The Last Girl to Die - Helen Fields

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

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 Thoughts:

This is a stand-alone novel brought to us by the author of the Luc Callanach series.
It is a one-off crime novel following Canadian private investigator Sadie Levesque (the author likes her French names!), and it has a cameo from Lance Proudfoot from the Callanach series, which was an excellent addition. (Was Nate in those books too, I couldn’t remember?!?)
Sadie has come to the Isle of Mull to search for a missing teenager, Adriana. As her search develops, she finds herself stuck in a never-ending nightmare and, by accident, not just investigating Adriana but two other deaths too. What appeared to be a straightforward investigation turned out to be life-changing for Sadie.
The crimes committed in this book certainly made me question the author’s sanity. They were gruesome, detailed and terrifying; they were just what you need from a good crime book. This also had me questioning my sanity as I rate a book depending on how horrific the crimes are (everyone in my book club needs to be looked at, too, as they feel the same!!)
Sadie herself wasn’t the best investigator and often missed vital clues or didn’t ask questions that were obvious or that needed to be asked. For example, she wants to find out who Jasper is and ask him more questions. She is then confronted by someone that tells her to speak to Jasper, but she doesn’t ask for his surname so that she can track him down. It was frustrating. She seemed a bit too much of an airhead for someone that was hired to do such an important job. I’m also assuming she wasn’t cheap as she was flown over from Canada to do the job!
The ending was shocking, and I didn’t see it coming. I’m in two minds about it, though, yes, it was surprising, but it was also senseless. I can’t say much without giving anything away, but it didn’t need to have ended that way all because of a compass! I kept expecting it to be not what it seemed, but it wasn’t, and it was very sad, but as I say, just nonsensical.
So, overall the book was a little slow in places, but the horror and thrill of the crime keep you turning the page. This would have been a five-star read if Sadie had just been better at her job; she let the book down for me a little bit. I think with just a little bit more care and attention, this book would have been phenomenal; as it stands, it was still a fantastic book, just let down by a few things. So a solid four-star read instead.