Blog Tour: The Last Stage by Louise Voss

Released: 11th July 2019

Publisher: Orenda

Genre: Thriller

Blurb:

At the peak of her career as lead singer of a legendary 1980s indie band, Meredith Vincent was driven off the international stage by a horrific incident. Now living a quiet existence in a cottage on the grounds of an old stately home, she has put her past behind her and come to terms with her new life. When a body is found in the manicured gardens of her home, and a series of inexplicable and unsettling events begins to occur, it becomes clear that someone is watching, someone who knows who she is … Someone who wants vengeance. And this is only the beginning… A dark, riveting and chilling psychological thriller, The Last Stage is also a study of secrets and obsessions, where innocent acts can have the most terrifying consequences.

My Thoughts:

This novel encapsulated quite a few themes that I love - 90s nostalgia, music shop setting, behind the scenes of a band, thriller set in a remote cottage. I always love a story set over different time periods, and I especially loved how with this they both drove towards the reveal as we discovered the final twist.

Meredith and Pete are wonderfully flawed characters and it was great to see siblings drawn in such a realistic but caring light. Regardless of life, they love each other and look out for each other come what may, albeit with their family issues along the way. I found the music shop setting incredibly reminiscent of High Fidelity and immediately wanted to work there. Reading about Meredith's childhood and teen years really gave depth to her character and helped understand her current situation.

The present day timeline was completely riveting. and I was so compelled by the secondary and tertiary characters within the plot; Gemma and Emad were cute, and even the passionate enigma that was Samantha made me want to read on. Even small characters were really well developed and had their place within the story so that you understood Meredith's point of view as the plot begun to unfold.

I read this book within a few days - quite quick for me - purely due to not being able to put it down. I needed to know what happened to the characters and I thoroughly enjoyed the dark, gritty nature of the story as it unfolded. If you like books by Ruth Ware, Clare Mackintosh and T. M. Logan then I urge you to read this.

Thanks to Anne Cater for letting me be part of this tour, and to Orenda for sending me another awesome thriller to read for review. I look forward to reading whatever Louise Voss writes, she may well have just become an auto-buy author for me.