It's not often I think the victim deserves what happened, but in this case I think he did! Several suspects and a plan that didn't actually involve murder, but who went further with the plan? I enjoyed reading this book, but I hate to admit the ending made me cry

BOOK: THE LAST TIME I SAW HIM
AUTHOR: RACHEL ABBOTT
PUB DATE: AUGUST 2024
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REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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This book! It was on another level. I'm aware by the unexpected ending. It was kinda heartbreaking but thrilling! I don't even know what to write because I don't want to leave any spoilers. The author kept me turning the pages, I uncovered secrets upon secrets about each character as I kept reading, and I was so surprised. I loved the pace and the back and forth between the three suspects, Juliette, Nadia, and Celia. At the end of the day, when the culprit was revealed, it was someone I suspected, but I didn't really expect it to be that person. I'm still reeling from the ending.
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The murder victim, Ellis Cobain, was an asshole who deserved the ending he got. If he could have gotten a more tragic one, it won't be enough. I understood what the three women did what they did. We have Juliette. Throughout the book, her guilt was palpable, and she kept carrying on and on about how she felt sorry for her husband. Like, I get it, but it would have been over sooner if she had come clean and freed herself. Nadia, the singer with a lot of secrets, she still had a lot of healing to do, but she's getting there. Celia, she was the most pitiful because of her kids. Ellis Cobain made life very difficult for the women.
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Then, Stephanie, the detective in charge of the case. I liked her and her zeal. I don't like the ending she got. I liked the well-rounded points of view.
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This book was amazing, and I liked reading every page!

Wow! This book was a 5 star read from page one! Thank you Rachel Abbott! Yet another book I will be purchasing to add to my 5 star reads! This was for those who seek thrills and chills! It kept me guessing and it kept me intrigued chapter after chapter!

The difficulty of reviewing this book with objectivity is that we’re supposed to not like the murder victim who was a thoroughly odious man and the world (obviously I appreciate this is a fictional character) is a much better place without him. What intrigued me was that although there were a limited amount of suspects, the author keeps the reader from working out what had happened. We get the police perspective, we’re drip fed the suspects stories and thoughts by a clever use of timelines mixed with up to date events. Just when you think you’ve worked it all out another chapter turns that thinking around. Overall a great read but one that should be read in as few sittings as possible so you can keep the threads fresh.

Detective Stephanie King is enjoying a well earned weekend away with her mother in a lovely boutique hotel on the Cornish coast. A recently refurbished manor house, Morvoren Manor has comfortable rooms and stunning views as well as an excellent bar and restaurant with a fantastic female jazz singer who performs there on the weekend.

Stephanie can’t help herself from people watching and notices some of the guests behaving oddly. She later learns that one of them is the wealthy philanthropist, Ellis Cobain, who has sailed there on his yacht with his wife Celia to stay for a week. Also staying there for the week with his wife Juliette is Russell Dalton, who has come to listen to the Jazz singer, Nadia Shariq, and negotiate a contract on behalf of the talent agency he works for.

The following week Stephanie finds herself back at the hotel with her life partner DCI Gus Brodie to investigate the sudden, suspicious death of Eliis Cobain on his yacht. Although Stephanie and Gus no longer work together she has been asked to join the investigation since she stayed at the hotel recently and observed some of the guests.

Ellis Cobain while charming when he wanted to be, was not a well liked man particularly amongst women. He treated his second wife, Celia, cruelly, totally controlling her and not allowing her any freedom or money of her own. Juliette and Nadia also have their own reasons to hate him, but all three women have an alibi for the time of his death. This makes it difficult for Gus and Stephanie to discover who had the motive and opportunity to kill him.

This is a slow burn of a psychological thriller with information dripped slowly to the reader through a now and then dual perspectives. All three women suspects annoyed me, especially Celia and Juliette and Ellis was such an obnoxious man that it was hard to care about who killed him and even to hope they would get away with it. There are quite a few false turns, twists and misdirection along the way and the climax when it arrives is fast and furious.

This is one of those books that once you start reading you don't want to stop. The story has interesting characters - a despicable villain, a heartbroken mistress, a submissive wife, an enraged mistress and her husband - , intrigue, mystery, so many twists and turns that make you suspect who the culprit is but the truth will only be revealed at the end which also has something totally unexpected. The story is engaging, well-written, easy to read, and entertaining! Highly recommended!
I thank Ms. Abbott, her publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you to Storm Publishing, to Net Galley and the author for the ARC for review. My review opinions are my own.
This is a exciting page turner that kept me reading into the night. The author is a favorite thriller writer of mine. Storm publishing is generous to offer their best thriller writers on Net Galley.

I loved the tension the author builds for the reader. A compelling thriller that is a must read for all thriller fans. The author has a talent for building rich scenerios for her characters and for surprising the reader. Clear your schedule as you will turn pages to conclusion. Spoilers I will not give as each reader should experience this book without a pre formed opinion . Its a worthy read and exciting to conclusion.

The Last Time I Saw Him is a page turner. Who did it? Ellis Cobain certainly deserved it. But who did it? His ex-mistress? His mistress? Or his wife? Maybe you can guess.

The Last Time I Saw Him by Rachel Abbot

Celia, Juliette and Nadia are complete strangers with one thing in common: they have all been wronged by Ellis Cobain. A wealthy philanthropist on course for a knighthood, Ellis' public persona is bulletproof - but lurking beneath this veneer is a sinister side that only the women closest to him have seen.
Really enjoyed this , I liked how the women who were unknown to each other had the link via Ellis and how they interacted with each other once the deed had happened and how they went about they individuality seeked out themselves to be proved innocent of the crime .
Great book by this author with a good amount of intrigue and twists .

The Queen of Thrillers comes through again. The Last Time I Saw Him brings back our favorite detective Stephanie King. She is on a getaway with her mother but can't stop "people watching" and thinking some others there are uncomfortable, but she puts her policing thoughts aside to enjoy the time with her mom. Once back home Stephanie is called out on a murder investigation at the resort where she was staying. As she pieces the puzzle together, three woman all unconnected to each other had a reason to kill the deceased. But was it one of them? Was it the wife? the mistress? or the ex mistress? Do the three really not know each other and it is a coincidence they all ended up at the same resort at the same time when the one person they had in common is murdered? Stephanie and her partner Gus will get to the bottom of this mystery. You won't be disappointed in this page turner. The story is a 5 star tale, I am giving it a 4 star for personal reasons - while the ending was perfect, there is one thing I would have liked better but that would be a spoiler.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this exceptional book

3 women
one death

a proper whodunnit

Celia, Juliette and Nadia they know nothing of each other but they are entwinned in a crime....

Ellis Cobain is married to one is blackmailing another to sleep with him and the other one is a former lover

he engineers it so that his wife and the one he is blacmailing are in the same hotel at the same time the icing on the cake is the apearance of the other one

what he didnt expect was to be found dead on his boat ....

what a kettle of fish this one is .... full of insighful innuendoes and red herrings galore .... never saw that ending coming at all

brilliantly written and very plausable....cant wait for the next book by this author

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read "The Last Time I Saw Him" in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the fourth book in the Stephanie King series and from start to finish it is a gripping story, that I did not want to put down because I wanted to know what happened next. The story is told in 2 voices - DS Stephanie King and Juliette Dalton's.

Stephanie is spending time with her mum for the weekend at the Morvoren Manor on the coast. The hotel is an old manor house that has been converted with several outbuildings also for guests.

Stephanie however is distracted by 2 men at the bar who she thinks are acting "oddly". She names them "Bald Smiley Man" (who we later learn is named Russell Dalton) and "Floppy Hair" (Ellis Cobain). When a woman enters the bar she notices that while the woman acts like she doesn't know Ellis, she is convinced that she does. She later meets Celia Cobain, a very anxious woman whom is feels is afraid of her husband, Ellis. Russell is a lawyer and he's at the hotel to sign a contract with the singer Nadia Shariq. The following day Steph and her mum see Ellis threatening Celia.

Five days later DI Harris-Cooke assigns her a new case, a death has been reported at the hotel Steph and her mother had been at. A body has been found on a yacht, the very yacht that Amanda King had admired in the bay. Steph realizes that the dead man is the one that she had called "Floppy Hair."

Steph learns that Celia was very controlled by Ellis, she was devoted to her 3 step-children. Juliette knew Ellis from the opening of a restaurant that she had designed the interior for. He then asked her to design a pied-à-terre for him in Bristol. Her husband Russell is unaware that she's met Ellis.

We learn that Ellis was not a nice man. He had a hold over everyone he knew. He was threatening to ruin Nadia's career - by having clubs refuse to book her, or by hiring hecklers if somehow a club managed to book her. He knew that the kids meant everything to her, so he threatened to take them away from Celia.

Stephanie and Gus are stumped as to how anyone could have got out to the bay to kill Ellis when the RIB from the hotel was locked in the boathouse and the only keys were in the office.

Nadia has a plan to get Ellis to stop threatening them and making their lives miserable. She hatches a plan to blackmail him into being a better person. She makes sure that everyone has airtight alibis. Ellis was not supposed to die. Juliette is wondering if Nadia and Celia set her up.

A huge piece of evidence comes from the housekeeping staff at the hotel. There was a mobile on the table both times she went in - to pick up laundry and to drop off a new bag. There are several "ignored" calls from home on the phone. Stephanie wonders if she was so attached to the children, why would Celia ignore calls from home? Yet, she appears to have responded to Ellis' text message immediately. The police aren't saying exactly when Ellis died.

The women all have reason for wanting Ellis out of their lives but which one of them actually killed him when the plan had been only to blackmail him. When all the pieces fall into place, there is a race to catch the culprit and prevent another murder.

This story has an incredibly shocking ending that the reader will never see coming. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series to see what adventures are in-store for Stephanie King.

4⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of The Last Time I Saw Him.

This story takes place at a beautiful boutique hotel and centers around the lives of three guests-Nadia the singer at the hotel, Juliette who is there with her husband Russell trying to repair there broken marriage, and Celia who is there with her husband Ellis who has a sinister reason for being there. The three woman have all been tortured by Ellis and they make a plan to take him down. But one morning he is found murdered and the women each accuse one another of the act. Did one of them set another up or was it another enemy that took Ellis out forever?

I really enjoyed this book. It had my attention from the very beginning and had me guessing up until the last page of the book. The writing was great and it really painted a picture so I could actually visualize what was going on.

An absolutely brilliant read.
Told from the different perspectives of three woman and their relationship’’s with one man this twisty turny tale is gripping.There are so many twists that you’ll keep second guessing what happened, and trust me you won’t guess correctly!
While the main plot hurtles along a stunningly shocking twist in the sub plot had my heart racing and adrenaline pumping.

My first Rachel Abbott book and I loved it!

Juliette is at a hotel with her music industry husband, when she sees Ellis Cobain. She is horrified, but not as much as when he is discovered dead the following morning!

Stephanie King is on the case and as she investigates, the build up to the crime is unveiled to us slowly, with lots of twists and murderous motives revealed.

The writing is brilliant, the pace is fast and the characters are well developed and relatable. Although I haven’t read the previous books in this series, it worked well as a standalone and I will definitely read the next instalment as the ending really got me!

4.5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Rachel Abbott and Storm for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Three women, one murder . A who done it. I liked the way the book flowed and how the characters interacted with each other. It definitely kept me on my toes reading

Fun and full of twists, The Last Time I Saw Him has a villain who very much deserves his fate, and the three women who could have done it.
Set in Cornwall, this book is part of the Stephanie King series of police procedurals but I i had no problem getting the dynamics and background right away, and the plot is a real rollercoaster.
I enjoyed the distinct, well written characters and I see more Stephanie King books I my future.

"The Last Time I Saw Him" is a book searching for the criminal who murdered a man while showing the life and anguish of three women who are related among themselves through the life of the murdered man. The book is full of twists and enlightenment about the problems with lies: they get larger and larger. The final chapter brings us a lot of surprises. You should read it!

Thank you Net Galley & Storm Publishing for the ARC!

Rachel Abbot’s writing is quite beautiful. I find her to be descriptive without being over the top and for that alone, I felt this book get off to a great start, but I felt that this could be condensed a bit more. I was confused at times with the amount of characters, but I enjoyed reading this and trying to figure out who did it before the end.

Okay, I have a new favorite suspensful author! This was GOOD!!! I was so taken in to this book! I could not put it down. It kept me on my toes and I could not wait to see how it ended. Well done!!