Review: Last One To Die by Cynthia Murphy

 Publication Date: January 7th 2021

Publisher: Scholastic Publishing

Source: Review Copy for Tour

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Blurb: 

Young, brunette women are being attacked in the city of London.

16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived for the summer, and quickly discovers that the girls being attacked look frighteningly similar to her.

Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets Tommy: he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! . . . Nonetheless, there's something eerie about the museum.

As the two strands of present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realises that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?

Thank you so much to the publisher and Kaleidoscope tours for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my review. 

This book came to me at the perfect time as I have been loving YA thriller novels lately, especially after devouring some of Karen McManus's book. Last One to Die had me hooked to the underlying suspenseful plot while also having moments of fun, great friendship and drama school antics. 

One thing I really enjoyed about this novel was our main characters passion for acing and drama. Niamh has come from Ireland to London to enroll in a summer course to potentially pursue her dream of acting at the school in the future. I love reading books where the main character has a passion for something, Niamh's passion leapt from the page and made me warm to her. 

The characters in the book were very well written and fun. My favourite character was definitely Niamh's friend Jess. Jess was such a bright and three dimensional character, she immediately welcomed Niamh into her friendship. Their friendship really brought a fun and refreshing break from the murder suspense aspect of the novel. 

I loved the setting of the drama school and London. London is somewhere I love to visit and seeing the city from Niamh's perspective as she visited many iconic places was fun to read. The setting of Niamh's work where she was employed as a Victorian tour guide in costume was brilliant to read. I love period dramas and all things period, so reading about her job and learning history of the old building she worked in was greatly interesting. The library and history aspects were wonderfully written and engaging. 

I definitely was kept guessing the identity and reasoning behind the killings the entire novel. You start off thinking its person A, then B and suddenly you've nearly uncovered motives for everyone in the book. 

Although this book was a lot of fun, I felt the writing was sometimes a little juvenile and slow. I felt my interest being piqued and waning before being hooked. This roller-coaster of interest made me reduce the rating as I felt the pacing and intrigue could have been kept steady throughout the novel. 

The ending of the novel also went in a direction that I didn't fully expect, enjoy or think was well fleshed out. For me the book could have been a hundred pages longer to really make the ending work for the reader. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. Suspenseful, fun, great characters. I will definitely be reading more of Cynthia's work in the future.