4 stars.*

I came across this on the NetGalley audiobooks shelf and thought it looked intriguing, even if just as a summer read. It was surprisingly good!

This is the first title I've read by Simon McCleave. Last Night at Villa Lucia tells the story of a recently divorced woman (Cerys) who runs her Tuscan Villa as an AirBnB. Her young adult daughter, Lowery (which bizarrely sounds like Larry most of the time the narrator, Clare Corbett, says her name) helps her with the business and becomes wrapped up in the drama. Guests Zoe, Henry and their young adult son Charlie arrive and their family drama spills over to Cerys and Lowery.

I liked the writing and the way that both womens' backstories made it clear why they might cover for one another. The connection of the kids was logical and even the detective was intriguing.

I'll look for more by Simon McCleave.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for this honest review.

"Last Night at Villa Lucia" by Simon McCleave is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that will keep you captivated from beginning to end. The story follows recently divorced Cerys, who hopes to find a fresh start by buying a luxury Tuscan villa. However, her dreams are shattered when one of her guests is found murdered in the villa's infinity pool.
McCleave expertly weaves a tale of mystery and intrigue, as the police investigation unravels the secrets of Villa Lucia's guests. The setting is beautifully described, with the luxurious Tuscan villa providing a stunning backdrop to the unfolding drama.
The plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as Cerys tries to uncover the truth about the fateful night. McCleave's writing is sharp and engaging, creating a vivid and immersive reading experience.

This is the second book I’ve read recently where the key plot point is a dead body found floating in the pool at a rural luxury villa in Europe! Although these two books turned out to be quite different, the evocative settings and unusual murders made for thrilling stories. Here, Cerys, a transplanted Brit, runs a luxe vacation rental in her Tuscan villa. The day after Londoners Harry and Zoe arrive for a holiday with their son, Harry is discovered in the pool. The events of the days that follow (along with some flashbacks from Cerys’ former life in London), are told in chapters that alternate between the main characters. Slowly, we learn more about what really happened on the night in question—who lied, who withheld information, and who really murdered Harry. I loved the twists and turns of this fast paced and very entertaining audiobook. This is the perfect novel if you are looking for a summer escape! Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to share my honest opinion about this book in exchange for a review copy.

I really enjoyed this book.
The narrator was great, loved her accents and change of voice, she did it so well.

The storyline had me interested from the start. I couldn't guess where the book was going and who the killer was. There was so many suspects, it could have been anyone!

I did guess there was going to be a twist towards the end but didn't know who the twist was going to be about.

I really enjoyed this read! Thank you for this ARC.
3.5 Stars

For the most part I enjoyed this book. It was a little slow, but it kept my interest. Nothing particularly notable stood out to me, but I did think it was smart writing, and I liked the narrator of the audiobook.

3.75/5
I enjoyed this book but the ending left me wanting a little more!
The book did remind me of a mix between Agatha Christie and The White Lotus!
I would recommend as a good thriller to read on the beach.

An escapist novel set at a villa in Tuscany where a nasty man gets what he deserves (ie death). But who did it? There are several red herrings and even more people that wanted him dead. There are also story lines about alcoholism, spousal abuse, and predatory behavior. 3.5 rounded up for entertainment value as a summer beach read.
Thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of the audiobook for review purposes.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave in exchange for an honest review. This was a fun twisty, turny book full of surprises and shared pain. It could have easily followed the same cliche storyline, but instead had plot twists that kept the reader guessing until the end.

I really enjoyed this mystery thriller. The characters were easy to like and this was written very well

I recently had the chance to read an advanced copy of "Last Night at Villa Lucia" by Simon McCleave, thanks to NetGalley. The book presents an intriguing mystery centered around a dead man found in a pool, leaving me with numerous questions as the story unfolded. Initially, I found it challenging to keep track of the characters, but by the midway point, the book really hit its stride.

I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns that McCleave skillfully wove into the narrative. This was my first experience reading his work, and it grew my interest in other book by McCleave.

Great story/thriller. Great nod to found family with some justice mixed in. The love and power of finding oneself and taking back your life-in a “unusual” way.

4⭐
Genre ~ psychological mystery
Setting ~ Tuscany
Publication date ~ July 26, 2024
Est Page Count ~ 334 (p+ 70 chapters)
Audio length ~ 8 hours 37 minutes
Narrator ~ Clare Corbett
POV ~ single 1st & multiple 3rd, present tense
Featuring ~ multiple timelines, alcohol dependency, functioning alcoholic, attempted assault on page, past on page domestic abuse, references to rape

Cerys is the owner of Villa Lucia. She is very dependent on alcohol and as the story is told in multiple timelines we'll slowly learn why this is.

Lowery (sounds like Larry sometimes, so I'm just guessing of spelling) is Cerys' young adult daughter that's helping her out at the Villa.

Zoe, husband, Harry, and son, Charlie (19) are the guests.

Lucia and Lorenzo live nearby and help out at the Villa and have secrets from the past that they are not eager to get out.

Nick, Cerys' controlling, abusive, ex-husband, pops in for an unwelcome visit.

And then one morning there's a body in the pool. Who is it and how did they get there?

There are only a few possible suspects, but we're given some good crumbs to think each has a reason for committing murder. More of a mystery and not a thriller, but that didn't bother me at all. Gotta say that was a NICE twist for the why that I didn't see coming. Overall, enjoyed it and I'm happy with who the floater was.

Narration notes:
Overall she did a fine job, but I think this would have benefited from multiple narrators.

Thank you to the author, narrator, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-audio version of this title in exchange for my review.

I don't think I'm the right audience for this book. I do like thrillers and suspense, but I cannot connect with the characters at all, and I just wanted the book to be done so I could write this review and move on to something else.

The narrator was pleasant to listen to, and she did seem to appear to try the accents, etc. But the constant changing POV's, flash backs to other places and times, and so, so many characters, it was just confusing. I felt like I needed a score card. And the characters names were all odd to me. Listening to the book rather than reading, I was so confused about the daughter, Lowery - which sounded like Larry.

The overall plot was just not enjoyable. Such a Lifetime movie - jerk of a abusive husband is a jerk and gets killed. Women are all victims, and using troubles as an excuse to drink, drink, drink. As an adult child of an alcoholic, I found this especially annoying.

I really can't see myself looking for another by this author, and I can't think of anyone I would recommend it to at all. It's really a 1 star 'I hated it' listen.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Select | Storm Publishing and Simon McCleave, for this ARC of Last Night at Villa Lucia out Jul 26 2024!

Anytime a book has a prologue that starts off with some action, I know I'm going to enjoy it. The ending and twist made me round up my review too. I loved that this was set in Tuscany, Italy and the descriptions of the Villa and scenery were perfect for a good summer read.

One last note, the artwork on the cover is beautiful and it was what initially drew me to this book. I love a good book cover :).

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars / rounding up to 4!

This novel was provided by the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for my honest review.

A quick and crazy suspenseful summer read with a satisfying ending!

Cerys has been running Villa Lucia—a luxurious villa located in the hills of Tuscany—for about a year when her next guests arrive: recording producer Harry, his wife Zoey and their son Charlie. After a disastrous dinner, one of the guests is found dead, facedown in the villa’s pool. As the police investigation unfolds the events of Last Night at Villa Lucia—love that title!—the last years of the main characters unfold as well,

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to listen to this story ahead of publication!

Wow, Last Night at the Villa Lucia had me guessing until the very end!
This is the first book I've read by this author! I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of his books in the future.
I was given advanced access in exchange for my honey review. I would definitely recommend this book to people who enjoy mystery thrillers
Publication date is July 26th..

I was in a bit of an audiobook slump, and this one brought it back for me!

It had quite a few twists and turns. Everyone seemed to have motive to kill Harry you quickly realized as secrets were revealed. I really enjoyed the comradery between the women at the villa, it was refreshing to see.

I listened to this audiobook in a day. I had it at 2x the speed and it was perfect! The narrator was great and had a lot of emotion in her reading.

I would recommend this as an audiobook and as a regular read.

British family goes to stay at this villa in Tuscany. A guy ends up dead in the pool. Then it’s trying to figure out who did it cause it seems like just about everyone despises him. In between there’s povs from the past to give some context to certain relationships. Couple of twists here and there that are fairly easy to guess. Overall I wasn’t bored and found this to be an easy listen. Narration was good. The only thing is I didn’t care for is. some of the names, cause they were hard to imagine the spelling of.

This was a pretty basic scenario; a not so nice guy is found murdered and everyone has a motive to want to kill him. It was a good story, but I'm not overly excited about it.

The audiobook went by pretty quickly and I enjoyed the narrator, but overall it was just okay.

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave
Narrated by Clare Corbett

Cerys, is now the owner of Villa Lucia after her ex husband, Nick, lost his half of the villa in the divorce. Nick is a horrid man and Cerys stayed with him much too long. She's an alcoholic, has been in recovery before but now is drinking like a fish again. Nick and Cerys's daughter, Lowri, is living at the villa with Cerys right now. New paying guests are arriving and Cerys seems to be at her best when she's working, making her paying guests stay at the Villa Lucia a luxurious and memorial experience. Believe me, this visit will be memorial for everyone who lives through the experience.

Zoe, Harry, and Charlie arrive at the villa for a much needed vacation. Harry usually won't spend much time with Zoe, as busy with his work and extracurricular activities as he is nowadays. Charlie and Lowri hit it off immediately, with the love of spiffs, hatred of fathers, and youth and physical attraction drawing them together. Charlie's dad, Harry, is as horrid as Lowri's dad and they both try to avoid their dads as much as possible. It's hard to respect their moms when they refuse to leave such terrible men (or took too long, in Cerys case) but what can a child do when their parents won't act like grownups when it comes to bad marriages.

The start of the story is slow but then everything blows up. Really, things were a powder keg about to explode anyway, since no one was at ease and everyone is treading carefully around the cretin, Harry. Bad things happen and then there is a body in the pool. Everyone has a reason to wish the dead person dead and it's not clear just who might have caused a body to be floating face down in the pool.

The narration is excellent although I was surprised to see the real spelling of the names I was hearing. I heard Lowri as Larry, Cerys as Cerris, mostly because I wasn't familiar with those names. There are very serious subject matters tackled here, alcoholism, domestic and other abuse, and some scenes are very distressing. I was glued to the audiobook because I wanted to know how things were going to play out. Lots of surprises, lots of misdirection, and misleading, with a handsome detective trying to sort out all the nonsense and real happenings to get to the bottom of the case. Things get worse before they get better but in the end, maybe things work out for the best.

Thanks to Dreamscape Select | Storm Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.