Last Night – a #BookReview

Title: Last Night by Kerry Wilkinson

Genre: Currently #806 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Suspense, Psychological

Publisher: Bookouture

Publication Date: March 28, 2018

Source: Bookouture and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Last Night – Cover hints at remote field

Apparently not an English author new on the scene, my first read in one of his standalone books due out the end of this month. Rose Denton wakes behind the wheel, it’s two-something and she is apparently in the middle of a field with blood on her windshield and hood. She is confused, has no memory for how she might have gotten there, and after an inspection of her own body (nothing sore or broken), then around the car can find no apparent victim, animal or human. She has no explanation for her careen through the hedge or why she is here.

She does manage to get home and realizes her estranged husband is home and awake and he shortly appears in the door of the garage. But she’s turned the lights out and assures him she’ll be up shortly. She isn’t. She proceeds to fully clean up the car of all traces. Totally befuddled, the IT salesperson is not doing well at work, begins to lose things, only to have them suddenly reappear. She discovers a young hotel employee goes missing the same night she was to meet a possible client there. Not the least of her worries, her daughter with whom she has a strained relationship owing more to her rejection of her daughter’s boyfriend than anything else. But it couldn’t have been Olivia’s boyfriend’s blood on the hood–could it?

No.

She’s sure it must be the missing hotel clerk.

No way will she confide in Dan. Her husband has been going his separate ways for some time and she’s suspecting a sweet young thing in his life. He’s been working on his middle-aged body and looking good and is gone–a lot.

Yes, the first chapter hooked me in fairly quickly and continued through all of Rose’s slow and steady discoveries, piecing together the missing memories drawing a better picture of what might have happened. The author throws in red herrings while Rose recounts what she thinks may have occurred here or there. Rose is well developed, but even with her current situation not wholly sympathetic, and the reader is gradually fed just a tidbit of backstory–a little at a time, drawing you out, giving you a false sense of who or why. Is it really possible she was involved in a hit and run? No. Where was the body?

Told in first person through Rose, the dialogue includes a lot of self-talk as she argues with herself how it might have gone down (another primrose path). She forms opinions as to whom might be responsible, finally trusting no one. There are a number of peripheral characters, none as well developed. The focus is 100% on Rose. The relationship with her daughter, who is in anguish over her missing boyfriend, forces them to confront issues.

Did I see that climax coming? No–definitely caught me off-guard. The suspense kept me engaged throughout the book and the ending did not disappoint. I was given this download by Bookouture and NetGalley and greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review. Definitely recommended as a psychological thriller, suspense, and mystery with a twist.

Rosepoint Publishing:  Four of Five Stars 

The Author: (From Amazon Author page) Kerry Wilkinson has had No.1 bestsellers in the UK, Canada, South Africa and Singapore, as well as top-five books in Australia. He has also written two top-20 thrillers in the United States. His book, Ten Birthdays, won the RNA award for Young Adult Novel of the Year in 2018.

As well as his million-selling Jessica Daniel series, Kerry has written the Silver Blackthorn trilogy – a fantasy-adventure serial for young adults – a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter, plus numerous standalone novels. He has been published around the world in more than a dozen languages.
Originally from the county of Somerset, Kerry has spent far too long living in the north of England, picking up words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. When he’s short of ideas, he rides his bike or bakes cakes. When he’s not, he writes it all down.
Recent & Upcoming US releases:
Scarred For Life (Jessica Daniel 9): Out now
Last Night (standalone): 28 March 2018
For Richer, For Poorer (Jessica Daniel 10): 15 May 2018
The Death And Life Of Eleanor Parker (standalone): 22 June 2018
Nothing But Trouble (Jessica Daniel 11): 9 August 2018
To Have And To Hold (standalone): Fall 2018
Eye For An Eye (Jessica Daniel 12): 7 November 2018
Find out more at: http://kerrywilkinson.com or http://facebook.com/KerryWilkinsonBooks

©2018 V Williams