Lead Review
- Book: The Last Girl to Die
- Location: Isle of Mull
- Author: Helen Fields
The Last Girl to Die is a great thriller – full of intrigue and suspense, with a surprising and thought engaging ending.
An American family has moved to Mull. We don’t initially know why, but there is something strange about them. Their elder daughter, Adriana, goes missing – a very unusual event on such a quiet island. The family call on Sadie Levesque, a Canadian specialist in tracking and recovering missing children, to help find her. Sadie does indeed find her – ritually killed in a prehistoric cave off the coast. The local police do not welcome Sadie’s involvement, and there is friction. But Sadie has two people who can help her get to the bottom of what happened – Nate Carlisle, the forensic pathologist working on the case, and a retired local journalist, Lance Proudfoot, who had covered a similar unsolved murder on the island 39 years previously. Was Adriana’s killing a copy cat event?
The deeper Sadie investigates on the island, the more her discoveries disturb her. There are pagan rites and witchcraft in abundance. We learn that not all such rites are evil and that many go back quite innocently to pre-Christian times. But, in the context of a violent ritual killing, their possible involvement has to be scrutinised. The islanders clam up.
The denouement is (for me at least) totally unexpected. I have never read a thriller that ends in a similar way. It is fascinating.
The Isle of Mull comes through loud and clear in the book, from the rocky and dangerous beaches through the quaint towns to the inland countryside. It is certainly a great place for a holiday – if you are not put off by the events described in the book! They are, we are assured, not based on any fact at all. Just Helen’s vibrant imagination.
The Last Girl to Die is highly recommended. I did not want to put it down.
Please wait...
