Mini Book Review; Her Last Holiday – C L Taylor

Page Count 400

Publication date April 2021

Publisher Avon

GoodReads link

Synopsis

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You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die.

Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.

Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third suspected victim: Jenna.

Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

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Review

I do enjoy a good C L Taylor book. Amongst all the horror, fantasy and dystopia I tend to read it’s comforting to sit down and read about real, recognisable people in real, recognisable places. Even if they are doing terrible things!

I should note first that there seems to have been loads of stories out in 2021 that centre around missing sisters. For me this was the fourth I’d read so I had become a bit tired of the scenario, nevertheless I still had fun.

Cally T always does a fantastic job with her character development across the novel and Her Last Holiday is another treat for those who look for this quality. There are several characters to get to grips within a whodunnit or maybe even a didanyonedoit investigation led by Fran.
On the hunt to find out what happened to younger sister Jenna, Fran attends a self-help retreat hosted by her own prime suspect, recently released from prison Tom Wade.

We read from the perspective of Fran in the present, Jenna from the past and Tom’s wife/assistant Kate in both timelines during two separate retreats.
Everything you think you know will be turned on it’s head in Her Last Holiday.
Nobody is who you think they are, they all have secrets, they all have a hidden motivation, this book is a discovery from start to finish.

My one draw back and I think this is a personal preference, I may have said it about a CLT novel in the past; I’m not a fan of the ‘X weeks/months later’ epilogues.
Her Last Holiday is very neatly wrapped up with one of these, which some readers prefer but for me takes any powerful impact out of an ending.

If you’re looking for a mystery thriller with believable characters and a feasible plot then Her Last Holiday is great for a sunny afternoon read.

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Have you read Her Last Holiday?

What did you think? Drop me a comment or link to your own review.

Happy Reading!