Kynaston House, a new beginning or a place to meet an untimely end?

When Rose moves with her son and husband, Dylan Kynaston to his childhood home the journalist in her recognises that life in this English village is one that harbours secrets and resentment but what has that got to do with Kynaston House?

Perched on a hill, and surrounded by legend intrigue is further piqued when a team from an archaeology television show unearth unexpected items in the grounds but how did they get there and why? Are the rumours about Dylan’s father true, is the dementia his mother suffers from all an act? With local police Sergeant Ellie Trevelyan following all leads can she uncover truths buried for decades those more recently dug up?

I was new to this author and enjoyed this read that swept along at a fair pace, it just missed something though but I am not sure what. I will definitely look out for more books by this author though.

An excellent read by Jo Furniss. I was entranced with this novel from the very beginning - from the moody landscape, to the lurking mystery and the sharp-as-whip descriptive prose. If you appreciate a smart thriller, eloquent composition, or especially if you're a fan of Daphne DuMaurier, then this book is for you.

After many years of living abroad in Africa, Rose is looking forward to settling down to a safe new life in her husband Dylan's family home in the quiet, English countryside, along with their young son, Aled. However, Rose quickly discerns that the town of Hurtwood, along with the historical Hurtwood House manor, may not be as peaceful as they first seem.

As Rose works hard to settle in to her new life in her new hometown, she encounters weird occurrences at the manor, and whispers behind her back in town. She begins to question everything she thought she new about her husband and her child. But finding the answers she seeks, leads her into dangerous situations. Can she survive the search for truth?

Well done, Ms. Furniss. I raise my glass to you!

This was a great story with many dimensions. Many scenarios and characters but it all comes together and surprises the reader. Rose is married to Dylan ( both are journalists) and they go home to his families estate. His father was a soccer coach and accused of sexually abusing a boy on his team. The boy is suspected of committing suicide and the whole town blames Stanley ( Dylan’s father) . Stanley’s wife has become a recluse and has dementia. Rose is in for more than she bargained for with all that goes on. I really liked the characters and the hint of a ghost.
I will be looking for other books by this author..

I think on the surface this one does seem to be just about "Secrets! Lies! and Murder!" (Authors Note), and it is, but it's about so much more.

It's about small towns and that gossip can destroy us for generations. It's about willing to believe whatever we are told, sometimes without considering the consequences. It's about how far we will go to protect those we love.

I enjoyed the light paranormal aspect and the main secret/mystery. I also appreciated the Dementia / Alzheimer aspects. I was however confused by the Mogadishu storyline, I got the part where it shows the character of Dylan, but I didn't really understand the inclusion of Vic.

Overall I thought this was a good mystery and an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jo Furniss for being able to read this advanced digital copy of The Last to Know. I’ll start by saying that overall, the book had an interesting storyline. If you are an avid mystery reader, like myself, then you know the mystery that is handed to us has more to the story. I did like that about this book.

With that being said, I found that this book ultimately had too many storylines to follow. I would have enjoyed the book more if she had stuck to one as opposed adding in more as a red herring. I also would have liked to have seen which character was speaking in the chapter title. Before picking up the story, I only thought that this book was told through Rose’s point of view. It is actually told through Rose and Ellie’s point of view. The characters seemed too similar at times for me to differentiate between the two and I found myself going back to remind myself whose thoughts I was reading.

This book’s pub date is 8/11/2020

What a mysterious, gripping tale!
The plot is somewhat slow to unfold but once it does, you won’t be able to put it down!
This is a duel point of view book following Rose and Ellie. Rose relocated from Africa with her husband Dylan to his hometown and the estate of his mother, which while vast, appears to be on its last legs. Mystery surrounds the family and strange happenings occur within the old house. All the while, Rose’s mother in law is seemingly distant and cold.
Ellie is a police sergeant determined to finally solve the mystery of what happened on this property.
This was a fun read I think many will enjoy.

At first this book did not grip me, I felt that I couldn’t connect with the characters straight away, but in the end I loved hearing from both Rose and Ellie. I loved hearing all about Rose’s struggles as she moved back to her husband’s small childhood town and then the mystery begins.... As the book went on, I loved that the plot lines twisted and intertwined with each other in a very clever way. It kept me guessed right until the end, and it really is a full plot.

Great mystery that leads to a quick and easy read. Most of all, this book was enjoyable!

I initially liked the gothic feel of this book, but it failed to grip me somehow - probably because I couldn’t quite engage with any of the characters, and I have to admit that I skip-read the action packed climax of the story because I had simply lost interest by that point.

I am sorry to give this negative (but honest) review, but I am grateful to the publishers, the author and to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and comment on it.

A suspenseful story involving a town full of secrets and a mysterious past. It is an overall atmospheric read with intriguing characters, but the story fell somewhat flat to me. I wish we could have gotten to explore more of Hurtwood House, because I really enjoyed its lingering and haunting presence throughout the book.

This story is characterized by: old family secrets, hauntings, small town drama, and murder.

I really enjoyed this book. At first I was unsure... It started off slow and just did not catch my attention, however, it picked up and soon I was hooked. This story follows a few key characters: Rose and her husband Dylan, Dylan's mother, and the local police officer Ellie. The story mainly flips back and forth between Rose and Ellie.

Rose and Dylan move to Dylan's hometown in England to live with his mother. Right away when they arrive something seems off. Dylan's mother is a little weird and just something wasn't right. Shortly after some mysterious events start to occur and BAM you think this is a paranormal story. But, as soon as you settle in for that.... You find out about a deep dark secret in the family and realize the people in the town might know something about it. Rose goes off to find some information about Dylan's family and starts to realize some really dark stuff.

The rest of the story takes on more of a police procedural/ journalism feel. I didn't think I would like that part as much as I did but it was great! Everything was in depth enough that I was able to follow along with the mystery but also left out enough that I had no idea what was going to happen next!

This is one of those stories where everyone seems to be interconnected and secrets go back deep into the history of the family/ town. One things is discovered but leaves even more unanswered. Everyone seems to be hiding something so you are just on the edge of your seat the whole time!

After relocating the the childhood home of her husband, American journalist Rose Kynaston finds there's a lot to get used to in Hurtwood. There are unwelcoming villagers who struggle to forgive what happened at Hurtwood House twenty years ago. Everyone is familiar with the story - everyone except Rose. When an archaeological dig unearths human remains on the hill, local police sergeant Ellie Trevelyan vows to solve the case whatever it takes, needing to find answers to the secrets that have cast a chill over Hurtwood for decades. As Ellie works to separate rumour from fact, Rose must fight to clear the name of the man she loves. But how can Rose keep her family safe if she's the last to know the truth?

We see the story unfold through the perspective of Rose and Ellie, switching between their point of view with each chapter. Rose's relationship with her husband Dylan is instantly shown to be on the brink, with the sudden move and questionable actions of Dylan's mother making things worse. Ellie's job at the local police station is coming to an end so she puts everything she has into solving the cold case while ensuring her father, who suffers with dementia, doesn't become a risk to himself. The women are strong, relatable characters. However, there was something unlikeable about Rose. Perhaps I just wanted to know more about her past. We're given the stressful story of how she and Dylan met and snippets of that event explain her reactions in the present, but I wanted that little bit more.

With multiple plot lines entwined throughout the story, it would have been easy to lose track of each tiny detail but Furniss does a good job of fitting everything together. There is a theme of child abuse and child pornography which, understandably, not everyone will be able to read but Furniss handles it well; nothing explicit is written, however enough detail is given for the reader to understand the situation. The focus stays on the case, as it should.

Despite being written well enough to keep me interested, the use of metaphors and similes is excessive. At first, I didn't pay that much attention but then the language got repetitive and distracting. Most of it added nothing to the book and felt as though it was being used to increase the word count. Perhaps the time spent thinking of the similes would have been better used to add more depth to the character of Rose as well as other, smaller characters.

This was quite different to what I expected- Was expecting it to be a bit more, I guess, ghosty than it was but I still enjoyed it. It definitely kept my interested and reading and knowing the Wrekin myself made it a bit more interesting too! I would have liked more about the house and the ghosts but would still recommend as a good easy read and would definitely pick up more of jos books

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

After a harrowing life abroad in Africa, American journalist Rose returns to the British home of her husband Dylan, with their five-year-old son, Aled. But life in Hurtwood isn't exactly idyllic either. The old house is crumbling and Dylan's reclusive mother is suffering from dementia. Plus, rumors are swirling over the death of a young boy in the care of his father, a death that caused the man's heart attack.

When another body turns up on the property, local police sergeant Ellie Trevelyan opens the cold case that threatens to destroys Dylan's family. And Rose wants to find the truth as well--so she can clear her husband's name and protect Aled from whatever danger still lurks in Hurtwood.

I really enjoyed Jo Furniss's All the Little Children, so I jumped at the chance to read this new book. The Last to Know is a tightly paced thriller that keeps you guessing. The subject matter is grim--it revolves around child abuse/pornography, but I appreciate that there's nothing gratuitous in here. It's just mainly the investigation into getting justice for the victim.

We get two perspectives in this book, Rose's and Ellie's, and I love their voices. Rose is tenacious in fighting for her husband, though I'm not sure I would have been as convinced of his innocence as she always seems to be. And Ellie's devotion to her ailing father, at the cost of continuing her career, is touching.

The only thing that held me up is that there seems to be so much going on at once in this novel. Furniss handles it well and ties it all together, but it's a lot to keep track of. And it's also easy to lose track of. But overall I'd recommend it as a good mystery, though it looks like it's billed as women's fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Press and author Jo Furniss for providing this ARC in exchange for a review.

The Last to Know
by Jo Furniss
Lake Union Publishing
General Fiction (Adult) | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 11 Aug 2020 | Archive Date 25 Aug 2020

Thanks to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.
It was just not the book for me. I found the language used over the top and I really didn't enjoy reading this book.
I know it will find a home with the right reader... it just wasn't me.

This book was a fun mixture of thriller, mystery, and some paranormal. I am giving it 3 stars because sometimes there was just too much going on at once and could have had fewer more developed plot lines. The book read dense and although it was short it took me a while to wade through the language, metaphors and, overdone descriptions.

After Rose moves to England with her husband Dylan to his childhood home she starts to see a dynamic shift in how people look at her. She hears whispers about her husband's family and the crimes that tarnish his last name. I found it interesting how little Rose knew about the family that she married into. She also never really asks her husband and lets him dismiss her questions when she does.

This story has a lot of potentials inside it but I think where it fell flat for me was how I never felt connected to Rose. She is trying to clear her husband's name and get to the bottom of the mystery's at Grim Holm but she continues to tell the local police officer damming evidence against the same family she is "protecting".

Overall most of the plot lines get straightened out near the end and they do come together. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending because it seemed realistic but still a good shock.

I would recommend this book to a friend if they are looking for a short thriller/mystery read.

American Rose Kynaston is a video journalist married to fellow journalist Dylan and agrees to move from war-torn Africa to the quiet peace of rural town England, where Dylan is originally from. He comes from a well to do family that has a crumbling country pile and a legacy to carry on the house. But his mother Gwendoline has become secretive and doesn’t want to share the same home as them when they move to England, so they are sent to live in a small cottage on the estate, trying to create a life for themselves that best serves the needs of their five-year-old son Aled. But there is a cloud that hangs over the Kynaston family that infects every part of their lives, although Dylan seems hell-bent on denying its truth. Something about Dylan deceased father Stanley and allegations of paedophilia made against him. Gwendoline seems to be in a fog of her own, sticking desperately to a time table of her own making, remembering people and conversations that may or may not have occurred, making her an unreliable baby sitter and causing no end of stress for Rose as she tries to start her own career in a new country with very little apparent support from her husband, who appears to have reverted to a country gentleman mindset and wants her to stay home and look after Aled, which is totally out of character with who he was when they both worked in Africa. There are townsfolk of Hurtwood who seem determined to hold the members of the Kynaston family accountable for the unexplained death of a young child, although there was never any proof as to the allegations. An archaeological dig uncovers the bones of another person and the whole mystery of Dylan’s past fires up again, with Rose desperate to clear her husband's good name and clear the curse that hangs over the Kynaston family. But how is she to do so when the unspoken activities of twenty years ago haunt the present and Rose is the last to know the truth? And will Roses own troubled past create more issues for the young couple to deal with? Committed to unravelling this mystery before her career as a policewoman are unexpectedly curbed, the other main character, Sergeant Ellie Trevelyan follows threads that have hung tenuously for years to explain the truth, as she deals with the grief that living death of her father with dementia creates. But the truth might be more than anyone could have imagined.

At its heart, this novel is a mystery being sold as a general or women’s faction label, although it is capable of crossing the gender barrier easily. It explores how unexplained rumours and accusations can carry on through time and effect the lives of those to come. It looks at the effects of Alzheimer’s or dementia on two characters and the ripples it causes in the lives around the victims of this brutal disease. It explores the unspoken expectations between men and women, and the sexual politics that still play a part in our society even today. The needs of and the rights of children are shown for then delicate gossamer fabric that it truly is.

The characters are well-drawn, and one cannot help but like both women central to the story. The manner in which the townsfolk are woven into the story feels true to life as if the issues and prejudices they carry with them are vital and current and the minor players of the Kynaston family – Gwendoline and Dylan are vibrant and beautifully portrayed. There is no time when the ultimate truth is exposed or foreshadowed in such a manner as to destroy the enjoyment of the book. There is a poetic quality to Furness’ writing, with the descriptions of everyday items and behaviours written in a flowery manner that is just delightful.

An enjoyable read.

NB: I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The overdone language! Full-force, in-your-face, unsubtle metaphors and similes that actually detract from the book. It’s hard to get past. It almost made me want to give up.

Examples: "rain, greasy as butter"; "a cappuccino with enough froth to bloat a bison"; "two spaniels appeared, white apparitions that squirmed around his legs like fish fertilizing his shoes". This is the sort of figurative language that adds absolutely nothing to the book, and it's tougher work wading through the inept use of language to find the deeper meaning.

I am glad, though, that I persisted. What this book isn’t: a masterpiece. A top-grade mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie, or even the Flavia de Luce series, which I quite loved. What it is? A perfectly serviceable little mystery with a quick storyline, plenty of twists and turns, an interesting and compelling exploration of dementia, and a decently satisfying end.

As I've said, I do heartily wish Furniss had taken her figurative language down several notches. I wish she had taken more time for character development in lieu of the flowery, ineffectual language. I didn’t feel particularly connected to one of the main narrators, Rose, still less to her husband, Dylan, and I think Furniss could have gotten there with her readers given a few adjustments to the balance between overdone figurative language and character development. Had she done that, I think the book would have been far more enjoyable, and clearer, too, in its exploration of what it means to be human. (As she muses, "... people were inalienably human Behind closed doors--even doors surrounded by roses--all sorts of things could happen").

All said, I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book, but if you maybe came across a copy at the library or a book sale, maybe give it a try as an easy beach read.

A psychological page turner.

You won’t be able to put this one down. The premise is intriguing and haunting. Without spoiling the premise, this is one you will want to pick up!

A quick and enjoyable thriller that, after a bit of a slow start, really took off in the second half of the book. I didn’t guess the ending - which is always a bonus - and I enjoyed the easy writing style. And I think the cover is perfect - it has that creepy, secrets-are-within vibe! Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the chance to read this ARC.