If you like White Lotus, this one is for you. It’s high drama with a vibrant cast that’ll make you feel like you’re poolside at an Italian resort!

Premise - a bunch of Brits go vacation in Tuscany and then the least likable of the lot turns up dead.

Simon McCleave is a new-to-me author, but I was delighted to find his writing style very enjoyable. He has a knack for telling a story and really transporting the reader to a different place - I hope he keeps writing vacation thrillers!

I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator, Clare Corbett, did a lovely job with the story. She made the characters distinct and gave them great accents and manners of speech. She was an emotive reader (important for a high drama story like this) but never let her narration overshadow the story. All in all, great job and I look forward to listening to more of her work!

Thanks, NetGalley and Dreamscape Select, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Zoe is going on holiday with her husband and teenage son to a beautiful villa in Italy to reconnect and relax but there is a murder and it’s quite hard to do so after that isn’t it?
I thought we started off strongly, I felt like I could feel the sun beating down on me and I enjoyed how we were introduced to all of the characters.
However the middle and end really lagged and even though the time line moved back and fourth a little we were never really out of the villa and it felt quite boring. The villain felt very pantomimey and I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters.
Good narrator though

Last Night at Villa Lucia was a Netgalley arc for an author I've never read before - but will now look at all previous books. It was fabulous. I started listening on a late Wednesday afternoon and was finished by noon Thursday, exclaiming, "I didn't see that coming."

Based at, you guessed it, a resort Villa, this story centers around a business woman with a drinking problem, a daughter who is struggling, an ex husband we will all hate, guests who check in for the week, and adjoining neighbors with a vested interest in the success (or failure) of this villa.

Of course, as frequently happens on most vacations, a murder occurs. We spend much of the book convinced we know the killer, only to realize we are the reader and authors have great imaginations.

In its Netgalley blurb the publisher says, "Fans of The Housemaid, T.M. Logan and Gone Girl will be utterly gripped by this addictive, twisty, psychological thriller." Not sure I would have pulled those two titles for comparison. I found it very similar in genre to the streaming show The White Lotus, or the work of Liane Moriarty such as Apples Never Fall. In fact, I spent a lot of time envisioning this one on the small screen as an 8 part arc and have some ideas for casting.

Totally, and fully, can recommend this one.