This book started off
with a bang! It caught my attention right away and I couldn’t stop reading. (Which you should read below!)
For me personally, I
didn’t know who that was in the beginning chapter (I’m trying to not give out
spoilers lol it’s so hard), but for me, everything was a mystery until the very
end! Maybe I missed some clues but that actually made the whole book for me!
There were so many characters that were intertwined that I had no clue what was
going to happen.
Some characters I
really loved and rooted for, others I disliked, but I truly enjoyed the character
development throughout the story and how we were able to read through the
difference characters POVs.
I loved the drama
aspect of this book, along with the mystery it really kept me turning pages.
However, it went down
to a 4-star read for me because of the ending….no spoilers but I just did not
like it. I was kind of mad.
If you want an easy
to read, entertaining, dramatic, domestic thriller, this might be what you are
looking for!
Thank you to HARLEQUIN
- MIRA for providing me with an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley. As
usual, my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions.
THE LAST AFFAIR
Author: Margot Hunt
ISBN: 9780778309222
Publication Date: November 26, 2019
Publisher: MIRA BOOKS
BIO: Margot
Hunt is a critically acclaimed author of psychological suspense. Her work has
been praised by Publisher's
Weekly, Booklist
and Kirkus
Reviews.
BOOK
SUMMARY:
Gwen
Landon—poster woman for perfect wife, mother, and suburban bliss—is found
brutally bludgeoned to death behind her Floridian McMansion. Beautiful and
beloved by her community, Gwen makes an unlikely victim. But just a scratch
below the surface of her perfectly curated world reveals one far more sinister.
When looking back over the six months leading up to her death, the question of,
“who would do this?” quickly shifts to, “who wouldn’t?”
Commercially
successful food blogger and mother of three, Nora Holliday never imagined she
would have the nerve, let alone time, to get involved in an affair. Trapped in an
unhappy marriage, she does whatever it takes to keep it all together. But when
Nora runs into Gwen Landon's husband at a hotel in Orlando, his easy kindness
and warmth proves too tempting to resist. As their affair spirals dangerously
out of control, it seems things can’t get more complicated—until Gwen turns up
dead.
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EXCERPT
Prologue
Other than the woman’s blood-covered
body splayed facedown in the grass, it could have been any typical upscale
Floridian backyard.
There was the ubiquitous
pool with a water fountain feature, a patio furnished with both a dining set
and outdoor sectional couch, and an enormous gas grill capable of cooking
hamburgers by the dozen. A large pergola with a tropical vine trained over it
covered part of the patio. The dining area was shaded by a black-and-white-striped
awning. It was the very picture of suburban domestic bliss. It could have been
the set for a commercial advertising anything from laundry detergent to allergy
medicine.
Again, except for the dead
body.
The area had already been
taped off. The first officers on the scene appeared with an ambulance in
response to a frantic 911 call placed by the woman’s daughter. The paramedics
had assessed the situation, and quickly determined that the woman was dead. The
fact that the back of her head had been bashed in with what looked like a
paving stone, conveniently dropped next to her prone body, made it immediately
clear that it had not been a natural death. The responding officers called the
sheriff, who responded by sending in a full investigative team. The medical
examiner was now doing a preliminary examination of the body, while police
officers combed the area for additional evidence. Two detectives, Mike Monroe
and Gavin Reddick—separated by twenty years and sixty pounds—were overseeing
the operation, standing at the edge of the patio under the shade of the
pergola. It was the third week in April, but this was South Florida and the
temperature had already climbed into the low nineties.
“The paving stone came
from the stack out in the front yard. They were delivered last week by the
company who’s installing the driveway,” Detective Reddick said. He was the
younger of the two men and had a wiry frame and angular face.
“Weapon of convenience.
Suggests it wasn’t premeditated,” Detective Monroe said. He had a ruddy
complexion and a full head of thick dark hair, swept back off his face. A
strand never moved out of place, even in a strong wind.
“Plus he dropped the
weapon, rather than taking it with him. Probably panicked.”
“Could be a she,” Monroe
said mildly.
Reddick shrugged. “Blunt
force trauma to the back of the head? You know the stats. Overwhelming
likelihood that it’s a man, and probably someone the victim was intimately
involved with. Husband, maybe a boyfriend.”
“The husband was with the
daughter when she called it in.”
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t do
it, and then had her place the call.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
The family had been
sequestered indoors, both to keep them out of the way, and so that the officers
waiting in the house with them could observe anything they did or said. Other
than the husband, there was a daughter in her early twenties and a teenage son.
The daughter was reportedly distraught, while the husband and son had both been
eerily quiet. It was possible they were in shock.
“Do we have an ID on the
victim?” Reddick asked.
“It’s her house,” Monroe
grunted.
“Yeah, but I like doing
things the official way, you know? I’s dotted, t’s crossed, all of that.
Building a case, basic detective work.”
Despite the chilling scene
in front of them—the woman’s body still sprawled on the grass, the back of her
head a pulpy, bloody mess—the corner of Monroe’s mouth quirked up in a half
smile. “Sure, kid, tell me all about basic detective work. I’ve only been doing
this for, what…thirty-two years now? The husband ID’d her. Victim is Gwen
Landon, age forty-nine. Married, mother of two. Husband said she hasn’t had any
recent conflict with anyone.”
“Other than the person who
caved in the back of her head with a paving stone,” Reddick pointed out.
“Wouldn’t be the first time
a husband didn’t know his wife as well as he thought he did.”
“Possible. But there’s
another possibility, too.”
“What’s that?”
Reddick turned to look at
his partner. His eyes were small and dark, and he had a habit of squinting when
he concentrated intently on something.
“The husband is a liar,” Reddick said.
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