Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

I thought this was a great book. I always try to figure out the twist and can usually figure it out, but this had me guessing right until the end. The characters were well developed. The book was quick moving and I didn’t want to put it down. While this has become a saturated genre, I thought this book held its own. I would definitely recommend this book.

I don't want to say too much about this book because the unfolding of the story is the best part. At the beginning, it seems to be an abducted child story. Kelsey goes to daycare to pick up her child to discover that they have no record of her being there. She calls the police who begin a search but no one is really sure what is going on.

There were many twists and turns in the novel and sometimes I had difficulty following the story line with multiple narrators. I sometimes had to backtrack to see if I missed something.

I read this book straight through because I had to find out what in the world was going on. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a psychological suspense story.

A brilliant, twisty novel full of secrets and lies and I did not know who to trust. Brilliant. I raced through this x

Many Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and the author for a chance to read this book.

Take a deep breath, fellow readers, this one is surely gonna hit you like a ton of bricks. Last One to Lie is incredibly well-written, right from scene one where a mother realizes that her daughter is missing from the day care where she is been dropped to, to the introduction of a cop who has a very terrible baggage to carry around, each scene was stark and severe.

Kelsey Jennings is looking forward to a new beginning, a new place closer to your missionary in-laws, new house, even the packing boxes have not been opened completely, but things turn awry soon and nothing is as it seems. The husband is incognito, daughter is missing, the in-laws are out of the country. Is Kelsey a victim or a criminal mastermind or just plain crazy? Detective Paul Ryan is unable to form an opinion about the smart and sexy mom in front of him as the sexy vibes begins to play havoc in his mind and a ‘BASIC INSTINCT’ plotline comes into play. The story alternates between Kelsey and Detective Ryan’s POV and tension begins to mount as the child remains missing even after 24 hrs.

There’s also the detective’s past that adds to the drama and how it all connects to Kelsey and her story.
Last One To Lie is a thriller that creates confusion in the mind towards the end so much that I went back a few pages and re-read parts of it, and it should surely have been a 5* read but for certain plot holes that were too glaring. Kelsey was a ballet dancer but that point seems to have been forgotten at the climax and Detective Ryan for all the jaded and cynical outlook he has in life does a really shoddy police work, which kind of failed to evoke sympathy for the character.

Any more details and I would probably give the whole story way. 😜
Read it purely for the thrilling twists in the story!

A big shout to https://ludwigsbookreviews.wordpress.com/ whose review made me wanna read this book. Thank You friend❤️❤️

There are so many twists and turns in each chapter; that I was on a roller coaster until the end. This is one of those books that you want to read again after you find out the ending.
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Who is telling the truth in this twisty thriller?

PLOT SUMMARY:
Kendall Jennings’ worst fears have come true - her two year old daughter Mikayla is missing. It’s hard to imagine it could get worse, but it does - when she arrives at the daycare where she left her, Kendall is told that they never had a child named Mikayla there. No one knows what she is talking about. What is going on? And why is her husband Malcolm suddenly out of contact as well? When Detective Ryan is called to investigate, little does he know how this case will affect his life. Because when he starts to uncover long hidden secrets, he might not be prepared for the truth he will find...and the lengths someone will go to make sure they stay hidden.

PROS and CONS:
This one is fun! Lots of twists and turns with unreliable narrators and unsolved mysteries to create suspense. Who is manipulating whom in this thriller? It’s really hard to tell!

One suggestion I would make would be to say at the top of the chapter who’s perspective it was...it sometimes took me a paragraph to figure out who’s first person narrative I was reading, and that took me away from the story a bit. Along with the date and time, either Paul or Kendall’s name could be added to make it easier to follow.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the dual perspectives, the lies, the secrets, the family dynamics, the mystery...it was well done.

YES or NO:
It’s a YES from me - twists, turns and an unexpected ending...what’s not to like???

4 Stars

The Last to Lie is seriously a mind melt. The more you read, the more twists and turns you come across. I’m still not sure of the ending, if all the information came out and who is good and who is bad.

Thank you to the author, Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an intriguing premise, which did not live up to its potential. At times I felt mired in molasses struggling to get through this mish-mash of badly researched police procedures and poorly written characters, with a side of erotica mixed in. I may be exaggerating slightly, but I did get fed up with reading the detective's standard reaction: "I could feel myself getting rock hard...". The characters came off as caricatures of themselves, and I found it impossible to get invested, let alone suspend belief enough to follow along with all the plot twists and turns, many of which dead-ended with no further ado.

i think this premise is one of the scariest to me, it kept me on the edge of my seat from the beginning to the end. The characters were great and I really liked the way the author wrote.

There may be two people missing in this book but you will be missing sleep as you are up late reading this unputdownable thriller.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

After reading All the Lovely Pieces by this author, I had to read her new book.

This book I couldn’t put it down. Read it in one day. It was full of turns and twists. Lots of surprises and unexpected ending. I really liked it. It kept me interested and invested through the entire time. Bravo!

Just like the first book, the author does not disappoint with this one. Good job with the writing and the plot. It was very well done.

I's disappointed. This started off good then somehow veered into a bloody, icky mess. I'm not sure if I'm more sensitive because of the times we're in right now or not, but I had to stop reading this book. I'll try again at a later date.

I really liked J.M. Winchester’s novel, All The Lovely Pieces, so when I saw Last One To Lie, I knew I had to read it! Imagine going to pick your child up from daycare only to find out she was never there? And not only that, there is no record of her? That’s some crazy switching dimensions and timelines stuff right out of the Twilight Zone!

But this isn’t a sci-fi novel so there is a legit reason and as we read further, the pieces began to fall into place, sort of. The reader is guessing especially as we learn the main character, Kelsey, has something to hide…

Check it out:

Moving to a new city was supposed to be a fresh start for her family. Now it’s a nightmare.

Her little girl was supposed to be at day care when Kelsey arrived to pick her up. But they have no record of her daughter ever being there. And to make matters worse, her husband is missing too—he won’t pick up his phone, and the school he supposedly works at says he never accepted their job offer.

Detective Paul Ryan knows something’s up with Kelsey’s story. Kelsey’s husband might be involved in their daughter’s disappearance, but the deeper the detective digs, the more inconsistencies he finds.

As Detective Ryan tries to uncover the truth, what he finds are more deeply buried secrets that someone clearly never wanted found.

From the first pages I was hooked on the story and the suspense kept me glued to the pages all the way until the end. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, who I could trust. I love suspense like this and now I need the author to hurry up and write more!

This book comes out on June 9 and you can pre-order here!

Review for 'Last One To Lie' by J. M. Winchester

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Thomas & Mercer publishing .

Available to preorder ready for release on June 9th

This is the first book that I have read by this author. It is a standalone book. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to look for any more of her books but I would read one if I came across one.

This book is written from the perspectives of 3 different characters including the detective Paul. I like when books are written from different character perspectives as you don't tend to miss any of the main storyline.

THE book was well written and flowed well. I read it quite quickly and did quite enjoy it. However, I don't think the author did much if any research into police work and most of the procedure was unbelievable which made it lose a star (all books start with a 5/5 with me)

THE storyline itself was quite interesting and had quite a few twists and turns which were good and I'm happy with te way it ended. I can't say it didn't leave any questions as a case of a certain person (won't say who so not to spoil it) seemed to be added in and forgotten about. This led to another star being removed.

THE characters were believable and quite strong and the descriptions were good.

THE chapters have the time of the events so you can know what's happening at what time which I found very useful.

If I was to recommend this book it would be to fans of crime and mystery.

Rated 3/5 (It was OK) on Goodreads and Amazon (UK and. Com) and over 30 Facebook
pages

£3.98 to purchase on kindle. I think this is an OK price for this book

288 pages

Feel free to add me on Goodreads for more reviews

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What a mind twister... I really enjoyed this book. The moment I thought I knew what was going on there was a good twist. Kelsey just didn't know her past would catch up to her. She thought she escaped it but she didn't.

My first reaction after finishing this book was, "This is actually the worst book I have ever read," which I think says all you need to know. ef in order to try and get some sort of enjoyment from this.

Kelsey is the main character, who arrives at daycare to pick up her daughter to find that she was 'never there'. What follows is a confusing twist of amalgamation of storylines, most of which were ridiculous. I really had to suspend disbelief in order to get some enjoyment from this book! Despite the writer clearly trying to throw in a lot of twists to detract from the ending, it was pretty predictable and by the time the ending came I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading the rest of the book. Although it is predictable, the ridiculous storylines also left me with lots of questions at the end thanks to some plot holes. I hate to be so scathing about a book, but I really did not find this enjoyable in the slightest.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot. There were a few things I did not like, that really made me angry. I also knew exactly where this was heading, although there were plenty of twists I didn’t. Overall, a good, suspenseful, thrilling read!

I am definitely one of those readers that looks for a hook to keep me interested in the first few chapters. This book did just that! Once I got into this book, I couldn't stop reading. I definitely didn't see it coming and 3/4 of the way through I had to stop and really think through the twists. It was hard to keep straight at some points, but this was a great read! I think I played out a few different scenarios in my head that weren't even a part of what happened. I also kept thinking to Detective Ryan, "Don't do it!!"

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Well this was a wild ride.

And unfortunately not for all good reasons. I'll start with the good stuff!
1. Nicely paced—I read through in 5 days, mostly over 3 sittings.
2. Intriguing premise
3. DRAMA!!!!!!

But then... oh man. I knew I was in for something when the "tech specialist" was introduced, somehow multitasking "crazy code" and a violent video game on two separate PCs, with two separate keyboards, while talking on her headset. Look, I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE but that is improbable.

Improbable would probably be my go-to word for this one. It requires an incredible suspension of disbelief. I think I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief when enjoying books or films (well, I hate it when my partner likes to point out things that don't make sense anyway), but it was really difficult to do with this book. There was just too much.

Many of the characters, like the hacker (who is never introduced again), read as caricatures: the incredibly sexy, smart, dangerous vixen; the jaded older cop.

If you want to read a (maybe sexy? question mark) thriller without big expectations then this is one for you to read. It's a quick read that has you asking a million questions and answers pretty much all of them.

But if you're not sure, I'll tell you this, because I feel like it gives you a bit of insight to the book's vibe. The main character is a beautiful, smart, woman. She worked as a financial advisor in an attempt to finance her career as a professional dancer. As a VERY young child, she was the best dancer who had ever stepped foot in any Hollywood ballet schools. She had TALENT. Her parents were famous film stars who turned into famous Hollywood porno stars (???), who only bought drugs, drink, and ballet lessons until they died in a fiery crash while THEY were chasing the paparazzi.

Sounds wild, huh? Well.... if you want more of that, read this book!

In Last One to Lie, the main character, Kelsey, arrives early to pick up her daughter from daycare only to be told her daughter was never there. Panicked, Kelsey attempts to get a hold of her husband, Malcolm, but cannot reach him after multiple tries. Detective Paul Ryan is called to investigate the case.

This book had a lot of good twists and turns, and jumps from multiple narrators. With each narrator jump, the reader isn't really given any information about which character is speaking, which I believe is intentional on the part of the author. This does make it confusing about who exactly some of the characters are. The pasts and presents of the main characters are also conveniently interconnected to the point of not being believable.

I received an ARC of Last One to Lie in exchange for an honest review.