Amber Cowie

The premise of Amber Cowie's new book, Last One Alive, hooked me right away.

What's it about? From the publisher: "A team of researchers exploring the myth of a witch find their numbers mysteriously dwindling in this irresistible psychological thriller for fans of Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, and Lucy Foley."

I love 'locked room' mysteries. In this case, it's ten people on the site of an historic crime. And yes, one by one they die. But here's the thing that kept me guessing 'til the final pages. Is it the curse of the witch? Is there really something to the legends? Or is one of the ten turning on their fellow researchers?

Penelope is the organizer of the trip. While she has a good reason for the trip and says and does all the right things, I didn't like her. Or any of the ten for that matter. There's something 'off' with each and every one of them. Which only serves to have more suspects!

The setting descriptions easily conjured up a detailed picture in my mind. The isolation, the forest, the rocky beach, the old outbuildings and more all add to the unsettled feeling of the endeavor.

But what I enjoyed the most was trying to solve the whodunit - keeping track of who was where at a certain time, who was together, what was overheard, what was found. (I always wanted to be Nancy Drew.)

I did find some chapters ended quite abruptly and I would have to flip back to make sure I hadn't missed something.

Cowie's book is well written, not easy to suss out and kept me interested right through to the final pages.… (altro)