Book 12 in the David Raker Series and another interesting case, actually two cases, for missing person person specialist Raker. He also has to deal with the worry about his closest colleague, Healey, who is under arrest in prison and under pressure to tell the police about his and Raker’s activities. Raker is a great character and as always well written and well plotted this was a one day read for me as I had to know! Family ties, love and loyalty are threads that also run through Exiles by Jane Harper, which also centres upon the mystery of a mother who vanished without trace. As I've said although this is book 12 in the series, It can be read as a standalone because there are references to past events but they are briefly explained, which helps the reader to connect with the characters. It always amazes me how authors manage to not only invent new stories for long-running characters but also keep the books fresh, Tim Weaver is an artist at that! I really enjoyed the intrigue interwoven into the story. There are chapters told from various view points and time periods but they all come together at the end.

The conclusion of the book was very clever and it left me wanting to read more about both David and Healy and perhaps some of the other characters. In The Last Goodbye, the renowned missing persons investigator is hired to find out if a mysterious letter from a mother who walked out of her daughter’s life almost 40 years ago is real – and whether it has any connection to a father and son who disappeared in an amusement park haunted house just a day ago…All her life she has wondered what happened and hopes missing person investigator, David, can bring her closure. Now that I've seen this pattern in action, it was something I was looking out for in The Last Goodbye, and I was disappointed to see nothing has changed. There are three main female characters in this book -- and you could interchange all of their dialogue with no issue. Two of the female characters call David 'Raker' constantly. One of them is stated to have American dialect, but this is in no way apparent in the way she speaks. There are no end of awful female characters in Horowitz's books. They're snappy, and jealous, and spiteful, and cruel, and power-hungry, and arrogant. They also have glimpses of worry, love, courage, and can, if pushed, do the right thing in the end. These women aren't always the villains. Sometimes they're bitches just because bitchy women...exist. Still, I held out hope that maybe Fiona could prove me wrong. I would have loved it if she had genuinely walked out on her kids, because that's an interesting mother to write about. I would have loved it if she genuinely resented her children, because that's an interesting woman to write about. When the book ended with a letter from Fiona expressing motherly love (despite her daughter spending decades believing she didn't love her family), I was so bored I skipped it. It seemed as though Fiona was being placed into the stereotype of how mothers are supposed to act, rather than being allowed to flourish into a flawed, but fascinating, three-dimensional figure.

The novel has it all, well, maybe not romance, with an interesting plot, violence, hidden agendas, jaw dropping twists, a genuinely creepy opponent, tension and some unexpected history. It also has a subplot about Raker’s friend Colm Healey’s time in jail and his ability to betray the crimes Raker committed to keep Healey safe. Personally I felt that the tensest moments in the novel came from this will he/won’t he scenario. How they both get out of it unscathed (at least for the moment) is the novel’s most jaw dropping moment, out of several contenders. I like Raker and his approach to investigating makes for a decent read, I’m just not sure there was a strong enough appeal for me to want to read the previous books. There just wasn’t enough there to keep me racing through, perhaps too many plotlines competing for attention? Thank you to the author, publishers Michael Joseph and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review. Another thirty-two seconds pass and then the mother and her twins exit. One of the twins is crying. The mother tries to comfort them as they move out of shot.Missing persons investigator David Raker is hired by Rebekah to find out if the letter is actually from her mother - and soon makes a connection to the Brenners.

There are two cameras inside the ride: one is about a minute in; the second one is right at the end, prior to the exit. Tom and Leo are recorded passing the first camera. When Rebekah Murphy was three, her mother walked out and never returned. Nearly four decades on, Fiona Murphy is still missing. Until a letter arrives in the post, claiming to be from Fiona. As a fervent enthusiast of Tim Weaver's captivating David Raker series, I embarked on the twelfth instalment, "The Last Goodbye," with high expectations. Let me assure you, dear readers, that those expectations were not only met but exceeded. With its intricate web of events and constant sense of urgency, this novel effortlessly ensnares your attention from start to finish. Author Tim Weaver is also working on an original TV series with the same drama team that made Line of Duty, so there’s plenty to look forward to from him… Watch this space. Frank used to be a cop,’ she confirmed. ‘This is, uh… This is a big step for me, flying all the way out here. I just needed some moral support.’

eBook Details

ComputerAndVideoGames.com – About Tim Weaver". ComputerAndVideoGames.com . Retrieved 18 November 2013.

Weaver's tenth book, No One Home, was again selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club on 20 February 2020 [12] and on 15 April 2021, Weaver released his first standalone novel, Missing Pieces. [13] Podcast [ edit ]Weaver's characters are almost always well crafted and convincing. The ones in this book are no exception to that. There are new people and some old friends. He is a master of pace and controlled tension. OK it's playing games but Weaver does it so well. A chapter ends on a key thought/aspect... And then so does the next one! There is light and dark here and bubbling around that ideas are building. Some bits I maybe worked out. The major twist I certainly did not! After a while, I began wondering why, although his books are a lot grittier and I don't agree with everything he's said re. politics, I found Anthony Horowitz's books just so much more appealing. And I eventually hit upon it: he lets women be bitches. On the night Tom Brenner and his nine-year-old son Leo visit the Seven Peaks theme park, they head straight for the ghost house.