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Last Day by Luanne Rice

I found Last Day by Luanne Rice on Kindle Unlimited. I had never heard of the author, but the premise of the book sounded interesting so I borrowed it. I would encourage anyone that decides to read this murder mystery to also borrow it from somewhere, instead of buying it. It is not a keeper, in my opinion.

Last Day follows Kate and Conor as they try to solve the murder of Kate's younger sister, Beth. Conor is a police detective who also happens to have been the first officer on the scene many years before when teenagers Kate and Beth were found tied up in the basement of their family art gallery with their dead mother, Helen. 

Beth is found bludgeoned and strangled in her bed by Kate and two local officers she called for help when her sister didn't pick up numerous phone calls over the course of several days. Beth's daughter Sam was away at a summer camp in Maine, and her super sleazy husband Peter was conveniently on a guys only sailing trip at the time of Beth's murder.... or was he?

I found the story to be bogged down with way too many personal details about way too many characters. It bounced around to the point of view of several of these characters, including Kate, Conor, Sam, Pete, Lulu, Scotty, and Nicola. I struggled to stay interested in the story. The only thing I was sort of enjoying as I plodded through was truly having no idea who the killer was as I neared the conclusion.

When dead Beth was suddenly narrating a chapter, the wheels started to fall off, and when the killer was abruptly revealed and their reasoning not really dealt with, I was done. Thankfully, very shortly after, so was the book. I've heard/read good things about some of the authors other books, and it sounds like Last Day was a different genre/writing style then she usually writes, so perhaps some of her other books are worth a look, but I would not recommend this one.


Final rating: ★★☆☆☆

ATY prompt 15: A book that features siblings as the main characters

Popsugar Challenge prompt 38: A book about art or an artist

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