Last Seen Alive

Author/Guide: Claire Douglas

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Who can you really trust? Can you even trust yourself?

ISBN: 978-1405926423
Genre: Psychological, Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

Libby Hall is working at a school, when she saves the children in her care from a fire. Finding herself headline news, she is reminded of a situation she found herself in nine years ago ,when she saw her best friend alive for the last time

Horrified by the attention, she and her husband decide to do a houseswap and move from Bath into a lovely secluded house in Cornwall. There they will have a chance to heal their marriage – to stop its secrets from tearing them apart.

But this stylish Cornish home isn’t the getaway they’d hoped for. They make odd, even disturbing, discoveries in the house. It’s so isolated – yet Libby doesn’t feel entirely alone. As if she’s being watched . . .

Locations

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Travel Guide

Jeepers….three equally disturbing locations for very different reasons

Bath

Provincial and safe. A nice apartment where Libby and her husband live but with secrets in their past. Bath is represented as a city where people live comfortably and are doing well for themselves with Libby and her husband wanting to create a home. But this is the place where their nightmares will only start

Cornwall

The exact oppoiste from Bath – it’s paradise on earth, a new start, time away to heal and to start afresh away from the stresses of work and a new beginning. This is the stress free life they seek, a nice isolated house where they can spend time together. Cornwall offers them places to visit and wander – they go to Lizard’s Point, the lighthouses and the rugged cliffs to their isolated Hideaway, in its own land surrounded by trees and landscape. Paradise or earth or the most isolated, gothic, creepy house they’ve ever been to? What is in that basement??

Thailand

Flying into Bangkok , heading down to Koh Phi Phi this story is that of typical backpackers. Life on the beach, staying in hostels, moving on and enjoying the freedom of life in a new land, this is the trip of a lifetime but it suddenly goes very wrong. Travellers meet all kinds of people, connect with people they may not connect with at home, behave differently….

They do see some good sights on the way though – Ton Sai Village is where they stay and Emerald Cove on Koh Lanta is the place to explore. But it’s what’s waiting back at the hostel that provides the most adventure..

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I don’t think I’ve ever felt as exhausted yet happy after a novel in a long while. This is a thriller for sure and a weird, twisty one that will really stay with you. A house swap which goes wrong? That’s very clever right there as I’ve not read a thriller with this premise and in the Air BnB world, it really hit home.

There is so little I can say without giving anything away and believe me, you will want to discover it for yourself. I read it in two sittings – I had to – I read up to the part where they flash back to Thailand and…well I had to read the rest in one go. There is so much to this novel, the layers of lies and deceit are delicious and the characters with so many hidden secrets…Last Seen Alive will shock and surprise. If you’re standing or sitting on a rug when you read this beware…it will fly out from underneath you.

The gothic, isolated house in Cornwall was chillingly brilliant and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The beach in Thailand – the waves of dread and foreboding crashed loudly in my ears… a clever writer indeed. A pulsating plot indeed!