The Last Resort by Tracey Emerson Published by Boldwood Books on March 18, 2024
Genres: Thriller
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Buy on Amazon/Barnes & Noble
As soon as you first see the House in the Hills, an old hotel in a picturesque enclave of the Cypriot hills, you know it's the perfect home for you – with breath-taking views, a refreshing pool, and peace and quiet, away the rest of the world. A place to recover and grow.
But paradise isn’t cheap, and as the debts mount, you could lose everything you've worked so hard for.
Until someone makes you an offer: to keep your home, you have to take a life.
But you could never do that… could you?
You’d die for a stay here. But would you kill for it?
My Thoughts
The Last Resort starts to captivate you from the very first page with an inviting image of a secluded Cyprus destination – the ideal place for the heroine to run away to. But such paradise has its price, and the loan burdens fall onto you, leaving you to speculate how far this character will go to keep this dream house.
When all seems lost, a shocking offer presents a moral dilemma: keeping house by killing. This plot twist, which comes out of nowhere, successfully drives up the stakes and suspense. You, as a reader, have no other choice but to read in one breath; will the desperation overrule the conscience?
I won’t give away the rest, but the author’s trajectory toward the end is riveting and packed with hair-raising thrills. The tension-laden premise and the high-stakes choices keep the pace and will have thriller readers rapidly flipping through the pages.
The Last Resort combines a tranquil milieu masking the darker secrets and gripping suspense and offers an engrossing psychological thriller with moral ambiguity. It is a 4-star escape into a distorted paradise that you won’t forget long after you’ve finished the last page. All you thriller fans, I give this a big thumbs up.
Thank you to Boldwood Books, Rachel’s Random Resources, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.
About Tracey Emerson
Before writing fiction, Tracey worked in theatre and community arts. As well as acting, she ran drama workshops in healthcare settings, focusing on adults with mental health issues. Her short stories have been widely published in anthologies and literary magazines, and her debut psychological thriller, She Chose Me, was published by Legend Press in October 2018. Her second thriller, The Villa, will be published by Boldwood Books in 2022.
She has a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Edinburgh and works as a literary consultant and writing tutor. She is also the Creative Director of The Bridge Awards, a philanthropic organisation that provides micro-funding for the arts.
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