Okay. I completely DNF’d this. I tried but this is not doing anything for me. Sorry!

Thanks to Netgalley! Hoping for a better read next time!

Really struggled with this one and unfortunately got to 25% and had to admit defeat. I just found it really strange and couldn’t relate to the characters at all 😬

Synopsis/blurb....

‘Ben, I need you. Help me.’

‘PLEASE HELP ME!’

‘It was an accident…but there’s so much blood…’

In a frantic late-night phone call, Ben learns his wife, Mia, has killed a man. And she needs his help.

When Ben arrives at Mia’s hotel room, the scene is horrific – but over the course of the night it will get much worse.

All their secrets will be uncovered, and they will discover how far they’ll go to protect themselves and each other… will they kill for love? Or will they die for it?

One phone call. Twelve hours to save their marriage. And their lives.

Told in real-time half-hour chapters, this is a read-in-one-sitting thriller that fans of T.M. Logan and Harlan Coben will devour. Sit down and strap yourself in for the rollercoaster read of 2022.
------
My take....

Twisted, tense, gripping and a bit of a page turner.

The Call lays bare the fractures in the marriage of Ben and Mia and over the course of an evening we discover all their secrets, all their resentments and sleights and just how much remains of the love they once had for each other. And we see if forgiveness can overcome fury.

But first there's a dead copy in a hotel room that needs attending to.

I really liked this one. The books unfolds with alternate chapters from both parties in the marriage, so as a reader it's almost like being a marriage guidance councellor, though I did find it hard to remain totally impartial. Is it a man thing to side with the husband? I don't know, I did myself more sympathetic to Ben than Mia, though both of them are far from perfect. As the book unfolds, we meet more people who are a lot worse than the couple who before this night have only hurt themselves and each other.

Exciting and really enjoyable.

4 from 5

P. D. Viner's work has been enjoyed before - The Last Winter of Dani Lancing and The Sad Man.

Read - May, 2022
Published - 2022
Page count - 294
Source - review copy from book publicist
Format - Kindle

http://col2910.blogspot.com/2022/05/p-d-viner-call-2022.html

I’m a bit speechless, this story is thriller meets ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ mash up and it’s really best read in one go. Broken up in 1/2 hour increments, we follow the fantastical night of Ben and Mia and the dead body and so much more. This book was originally titled “Last Night Together” but is now titled “The Call”. Thank you Netgalley, Hera Books and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I literally couldn’t put this book down from the moment I picked it up. A phone call in the middle of the night. A wife needs her husbands help. When he arrived at the hotel it was a horrific scene. As more secrets come to light he is finding it harder to make the choice of who he wants to believe. Or what he wants to do. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3 for neutral. This was not my cup of tea and I was not able to finish! Will update if able to finish at a later date.

Wow what a start to this one! When Ben arrives at Mia’s hotel room, the scene is horrific – but over the course of the night it will get much worse. All their secrets will be uncovered, and they will discover how far they’ll go to protect themselves and each other… will they kill for love? Or will they die for it? They have twelve hours to save their marriage, and their lives. The clock is ticking…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Last night together by P.D. Viner.
TICK. ‘Ben, I need you. Help me.’
TOCK. ‘PLEASE HELP ME!’
TICK. ‘It was an accident…but there’s so much blood…’
DEAD.
In a frantic midnight phone call, Ben learns his wife, Mia, has killed a man. And she needs his help. When Ben arrives at Mia’s hotel room, the scene is horrific – but over the course of the night it will get much worse. All their secrets will be uncovered, and they will discover how far they’ll go to protect themselves and each other… will they kill for love? Or will they die for it? They have twelve hours to save their marriage, and their lives. The clock is ticking…
A good read but I kept putting it down. Slow but readable. Good story. 3*.

The story is set over a very short time span so the pace is important soon the whole it’s an easy quick read. Unfortunately the whole plot is too far fetched to be believed or for me to want to connect with the characters.

Last Night Together by PD Viner is a fast paced read that starts with a frenzied rush by a husband to his wife after she tells him she needs his help.
The pace thereafter does not really let up as we hurtle from one incident to the next, leaving a trail of bodies behind. Last Night Together is the story of a marriage told from a very unusual perspective. Dealing with an ‘in extremis’ situation, we follow Ben and Mia and through a series of events, all the while learning of historical events in their lives which have led to the situation they are now in.
It’s a story of consequences, many of them unintended and of what happens when emotions are repressed and secrets begin to creep in. It’s an easy read and the pace carries the reader along without issue. Told largely in alternate points of view by Ben and Mia, it’s quite fun trying to work out how they managed to get themselves in the situation they are in.
In the end, though it was just too far-fetched for me and I didn’t care at all for either of the main characters.

This was a totally different read for me , especially the way it was done. It was really good abs I thoroughly enjoyed it. What a well written book!

I read Last Night Together in one sitting. It was fast paced and twisty and kept me intrigued right to the end. It was my first read by P.D Viner but it will not be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hera Books for my ARC,

Very quirky read,I enjoyed it,well written,very quick paced and just holds you back from unbelief as the next happens,very different and very worthwhile of a read

Quirky, Frenetic Suspense…
A frantic telephone call from Mia to husband Ben and so begins a catalogue of lies and secrets. How far will this couple go to protect each other, protect themselves and save their marriage? Quirky and frenetic suspense for a one sit read.

Ben receives a call in the middle of the night from his wife, Mia, who should be sleeping soundly beside him (but isn't) and what she tells him next will change both of their lives forever.

Ben immediately goes to her aid despite the nagging feeling he has in his stomach telling him things are about to go very wrong. It's an internal warning that he should have heeded.

Wow, I am thrilled to tell you that I really enjoyed this one. I had very little expectations going in because all these psychological thrillers are a dime a dozen these days and this reader has had her expectations dashed more often than I care to admit. But, Hallelujah, we have ourselves a winner. This is a psych thriller, domestic suspense mash up that is filled to the brim with lies and secrets and all that juicy goodness I love in my fiction. My loyalties wavered between Ben and Mia throughout the story.

This book is going to require suspension of disbelief. As I was reading along I was thinking to myself that this situation would never happen in real life and then I had to remind myself of all the 48 Hours Mysteries and Dateline episodes I've seen where reality is indeed scarier than fiction so maybe this isn't too out there. Maybe, just maybe, this could happen with the right circumstances and with people lacking the morals I like to think most of us possess. Either way, realistic or not, I had a heck of a time with this one. P.D. Viners note at the end also gave me a chuckle. He seems like a really great guy and I wish him continued success in is writing career. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hera Books for my complimentary copy. The arc I received is titled Last Night Together not The Call but they are the same book.

The relationship of a married couple is set to the ultimate test when she calls him and tells that she killed a man. A twisty and scary read that I couldn’t put down!

Wow. I was expecting something crazy with this book, and it definitely delivered! This is a fast paced read, and it has Ben & Mia's viewpoints over one of the worst nights of their lives. I really liked seeing this from both their sides - it really added to the tension, seeing what they were thinking. There's so many secrets revealed by both of them, along with the horrors of the night - just when you think you know what happened & what's going on, you realise you don't. It's intense, gory and gripping, and I really enjoyed it!

Synopsis:
On their wedding day, Ben and Mia swore to always be there for each other. So when Mia calls Ben in the middle of the night telling him she killed a man in a hotel room, he comes to help her get rid of the body, no matter what went wrong with their marriage. But Mia hasn't told Ben the whole truth. And Ben has some terrible secrets on his own...

My thoughts:
Holy hell, this book was intense, twisty, and everything I could have wished for. So many secrets and lies, it kept me on edge the whole time. I loved how I never knew which one of the characters I could trust, who was the good person - or if there even was a good person. TBH, I liked Ben more, he was so relatable in his decisions, even though they weren't always right. All in all, I absolutely LOVED this book. I just think It could have done without the twist before the final one, it made everything seem a bit unrealistic and over the top.

Parts of this book reminded me of:
- That Night by Gillian McAllister

This was my first book by P.D. Viner, and it definitely won't be my last!

“…after tonight he will hate me and I don’t blame him. I’ve trapped him. It was mean of me to use his wedding vows like that, when he wrote them with so much love, because I’m pretty sure neither of us mentioned anything about helping the other cover up a killing. I don’t think that comes under ‘in sickness or in health and forsaking all others’…”

The Call is the third novel by British author, P.D. Viner. At a minute before midnight in early February, Ben Kingdom wakes from an unusually deep sleep to hear his wife, Mia calling for his help. She’s not there, in the house, and when he calls her mobile, he hears it ringing. Locating it, in her hidden handbag, amongst all the usual essentials she carries, has him puzzled.

And then a phone rings (the landline!!), the answering machine clicks in, and he sees that she has left multiple, increasingly frantic, messages. When he finally talks to Mia, she begs for his help, invoking their marriage vows, is vague about just what has happened, except that it involves a dead man, and gives him very specific instructions on what he must bring if he agrees to help her out: gloves, bleach, towels, garbage bags, a knife and hammer (?!), and how to avoid being seen or tracked.

Can such a beginning fail to intrigue the reader? Little more, however, can be said about the plot of this riveting page-turner without spoilers, although it perhaps doesn’t give too much away to reveal that Viner manages to include arson, dumpster diving with a difference, an unconventional use for a certain date-rape drug, lies, secrets, infidelity and grief.

This is a story that plays out over a mere seven hours and each chapter is headed with a time; the narrative alternates between Mia and Ben, so the reader is privy to both perspectives on what occurs; flashbacks fill in a bit of the couple’s history. One of these narrators turns out to be quite unreliable, continually lying (often by omission), but the other hasn’t been completely candid either.

Many chapters end with a loaded remark that adds another layer, another complication, another twist to the story. Sometimes drama tips into melodrama, and the reader may need to don their disbelief suspenders at times, so the best advice is to just keep them on, go with the flow and enjoy the rollercoaster ride.

Despite the grittiness of the story, there is plenty of black humour, much of it relying on incongruity e.g. Ben ready to disapprove if Mia has shoplifted two cans of drink, just hours after he has helped her conceal a body.

Viner does have a way with words: Ben, in the dumpster “It’s disgusting in here, and there’s barely enough light to see anything clearly. It’s wet, in an oozy bin-juice way; all rot and decay and entropy – the three unknown brothers of the seven deadly dwarves.” A gripping thriller that surprises, at times, by being laugh-out-loud funny.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hera Books.

Intriguing plot - great story. First book I have read by PD Viner but definitely not the last one. Do yourself a favor and read this one - you will not be disappointed.