The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields

Summary:

In search of a new life, seventeen-year-old Adriana Clark’s family moves to the ancient, ocean-battered Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland. Then she goes missing. Faced with hostile locals and indifferent police, her desperate parents turn to private investigator Sadie Levesque.

Sadie is the best at what she does. But when she finds Adriana’s body in a cliffside cave, a seaweed crown carefully arranged on her head, she knows she’s dealing with something she’s never encountered before.

The deeper she digs into the island’s secrets, the closer danger creeps – and the more urgent her quest to find the killer grows. Because what if Adriana is not the last girl to die?

My Review:

What is it about a murder mystery set on a Scottish Island? Well, here is one that I literally could not put down. The Last Girl to Die (Avon Books) by Helen Fields. Is one of those books that sets the scene very quickly and it never lets up until you turn the last page. Helen Fields is a former criminal law barrister so who else could really write such a gripping crime novel.

Set on the Isle of Mull, an American family have made the island their new home. But something goes horribly wrong when their 16-year-old daughter goes missing, and the days pass and the police have no clues as to what has happened to Adriana. The days now pass, and they begin to think that the local police on the Isle of Mull do not seem to be taking the case very seriously. The parents of Adriana now call in a Canadian private investigator who has a track record in finding missing teenagers. Sadie Levesque arrives on Mull and starts to look for clues as to what has happened to Adriana. It is not long before Sadie comes face to face with hostility from some of the local police officers investigating the case.

Adriana has now been missing for around eleven days and Sadie now finds her body, but something very creepy and mysterious about how she is found. She is wearing a crown made of seaweed but that is not all, Sadie has not seen anything like this before, but she will soon come face to face with another crown made of seaweed. But who is responsible for the murder of Adriana and what really lies behind her killing. There are too many loose ends on Mull and that goes for the family as well. Are they hiding something about their daughter? And why are some of the police and locals against her digging too deeply into the case. Someone clearly means Sadie harm if she digs too deeply.

It is not long before another girl goes missing and her body is found in similar circumstances, is there a connection between the two teenage girls? Adriana has a twin brother and there is a sense of unease here from the start.

What we have in this compelling crime novel is the islands mysterious past and its legends, and it is not until Sadie herself sees one of these ‘gatherings’ that she begins to understand, but there is danger here.

I really enjoyed the setting and how Helen Fields created a whole cast of characters that made the story so gripping. A story of secrets and but also of the past. It will keep you guessing until the very end.

384 Pages.

My thanks to Olivia Collier (Midas PR) and Avon Books for the review Copy of The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields. Published on 1^st September 2022 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

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