Bookouture Publishing for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An amazing sad, traumatic and felt very sorry how a greedy person can ruin lives. Could not put down read in a day. Will certainly read more of this authors nooks.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance copy of Her Last Secret in exchange for an honest review. I have never read any of Barbara Copperthwaite's books previously but after reading this I definitely will be now. This book absolutely consumed me from start to finish and even when I wasn't reading it i was thinking about it. It is totally gripping and there were so many twists my head was spinning an absolutely fantastic read!

I loved little "Mouse" and held my breath. She is so young, sweet, and innocent of the drama going on around her. Her Last Secret is a character-driven book that opens with the police called to the scene of what might be a deadly home invasion; surely some kind of intrusion. Then the author cunningly takes you back to a week prior to the Christmas day tragedy, seamlessly introducing each of the major characters using their own POV, one by one, to tell their stories. The real antagonist is not clear until the end. There seems no clear protagonist, as the Taylor family, with the exception of Mouse, all harbor stultifying secrets. Each will contribute to the dark, twisted tale that unfolds slowly, but ever more inexorably. You know this train wreck has happened, you just don't know how or why. And there's the rub.
Successful accountant Ben may not be the perfect husband or father. He loves his family, but is financially driven. He has worked hard, but has made a few errors in judgment along the way. Dominique (Dom) is a full-time homemaker and enjoys the outward appearance of having the perfect family and home, but harbors a dark confidence with friend Fiona. Then there is Ruby, downtrodden and bullied, at wits end and out of options, she escalates acting out, further alienating her family. Only Mouse is looking forward to Christmas, excited and happy, she is mystified at her parent's indifference, while trying to cheer up big sister Ruby. It doesn't work.
This book uses the detective's initial investigation to hook you in and then proceeds to draw you, inevitably deeper, into the psychological disaster as it unfolds at a steady pace. The author manages to capture the dialogue beautifully, whether adult, or a teenager that is speaking to her contemporary. It's so annoying--that teenager-speak! If you want to talk annoying, get to know Ben. He is not a sympathetic character. Dom, for the most part, just seems vacuous.
The plot chugs to ominous stops--each becoming more alarming. You KNOW what happens--or you think you do--but hope not. There are some very topical arguments for what is happening in today's society and why it needs to be much more closely scrutinized, particularly for the psychological and actual physical damage that it is doing to our youth.
I was given this digital download from Bookouture through NetGalley for read and review and thoroughly enjoyed the thriller as it took me from apprehension to gasp. Heartily recommended for any who enjoys a progressive thrill ride into suspense or psychological thriller.