THE LAST TIME WE MET by Anna E. Wahlgren is a stay up all night, edge of your seat domestic thriller. This should be at the TOP of everyone’s TBR pile!

When Sophie Lind, relationship radio personality (think Delilah) receives an invitation in the mail to attend a dinner hosted by an old friend, she can’t seem to throw it away. How did Ava find her? When she left, she changed her name and never looked back. It was too painful, as on the night they all last met Sophie‘s fiancé, William, tragically took his own life just steps away from their gathering.

We meet the host, Ava, rich girl who balks at her family’s wealth but lives off her parent’s money. She is a prolific painter whose abilities never went anywhere. Then there is Adrian, a very successful financer who knows best and has been in love with Sophie forever. Next to the table are Charlotte, who works in TV production and her husband, Finn who is a computer tech. And rounding out the six pack is Tess, who works in a domestic violence shelter after seeing her mother constantly choose the wrong partners, and has just finished rehab of her own.

Ava has many things in store for this evening, including collecting everyone’s cell phones and having the door be locked from the outside. Oh, but there’s a gift waiting for everyone and as the presents are opened, secrets and petty jealousies take centre stage. The fragile bond that they all shared is finally broken. As Sophie begins to put the pieces in place, she is merely scratching the surface of what has been brewing underneath.

This is definitely NOT a re-release of The Big Chill! Not in this locked room mystery. What really happened all those years ago and who can you really trust? This one had me up. WAY, WAY past bedtime. I could feel my heart racing and at one point broke out in a sweat. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall (with the ability to leave, mind you) for this one. I have not read this author before but Ms Wahlgren is definitely someone I will be following closely and look forward to seeing where she takes me next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and feature The Last Time We Met as part of the Thriller Book Lovers Pulse group. This is the latest book that we're all talking about!

A locked-room mystery that was more sad/melancholy than true thriller. College friends are reunited to try to uncover the truth of the death of one of their own. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

I enjoyed this mystery that had dual timelines and multiple POV’s. This had a claustrophobic feel and the suspense gradually built and led to a satisfying conclusion.

A slow burn Swedish thriller that plays off several tropes-notably the suicide that wasn't and the secrets of a group of former friends. Sophie and her pals always met periodically for dinner until the night her fiance died-a death written off as suicide but which Ava believes was murder. Now, ten years later, Ava has set up a new party at which all sorts of secrets, some quite sad, are revealed. You might find it difficult to keep track of everyone (often a problem in this sort of novel) but it makes for a larger range of options for the villain. Who, btw, I did not guess. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I started this one and thought it might be a readalike to Ruth Ware, and it was for about the first third of the book. Ultimately, it was just not a terribly interesting “mystery” to me. No real connection or caring about any of the characters. I’d say skip this one.

Although the book cover looked quite eye catching and devious, The Last Time We Met was quite tame. I was expecting much more action and revenge but it came up short for me. In fact at times I found myself unfocused and hoping to speed up the story. However it was a readable mystery for fans of the locked room genre.

Read this if you like:
-college reunion of old friends
-Locked room mysteries
-slow burn with gradual reveals of backstory
-moderate twists and turns
-multiple POVs
-dual timelines
-secrets and lies, toxic relationships

My rating: 3 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this eARC that will be available August 6 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the copy of The Last Time We Met by Anna E. Wahlgren.The writing didn’t capture my imagination enough to really engross me in the story, so I wonder if something was lost in translation. I loved the plot and the creepy dinner party was a great way of introducing the characters. It felt like there were so many characters I never got to know them or their stories. The past timeline had so much background that ended up not being very important, I loved the present timeline more. While the reveal wasn’t a huge surprise, it was well executed. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

OH yeah . Loved a reunion story and a locked room mystery. So well written that I couldnt stop reading. I just had to know what happened to William.

Sophie hadn’t seen her college friends in a decade and the last time William ended up not going home. So, when Ava arrives, trying to get them all back together, Sophie hesitantly agrees.

At dinner, there’s a small box waiting for everyone. Each box contains a clue as to why Ava believes William’s demise wasn’t at his own hand like they’ve all been led to believe.

What happened to William is going to come out, but at what cost?


Talk about the edge of my seat. I was immediately sucked in wanting to know what happened to William. All the friends were suspects, and there were strong cases made that it could be any of them, even Ava who gathered them all together because she was hiding something as well. I loved how we got the story fed to us in the current and the glimpses into the past right before William’s death, it was a lot of fun to see what he was doing right before he perished. Locked room thrillers are a lot of fun because there is so much tension and angst and the author did a fantastic job with that here. This book is more of a psychological thriller in my mind because it plays with your emotions and really leaves you disturbed. It also had all the elements of a mystery and had the other markers of the genre as well such as mental illness and internal tension. I really felt bad for Ava after all her friends wrote her off and just kind of left her after what happened to William. This book wrapped up in a wonderful way and everything was revealed nicely and left me satisfied and in shock.

I highly recommend you check this out if you like locked room psychological thrillers. I agree that fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware will enjoy it.

The Last Time We Met gave me strong In My Dreams I Hold A Knife vibes.

A bunch of school friends, all with secrets. After a party, someone ends up dead. Ten years later, one of the friends invites them all back together again. But, it's clear early on her motivations aren't just for them all to reconnect.

The Last Time We Met is a locked room thriller. It is a slow burn, but the story is absolutely engrossing, so it pulled me in and kept me reading. At 336 pages, this book honestly went by in a flash.

Told between a past and present timeline, mostly from the point of view of our main character, Sophie Lind, but also at times from the other characters' perspectives.

All of the characters had secrets, so I was definitely suspicious of all of them at points, not sure who really could be trusted. While I didn't necessarily figure the ending out, I did have some strong suspicions.

Overall, this was an engrossing and interesting thriller. I'd definitely recommend this for thriller fans.

A Simmering Menace..
A dinner invitation leads to a collision of past and present in this carefully plotted, slow burn suspense. Sophie has not seen her former college friends in some ten years, their weekly dinner parties were a once regular and weekly occurrence - but that very last dinner party had not ended well. And now, perhaps, the truth will out. Compelling and atmospheric locked room mystery with a credible and well crafted cast and a plot laced with an underlying vein of simmering menace.

An entertaining and slow-burning mystery with a satisfying conclusion. I think the author did a great job conveying each character and their flaws. I felt like I really got to understand each character and how their mistakes all connected. I was expecting more in the thriller area of this story and was a bit underwhelmed with the overall reveal. To me this book was more about the deep fissures their secrets created in an already toxic friend group and airing them out rather than the actual murder mystery.

I binged read this one. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it to anyone that likes thrillers

Years ago, Swedish nighttime radio host Sophie Lind’s fiancé died under puzzling circumstances while their close friends were right outside the door. Tonight, in a glossy penthouse apartment, the estranged group will reconvene to finally uncover the truth. Imbued with emotion and chilling atmosphere, The Last Time We Met elevates the 'what really happened that night’ story to a whole new level. Locked-room mystery fanatics will be thrilled.

𝑻𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔, 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉, 𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆.

Sophie hasn’t seen her college friends in just over ten years when she receives an unexpected dinner invitation from Ava, a member of that friend group. Sophie has moved on and as far as she knew, she didn't make her whereabouts known on social media, so she's curious how Ava found her. This group of friends were inseparable, meeting for dinner once a week, even after graduation. But time has split the group because the last time they met for dinner, one person was dead before the end of the night.

Curiosity gets the best of her, and she accepts the invitation. When she arrives, she is asked to surrender her cell phone, which raises her suspicions. When the group sits down to eat, there is a box at each place setting. When the boxes open, it becomes clear that Ava didn't reunite the group out of nostalgia; she did it to unveil a killer. And no one is leaving until the truth comes out about what happened that night.

This was a classic case of judging a book by its cover, and in that regard, this one fell a little short for me because it was a slow burn, and I'm so impatient with those. Another issue, and it's not the fault of the author, is that I just couldn't connect with these characters. They just didn't seem anything more than names on a page, and I didn't really care what happened to them. However, I did enjoy the writing style, and I'll definitely check out what this author comes out with next. Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the early copy. This title will publish August 6, 2024.

To be honest, I nearly DNF this in the beginning, but glad I didn’t. It was a bit confusing in the beginning, but once they get to dinner everything really starts, and it flowed better. I did figure it out about halfway through, but I still enjoyed reading it and finding out I was right. I would recommend this, just push through until the dinner, it’s worth it.

This book had the same plot as another book I'd read. At first I wasn't going to finish it because they were so similar, but I decided to read on.

Sophie had five friends, William was one of them. He was her fiancé. Among their friends was Ava. Sophie had seen William spending a great deal of time with her, including going to her house many times. Jacob was a friend of William and he had fallen in love with Sophie. He wanted her to leave William for him. And she had grown close to him as well. One night, after they had all gone out to dinner, they decided to go back to William's apartment. Once there, the two of them went into Williams bedroom and it was there that, having had enough of him and Ava, she broke up with him. She left the bedroom and went into the kitchen.

After a while, everyone noticed that William had disappeared. He gone into the bathroom but hadn't come out. Concerned, Ava went to the bathroom door and called to him. When he didn't answer, one of the guys broke into the bathroom and they found him in a tub of water, dead. It was assumed that he had committed suicide. The day after Williams funeral Ava fled the city.

Fast forward 10 years. Sophie received an invitation to a dinner party at Ava's apartment where she was bringing all the friends together again. None of them had seen each other since Williams funeral. When everyone arrived, Ava saw to it that the front door was locked from the outside and no one could get out. Ava's goal in bringing them together was to finally find out what really happened to William. It was her theory that someone killed him.

One of the friends, Tess, had been a drug addict. While at the dinner party, she had too much wine to drink and Charlotte, another of their friends, had given her a Valium. She got into an argument with their friend Adrian and attacked him. He shoved her and she hit her head on the credenza corner. She ended up dead. They moved her body from the living room to the bedroom. So here they were again with a dead body in their midst. They made up a story that they were going to tell the police. They were going to say that she got drunk, hit her head, got up and went into the bedroom to lie down. After they got their story together, Ava thought to it that the front door was unlocked and they were able to leave. The police showed up and questioned them all.

It turns out that Ava had really done her homework. She kept tabs on everybody, and in her sleuthing she learned secrets about them that they thought no one knew. That's how she knew how to locate Sophie. Sophie had disappeared and purposely left everyone behind, she'd also changed her last name. But Ava knew all of that. Also, there was nothing romantic between Ava and William. Ava had mental health issues and she had taking him into her confidence and he provided a huge amount of support for her.

All of those years Sophie had felt William had committed suicide because of her and she carried a tremendous amount of guilt. There were so many questions she needed answered.

Even though I had read a book just like this one, it was able to hold my attention and I'm so glad I finished it. I thought the author did a fabulous job developing the characters and the plot was easy to follow. I really enjoyed it. I gave it five stars.

This book held my attention, particularly when unveiling secrets and intensifying the narrative by revealing more about the events of that night. It proves to be a compelling thriller, keeping readers engaged with its intriguing plot twists.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC! It was my first book by Anna Wahlgren and I enjoyed it!

This is an excellent book. It’s a character-driven locked room mystery. This is my first book from this author and she is extremely talented. The alternating timelines are seamless. There are many characters to keep track of, but I think the author handled it well and you can easily follow what’s happening. As for the end reveal, I didn’t see it coming! I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to recommend it! Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!

PS I see a few comments about the cover not fitting the book. I think the cover is great, for what it’s worth!